Child protection database runs into difficulties

30 Oct 03
A shadow was cast over plans to introduce a database for children this week after the British Medical Association said it would breach data protection law, while local authorities were also revealed to be behind in IT preparations.

31 October 2003

A shadow was cast over plans to introduce a database for children this week after the British Medical Association said it would breach data protection law, while local authorities were also revealed to be behind in IT preparations.

The BMA warned that plans to collate information on children from all agencies would also breach patient confidentiality rules and could leave the NHS open to legal challenge.

Local authorities have already failed to meet deadlines set by Lord Laming to introduce effective child protection systems, according to a survey conducted by researchers Headstart.

Laming, in his report arising from the murder of Victoria Climbié, recommended installing computer systems to monitor the activities of child protection and to cross-reference knowledge held by other agencies. Although he recommended that these systems be in place by September, some 85% of social services departments have not established them yet. Almost a quarter of councils said that it would take five years or longer for the IT to be in place.

The survey, Electronic safety nets: technology systems to safeguard children, also reveals barriers to another Laming proposal – the improvement of information sharing between health, education and social services.

For example, when health and social services data were compared in the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, half of all records could not be matched and of those that could be, 3% disagreed on whether the person was dead or alive and 1% varied on the person's gender.

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