Information sharing

Lots of different adults work with children and young people, for example, teachers, health visitors and social workers. They need to work together, but sometimes don’t know who else is involved.

ContactPoint

ContactPoint, formerly know as the Information Sharing Index, is a key element of the Every Child Matters programme to transform children's services by sharing information between professionals working with children, young people and their families in support of more effective prevention and early intervention. Local and national information systems will feed data to ContactPoint automatically with the following information:

  • Basic identifying information for all children in England (aged up to 18): name, address, gender, date of birth and a unique identifying number.
  • Basic identifying information about the child's parent or carer.
  • Contact details for services involved with the child: as a minimum, educational setting (eg school) and GP practice, but also other services where appropriate (e.g. social care).
  • A facility to indicate if a practitioner is the lead professional for a child and/or if they have completed an assessment under the Common Assessment Framework.

ContactPoint will not hold assessment or case information, or subjective observations about a child or their parent. Section 12 of the Children Act 2004 provides the legislative basis for establishing ContactPoint. ContactPoint will be made available to a group of early adopter local authorities in the north-west of England in October 2008 and then to all other local authorities in England.  The aim is that Hampshire will be live from May 2009.

Access will be restricted to authorised users who need it as part of their work.  This will include those working in partner organisations such as education, health, social care, youth offending and some voluntary organisations. All users will have to go through appropriate security checks, including enhanced Criminal Records Bureau checks and be trained in the safe and secure use of ContactPoint, information sharing practice and the importance of compliance with the Data Protection Act and Human Rights Act.

Further information can be found on the DCSF Every Child Matters website including a fact sheet or by contacting Simon Cull via childrens.services.enquiries@hants.gov.uk.

Additional information about Information-Sharing can also be found on the Hampshire Connexions web site www.hampshireconnexions.co.uk/infosharing/index.asp