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FIRST FRONTLINE CHILDREN'S WORKERS TO START USING CONTACTPOINT
12 May 2009ONLINE DIRECTORY WILL HELP FRONTLINE PROFESSIONALS SEE OTHER SERVICES INVOLVED WITH A CHILD Frontline professionals will start using ContactPoint - the Government’s online directory of children’s services - from next week, Children’s Secretary Ed Balls and Children’s Minister Delyth Morgan announced today.Up to 800 frontline practitioners including social workers, health professionals and head teachers will start using the system from next week. They are based in 17 local authorities in the North West and national voluntary sector partners Barnardo’s and KIDS.For the first time, professionals - who have all been through stringent security measures and training - can see in one place some of the different services involved with a child they are working with and start to feel some of the early benefits ContactPoint will offer them.Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, 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. “If we are to do our best to make sure children are protected and that no child slips through the net, then it’s crucial the right agencies are involved at the right time and get even better at sharing information. ContactPoint is vital for this because it will enable frontline professionals to see quickly and easily who else is in contact with a child. “Last week I announced our response to Lord Laming’s report on safeguarding children. ContactPoint is an important element of this and we know from the professionals on the ground that it is needed.”Children’s Minister, Delyth Morgan said:“Enabling the first frontline workers to start using ContactPoint is a huge step forward. From 18th May, over a period of several weeks, ContactPoint early adopters will train around 800 practitioners who have been hand-picked to reflect the broad range of professionals working for children’s services who will use ContactPoint when it is fully rolled out.“Under current arrangements if a practitioner believes that a child is at risk or may need additional support, for example if they have a disability, they may have no way of knowing whether other services might already be in contact with that child. We estimate that ContactPoint, when fully operational, can save at least five million hours of professionals’ time, freeing them up from trying to track down other practitioners and enabling them to spend more time on the child.”Important progress has been made since January when the first steps to activate the system started. The 17 early adopter local authorities - together with Barnardo’s and KIDS -now have in place trained management teams who manage the quality of data on ContactPoint in their local areas and train frontline users. Alongside this, and in addition to the extensive security in place for ContactPoint as a whole, local authorities have shielded the records of more than 51,500 children. This means that those who could be at risk should their whereabouts be visible, have had their record protected. These might include children with particularly vulnerable circumstances - for example children from families on witness protection schemes; where one parent has been the victim of domestic abuse; or in certain cases where the child has been adopted.ContactPoint is an online directory holding basic contact information for all children. It is designed to ensure that there is easier and faster contact between professionals who work with children, where they need to do so in the best interests of the child, to promote their welfare and to keep them safe. ContactPoint is backed by major children’s organisations, such as the NSPCC, Barnardo’s and Action for Children, teachers’ unions like NASUWT as well as the Association of Chief Police Officers, The British Association of Social Workers, the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Children’s Inter-Agency Group - whose members include the LGA and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. Martin Narey, Chief Executive of Barnardo’s said: “Barnardo’s welcomes today’s Government announcement regarding the next phase of ContactPoint. “We believe that the directory will provide a quick way for professionals to find out who else is working with a child; making it easier to deliver better co-ordinated services. Ultimately ContactPoint has the potential to make the world a safer place for vulnerable children.” Kevin Williams, Chief Executive of KIDS, said:“KIDS are happy that ContactPoint is moving to the next stage of roll-out to a limited number of practitioners amongst the early adopters. We believe that ContactPoint will be of particular help to families with disabled children who often have to engage with a very large number of professionals from different organisations. We remain committed to the effective use of this important tool that will, for the first time, allow trained and appropriately security cleared practitioners across the country to see what services are being provided to children in a quick and easy way. That will be of a substantial benefit to disabled children and their families.”Kim Bromley-Derry, President of ADCS said:“The importance of making sure that children cannot “fall through the gaps between agencies” has been underlined by recent tragedies - ContactPoint can be a useful tool in ensuring that professionals can contact each other quickly and easily to discuss their views of a particular case. We now look forward to training staff how to use ContactPoint effectively so that we can, at last, begin to reap the benefits of the system.”Editor's Notes
This press notice relates to 'England'
1. ContactPoint has been developed in response to a key recommendation of the Laming Inquiry into the tragic death of Victoria Climbié. 2. ContactPoint will provide a quick way for authorised practitioners to find out who else is working with the same child or young person. It will support better communication among practitioners across education, health, social care and youth offending, in the statutory and voluntary sectors.3. It’s a simple online tool which holds: • minimal identifying information for each child in England: name, address, date of birth, gender, and contact details for parents or carers. Each child also has a unique identifying number; • contact details for the child’s educational setting and GP practice and for other practitioners or services working with the child; and • an indication as to whether a service or practitioner holds an assessment under the Common Assessment Framework, or whether they are a lead professional for that child. 4. Users cannot download the contents from ContactPoint
Contactpoint information is available on the ECM website at http://www.ecm.gov.uk/contactpointContact Details
Public Enquiries 0870 000 2288, info@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk
Press Notice 2009/0094
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