ContactPoint
ContactPoint is the quick way for qualified staff to find out who else is working with the same child or young person, making it easier to deliver more co-ordinated support and build a team around a child.
The purpose of ContactPoint is to help improve services to children with a strong emphasis on early intervention and prevention.
Currently practitioners can spend days trying to find out whom else is working with the same child or unknowingly duplicate work that is already being carried out by another service.
ContactPoint has been designed to support the processes followed by those who work with children.
An essential requirement identified in the early stages of development was that ContactPoint must be a national system to ensure it works for children who receive services across, or move between, local authority boundaries.
Why is ContactPoint needed?
Lord Laming's 2003 report into the death of Victoria Climbié recommended that the government investigate the feasibility of a database covering all children, providing basic identifying details and contact details for practitioners and services involved with the child.
ContactPoint (formerly called the Child Information Sharing Index) was established under section 12 of the Children Act 2004 and is part of the Every Child Matters: Change for Children Programme.
The purpose of ContactPoint is to support practitioners, local authorities and other organisations in fulfilling a range of statutory duties relating to children.
It will be the quick way for a practitioner to find out who else is working with the same child or young person, making it easier to deliver more coordinated support.
How will ContactPoint improve child protection?
Local authorities that carried out 'pilots' found that this type of tool produced some valuable benefits such as:
- less time trying to find other practitioners
- quicker assessment of whether a child is receiving universal services (education, primary health care)
- enabling more effective multi-agency working which leads to better service experience for children and young people.
How does ContactPoint work?
The ContactPoint database will be built from four main data sources:
- Department for Children, Schools and Families
- Department for Work and Pensions
- National Health Service
- Office for National Statistics.
Data from these sources will be matched and one National Child Database will be produced.
A Local Authority will then receive its local data from this National Database, and will then match and update this data from its own data sources, returning the updated information back to the National Database.
This updating will be done on a regular basis and in time other data sources such as National and Local Voluntary Agencies, and other related bodies will be able to contribute their data to produce as complete a database as possible.
It is this National Database that will be available via ContactPoint.
What information does ContactPoint hold?
ContactPoint will only contain the following basic information:
- name, address, gender, date of birth and an identifying number for all children in England (up to age 18, unless the young person has special needs in which case they may remain on ContactPoint until the age of 25 with their informed consent);
name and contact details for:
- parents or carers;
- school or any other educational setting
- doctor's surgery or any other primary medical practitioner and
- other services.
There will also be the facility to indicate if a practitioner is a lead professional for a child and/or if they have completed an assessment under the Common Assessment Framework (CAF).
Is ContactPoint safe?
ContactPoint accreditation
As ContactPoint is a national system being implemented by every Local Authority in England, accreditation ensures a consistent approach is taken whilst allowing for variation between agencies working with children.
The accreditation of partner organisations is a pre-requisite for access to ContactPoint. This process assesses the organisation against a variety of criteria set by the Department for Schools, Children and Families (DCSF) to ensure the professional and appropriate use and security of the system.
It is important to note that many elements are already part of best practice in organisations when working with children and young people.
No organisation will be given access to ContactPoint without achieving accredited status.
Security
The security of ContactPoint is of paramount importance. The design and implementation is being reviewed by independent security experts throughout its development.
To access ContactPoint, users will need a minimum of a personal security token and a password. Every access will be detailed in the audit trail, which will be reviewed regularly. It will be possible to shield records.
Consent
Explicit consent will be required to record contact details for sensitive services (defined as sexual/mental health and substance abuse). Access to this information will be restricted.
Consent will also be required for care leavers or those with learning difficulties to remain on ContactPoint up to age 25, to facilitate the transition to adult services.
Information
ContactPoint will not contain any case information (such as case notes, assessments and medical data or exam results).
Access
Access to ContactPoint will be restricted to authorised users who need it as part of their work. This will include those working in education, health, social care, youth offending and some voluntary organisations.
All users will have enhanced Criminal Records Bureau clearance. Users will be trained in the safe and secure use of the system, information sharing practice, and compliance with the Data Protection Act and Human Rights Act.
Authorised users will be able to access ContactPoint in three ways - through:
- a secure web link
- via the Local Authority Case Management Systems
- the Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF) are working closely with the suppliers and nominated Local Authority’s to ensure this is secure
- another authorised user or mediated access, where appropriate IT is unavailable.
Wherever possible ContactPoint will be automatically updated from existing systems, avoiding the need for practitioners to enter information on a separate system.
It will not be possible for an authorised user to access case management systems or to see case data held by another agency on ContactPoint.
What progress has been made in Wolverhampton?
So far we have:
- Communicated with practitioners and will continue to promote and raise awareness about ContactPoint
- Analysed the workforce who will be using ContactPoint
- Audited local information systems containing child data, and will continue to work with partner agencies to improve the quality of the data held
- Analysed the local benefits of ContactPoint
- Shared best practice with other Local Authorities and the national ContactPoint Team based within the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF)
- Reported progress to the DCSF, including local risks and issues
We are currently at the stage where national data has been uploaded to ContactPoint. This includes information from:
- Department for Children, Schools and Families
- Department for Work and Pensions
- National Health Service
- Office for National Statistics
Early adopter authorities in the North West have now started to upload local data.
Who are we working with?
We have started to work with many organisations in Wolverhampton across the council, health, youth justice, schools, police and community services and the voluntary sector in order to embed the use of ContactPoint.
What's next?
Our main focus is to support organisations with the accreditation process. Accreditation is a set of criteria from the DCSF that is used to check organisations have the policies, procedures and working practices needed in place to ensure security and appropriate use of the system. An organisation must be accredited before any staff are given training or access to ContactPoint.
As ContactPoint is a national system being implemented by every Local Authority in England, accreditation ensures a consistent approach is taken whilst allowing for variation between agencies working with children. It is important to note that many elements are already part of best practice in organisations when working with children and young people.
We will also be working on:
- improving the quality of data held by organisations
- joining data sources into ContactPoint
- accrediting partner organisations to ensure they meet the criteria set to allow them access to ContactPoint
- training practitioners to use ContactPoint
- ensuring security standards are met
- helpdesk support
- managing the change over from the implementation of ContactPoint to steady-state
- ensuring that ContactPoint in Wolverhampton is in line with the wider Every Child Matters programme including CAF/eCAF and other integrated working initiatives
Contact us
If you would like more information about ContactPoint please get in touch with us using our online form or at the details below:
e-mail: contactpoint@wolverhampton.gov.uk
Phone: 01902 550238, 555035, 551392
Fax: 01902 554157
Minicom: 01902 555554
Write to:
ContactPoint Team
E-Services
Wolverhampton City Council
Poplar House
Pendeford Campus
Marsh Lane
Pendeford
Wolverhampton
WV10 6SE