Children anxious about database

Young people have said they are worried information about them, such as their age and address, could attract paedophiles and others who should not have access to the information.

ContactPoint, previously known as the information sharing index, is billed as the quickest way for professionals to find out who else is working with a child, making it easier for them to deliver co-ordinated support.

Roger Morgan, the children's rights director for England, surveyed children living away from home about the new system.

He found 83 per cent of the children he surveyed agreed that information should be kept safe on ContactPoint and that anyone wanting to see information about a child should have to give a good reason.

Morgan said: "Children want to be assured that their information will remain safe and have asked specifically that the government will never in the future put a child's photograph or telephone number on the database."

- www.ofsted.gov.uk.