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   Child protection database scrapped
A government database containing the records of England's 11 million children is being switched off at noon today. ContactPoint was established by the previous Labour government to improve child protection in the wake of the Victoria Climbie child abuse scandal. The government said in July that it did not believe it was "the right way to help vulnerable children". Launched last year, the database listed the name, address and date of birth of every child in England and contact details for their parents, doctors and schools. Its aim was that health, education and social workers would share information on young people to stop children being missed by different services. The controversial system was beset by delays, technical problems and fears over security. Civil liberties groups argued that the database was intrusive and disproportionate, with concerns about data security. ContactPoint cost £224m to set up and another £41m a year to run and each local partner was to be given £270,000 a year to hire the staff needed. The coalition government pledged to scrap the database in a bid to protect civil liberties, saying it was "disproportionate and unjustifiable". Children's minister Tim Loughton announced the closure of the system last month, saying he recognised the problem that the previous government was trying to remedy. "Frontline practitioners need to be able to provide support for our most vulnerable children when they move across local authority boundaries or access services in more than one area," he said. "Experience shows the potential value of a quick and reliable means of discovering whether another professional has worked with such a child. "However, we have never agreed that ContactPoint was the answer." Speaking to Radio 4's Today programme this morning, Loughton said the assumption that children are safer if their name is on a computer system is "completely false". Source: epolitix.com Copyright Dods Parliamentary Communication
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