ContactPoint database ready to go live

Up to 800 frontline practitioners, including social workers, health professionals and head teachers, in early adopter areas will be trained to use the £224m system from Monday 18 May.

It will be the first time professionals will be able to see in one place the different services involved with 11 million children. The directory is due to be fully rolled out later this year.

Children's Secretary Ed Balls said: "Over the past four months, important and careful work has been going on to build ContactPoint.

"It is excellent progress and from next week the first frontline workers will be able to use the online directory, start to get the benefits from it and ensure we can continue to learn from their early experiences."

The database, designed to protect children by allowing professionals to share information more easily, has come in for criticism from some quarters.

A report by the Rowntree Trust claims that ContactPoint is illegal under human rights and data protection laws while the Conservatives have said they would scrap it.

However, the system does have the backing of major children's organisations including the NSPCC, Barnardo's and Action for Children.