ContactPoint
What is ContactPoint and why do we need it?
ContactPoint is a new tool that is being developed nationally to enable professionals delivering services to children to identify and contact one another easily and quickly, so they can work together for the benefit of children, young people and families.
ContactPoint will cover all children and young people in England up to the age of 18 (and between the age of 18 and 25 with the young person’s permission). Its Regulations and Guidance fall under Section 12 of The Children Act 2004.
ContactPoint will hold the contact details of: the general practice where they receive primary health care, the school they attend and of other practitioners that may be working. It will not hold assessment or case information or subjective observations about a child. Access to ContactPoint will be restricted to professionals who have undergone Extended Criminal Records Bureau checks.
It is important to understand that ContactPoint is part of the Every Child Matters Change for Children programme and is one of a number of new processes/tools being put in place to help support multi-agency working. This programme of work falls under the remit of the DCSF (Department for Children, Schools and Families).
It is a legal requirement that the London Borough of Barnet publish a Fair Processing Notice to inform the general public about ContactPoint and the fact it will hold data and information about them. Please open this link 
(pdf 0.1MB) to read this Fair Processing Notice.
Current Position
All 150 local authorities in England have been given the task of setting up local project teams to implement ContactPoint within their Authority. Due to publicity regarding data security issues that occurred in 2007, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families decided to commission an independent security review of ContactPoint’s security procedures.
The objective of the review was to provide an independent assessment of the controls in place around the security of information to be held on ContactPoint.
You can view the ContactPoint Security Policy and Review in further detail.
Shielding of records
Records can be shielded on ContactPoint, which means that all data will be hidden (to all except a limited number of specialist users), except the name, gender, date of birth and ContactPoint ID of that child. Shielding will only be applied to a limited number of records where it is believed that by not doing so will:
- place a child at increased risk of significant harm
- put a child’s placement at risk e.g. looked after or adopted children
- place an adult at risk of significant harm
- prejudice the prevention or detection of a serious crime
The draft ContactPoint shielding policy and process (PDF: 410KB) gives further information.
Go Live
A revised go-live date was announced at the end of October 2008. The 150 local authorities are split into four groups for go-live. The first group (known as the early adopters) will go live in the first quarter of 2009. Barnet is due to go live in the Autumn of 2009. Precise dates are still to be confirmed.
If you need any further information:
- Email:andrew.cox@barnet.gov.uk
Email this pageLast modified by: Webmaster on 02/03/2009