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ContactPoint
ContactPoint
What is ContactPoint?
ContactPoint is a national online directory for professionals
who work with children and young people in England. It will provide
them with a quick and easy way to find out who else is working with
the same child or young person, making it simpler for them to work
as a team and deliver more coordinated support.
It is part of the Department for Children, Schools and Families’
Every Child Matters plan, which all councils follow. It will come
into use across England from Spring 2009. Delivery in
Redbridge is scheduled for August 2009 with a phased implementation
to practitioners from October 2009.
What are the benefits of ContactPoint?
ContactPoint will help professionals to contact parent/carers
and each other quickly if your child needs support. If
professionals working with a child know about each other they
can:
- Make sure that every child is getting the
support they need.
- Find the right support quickly before
problems become more serious.
- Work together, which means that a child or a
family doesn’t have to repeat the same information many times,
which can be distressing.
- Make sure they are not duplicating work already
being done by others.
Children, young people and families should always be at the
centre of what is happening and have a say in the services and
support they get.
As ContactPoint is a national system it will benefit children
who receive services across, or move across, local authority
boundaries.
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What information will be held on ContactPoint?
ContactPoint will only contain the following basic
information:
- Name, address, gender, date of birth and a
unique identifying number.
- Name and contact details for:
- parents or carers.
- educational setting (e.g. school).
- primary medical practitioner (e.g. GP
practice).
- Other services working with the child.
- Indicator to show if a practitioner is the lead professional
for a child and/or if they have completed an assessment under the
Common Assessment Framework
(CAF).
Most children will only be kept on ContactPoint up to their 18th
birthday. Some young adults who need extra help or support can
stay on ContactPoint past their 18th birthday but only with their
explicit consent and only for specific reasons. Explicit consent
will be required to record contact details for sensitive services
(defined as sexual health, mental health and substance abuse).
ContactPoint does not and will not contain any case information
(such as case notes, assessments, and medical data or exam
results).
The information that can be held on ContactPoint is set out in
law - Section 12 of the Children Act 2004 - and the supporting
regulations specify what information can be held on ContactPoint.
When information is taken off ContactPoint it will be locked away
in the archive for six years and then deleted.
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Who will use ContactPoint?
Access to ContactPoint is strictly limited to those who need it
to do their job. This will include those working in education,
health, social care, youth justice and some voluntary
organisations, as well as the ContactPoint team, whose
job it is to look after the system.
Before being granted access, all authorised users must have
completed identity checks, enhanced Criminal Records Bureau
disclosure, and mandatory training. To access the system all users
will need a unique user name, password, security token and PIN.
Access will be audited and monitored on a continuous basis.
Authorised users will be able to access ContactPoint either
through their case management systems, a secure web link or another
authorised user (known as mediated access).
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How secure will ContactPoint be?
Security is a top priority and there are a significant set of
security measures in place. ContactPoint meets recognised assurance
levels for security and is subject to regular auditing. The
information held on ContactPoint will not be sent to, or shared
with any other systems.
The following rules apply to anyone who will have access to
ContactPoint:
- It can only be used by people who need it to do their job.
- They must have passed security checks and been trained.
- They must have a user name, a password, a PIN and a security
token.
- They must give a reason to look at a record.
- They will automatically have their details recorded – who they
are and what they looked at. This is called an audit trail.
- The audit trail will be looked at regularly to make sure
ContactPoint is being used in the right way.
- People can be prosecuted if they have been found to misuse
ContactPoint.
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Where will the information on ContactPoint come from and how
will it be kept accurate and up-to-date?
The information on ContactPoint comes from the computer systems
that different services use (national and local). This includes
systems in health, education, social care, youth justice and
voluntary organisations.
When information has been updated in these systems it will be
sent automatically to ContactPoint as an update.
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What should I do if I wish to see the information held about
me?
You should write to:
Children’s Trust, Subject Access Request Manager,
2nd Floor Ley Street House
497-499 Ley Street
Ilford, Essex. IG2 7QX
To find out more about the Data Protection Act go to www.ico.gov.uk.
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As a parent/carer can I choose to exclude my
child’s information from ContactPoint?
No. In law, ContactPoint will hold records on all children who
are ordinarily resident in England.
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What will happen to the record when a young person turns
18?
In most cases, a record will be removed from ContactPoint when a
young person turns 18.
