Controversial ContactPoint database closes
Neil Puffett
Friday, August 6, 2010
The controversial child protection database ContactPoint, which contains details of all children in England, has been shut down.
Devised in the wake of the Victoria Climbié child abuse case, the database was designed to aid child protection by improving the exchange of information between different agencies working with vulnerable children.
Launched in January last year by the Labour government, it contained the details of 11 million under-18s in England and the services with which they have had contact.
The database proved highly controversial due to fears over security issues and both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats opposed it.
Children’s minister Tim Loughton has indicated that it will be replaced by a scaled-down "signposting" system that will help practitioners find out if others are working with vulnerable children.
Denise Harrison, director of Liquidlogic systems, a firm specialising in information sharing, said the decision to close the database without a replacement could place children at risk.
"The immediate concern over the scrapping of ContactPoint is that practitioners could be left in the lurch while the new system is devised – potentially putting vulnerable children at higher risk while ministers and the stakeholders deliberate over the details.
"While the government is right to take the necessary time to properly develop its criteria for the new system, having a period where there is no system in place could leave a wide gap in safeguarding."
A spokeswoman for the Department for Education said: "The government continues to consider the feasibility of a new signposting service for professionals to help them to support and protect our most vulnerable children, particularly when these children move areas or access services in more than one area."
ContactPoint cost £224m to set up and it is estimated that £216.9m in running costs will be saved over the next five years by scrapping it.
