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Doing It For The Kids
A new register of every child in England excludes the offspring of "prominent celebrities
Next year sees the launch of ContactPoint, a database containing the address, school details and medical records of England's under-18s. It will give details of their carers, any health professionals they might have visited and, according to a report in the Times earlier this wek, could indicate if the child has undergone a "formal assessment" on whether or not he "needs extra help."
Up to 330,000 vetted users will be allowed to access the database.
These include head teachers, doctors and social workers, but other services, including fire and rescue workers, have left critics scratching their heads. Some school and privacy campaigners say that the system is open to abuse. Supporters of the scheme argue that creating openess and sharing information between the various services could prevent children being abused or injured. They point to the dreadful case of little Victoria Climbié, who they say might have been saved had there been better communication between professionals.
Britain's 11 million children will be added to the database. That said, there are some notable exceptions. Some children, the offspring of political figures and prominent celebrities, will be given "extra shielding" if they "are at increased risk of harm".
So, the children of Britain's nomenklatura get an exception to the database which the rest of us must do without. Indeed, the government's admission that certain children will receive special treatment is essentially a confession that the system is not only insecure but open to abuse.
The British government has a disastrous record in the introduction of IT schemes. The Contactpoint database is due to cost £224 million and cost another £41 million a year to run.