There is a facility for the records of some young adults to stay
on ContactPoint until they are 25, but only for very limited
reasons and only with explicit consent.
When a record is removed from ContactPoint it will be held in a
secure archive for six years and then destroyed. The archive can
only be accessed for the limited reasons which are set out in
Regulations (this includes a Local
Safeguarding Children Board serious case review or
investigation into a child death).
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How will ContactPoint handle Sensitive
Services?
If a sexual health, drug, alcohol or mental health worker is
working with a child or young person, their contact details will
only be passed to ContactPoint if that young person (and/or their
parent/carer) has explicitly agreed that it can. ContactPoint will
not show the name or contact details for that service
and will only advise that one or more ‘sensitive
services’ are involved.
If other professionals working with that child or young person
want to get in touch with the ‘sensitive service’, they will need
to contact the ContactPoint Team. It will then be up to the
child/young person or parents/carers and the ‘sensitive service’
professional to decide whether they should talk to the other
worker.
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What is Shielding?
In some instances a child’s circumstances may require an
additional layer of security to protect their personal data.
ContactPoint includes the facility to hide or ‘shield’ certain data
fields on the child records from ContactPoint users.
Shielding provides a proportional response to those children and
families whose circumstances may mean they are at increased risk of
significant harm.
Shielding prevents the whereabouts of a child being identified.
A shielded record will only display the:
- ContactPoint unique identity number.
- Child’s or young person’s names.
- Gender.
- Date of birth.
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What are the criteria for shielding children's records?
Decisions to shield must be made on a case by case basis. When
assessing the criteria the professional judgement of the
practitioner is key to deciding if a child or young person should
be shielded on ContactPoint.
It is vital that shielding (and thereby not disclosing the
whereabouts of a child or young person) is only applied where there
are strong reasons to believe that not doing so is likely to:
- 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.
Such cases could arise for example where:
- A child/young person is in a placement that is not disclosed to
their birth parent by court order or due to concerns about the
safety of the child or carers.
- The child/young person is in an adoptive placement and
there are no plans for ongoing direct contact by the birth
parents.
- A child/young person and/or their parent/carer have been moved
to another address to protect them from violence, abuse or
intimidation e.g. Refuge, Safe House.
- Any other circumstance where it is assessed that revealing the
address of the child or others in the household could place the
child at risk of significant harm.
The necessity to shield a record must therefore be assessed on a
case-by-case basis and agreed by a senior representative of the
relevant agency.
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Who can request shielding and how can they make the
request?
Requests for a record to be shielded can be made by a variety of
stakeholders and in a number of secure ways.
Practitioners:
Parents / Carers:
In the first Instance telephone the ContactPoint Team on 020
8708 5545 where an initial assessment can be carried out and advice
given on which supporting documents will need to be
supplied.
We will need to make an appointment to see you, to establish your
identity and review your supporting evidence. This will be arranged
when you contact us.
You will need to complete the Parents/Carers
Shielding Request Form prior to your appointment.
To ensure that the child is not put at risk the ContactPoint
Team will apply a shield immediately which will be reviewed
during your appointment when a decision will be taken
regarding maintaining the shield.
IMPORTANT: TO GUARANTEE PRIVACY PLEASE DO NOT POST THE
COMPLETED FORM.
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As a parent/carer what if my request to shield my child's
record is refused, can I appeal the decision?
Yes. You may appeal the decision. An appeal to review the
decision will be conducted by referring the case to the Deputy
Managing Director of the Children's Trust. The outcome of the
review will be communicated back to the appealer.
Individuals may appeal in writing to:
The ContactPoint Manager
Ground Floor Ley Street House
497-499 Ley Street
Ilford, Essex. IG2 7QX
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What if I am not satisfied with the appeal decision, can I make
a complaint?
Yes. You may make a complaint. The complaint
procedure will only review whether due process was followed
correctly and will not challenge the decision itself.
The complaint procedure is available on Redbridge-i.
http://www.redbridge.gov.uk/cms/a_to_z_of_services/c/complaints_procedure/complaints_and_investigations.aspx
The individual also has the right to refer the issue to the
Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) at www.lgo.org.uk.
Further Information
You can also contact:
- The Department for Children, Schools and Families, Sanctuary
Buildings, Great Smith Street, London, SW1P 3BT
- Tel 0870 000 2288
- Email: info@dcsf.gov.uk.
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