Transcript Main heading

ContactPoint
Bringing ContactPoint
to you, your staff and
children across
Bedfordshire …
Tracee Cossey
ContactPoint Communications Officer
Objectives

Understand key issues in relation to information sharing

Understand the legal framework

Understand the ‘consent to share’ principle

Be aware of ContactPoint and how it will support practice
What is ContactPoint?

The quick way to find out who else is working with the same
child or young person, making it easier to deliver more
coordinated support and improve outcomes for children.

It will be available to authorised staff who need it to do their
jobs.

It will store basic demographic information about all children
resident in England – no case information will be stored.

It will be a national system to enable a more complete record for
a child who accesses services in more than one local area.
The Mission Statement

“To deliver a solution to facilitate
communication between
practitioners from different
services and agencies which will
enable them to share information
appropriately and securely for
the benefit of children, young
people and their families.”
The Legal Framework

Duties placed by Children Act 2004:

A Director of Children’s Services and a lead council member for children,
to ensure clear accountability politically.

Duties to co-operate to improve the well-being of and to put in place
arrangements to safeguard and promote welfare of children.

Set up of Local Safeguarding Children Boards and a duty for key partners to
take part.

A database – ContactPoint - containing basic details about children and
young people.

Data Protection and Human Rights Acts
Partnership Organisations

BCC Social Care

BCC Education

Bedfordshire PCT

BLPT – CAMHS

Bedford Hospital

Connexions

Housing

Bedfordshire Youth
Offending Service

Bedford Pilgrim Housing
Association

Bedford College

Dunstable College

Bedfordshire Constabulary

Bedfordshire Youth Service

Early Years – Children’s Centres

Independent Schools

Voluntary Sector
ContactPoint Project Overview

All BCC ContactPoint Milestones achieved to date

Integration & User Acceptance testing of National System through
to December – then roll out to Early Adopter LA’s

Key activities in BCC – Data Supply Agreements, Provision of Data
for QA by Partners

Planning Organisation Accreditation of BCC and Partners

Identifying roles in BCC and partners where eCRB will now be
required

Deployment Summer 2009; first live users in Bedfordshire in 8
weeks later
How will ContactPoint be accessed?
There are three ways in which ContactPoint will be accessed:
Integrated Case Management System

Authorised users will be able to access it through their existing
case management system (CMS) if the system supplier has been
engaged by the DCFS to create an interface between the current
CMS and ContactPoint;

Web Access - there will be access via a secure internet link and;
Mediated Access
3.
Via another authorised user. Practitioner contacts another
authorised user to “mediate” on their behalf (if, for example, the
authorised user is out in the field).
It is up to each individual organisation to determine which member/s of staff
will be nominated users of the system.
Sharing information

Where a sensitive service is involved, a child’s record will not
show unless they or their parents have given consent. (The
age of comprehension is deemed at 12 years).

Agencies working with each other will need to use their
‘professional judgement’ when sharing information about what
they share.

There will be Information Service Protocols signed off by each
agency as part of their agreement to use ContactPoint.
Sharing information as part of preventative
services
Increased
emphasis on
integrated
working across
children’s
services to better
identify and meet
needs
Success
depends
upon…

Effective partnership working and information
sharing between universal services and
targeted and specialist services

Active processes for identifying children and
young people at risk of poor outcomes (using
the CAF where appropriate), and passing
information to those delivering targeted
support
Practitioners must:

Openly and honestly explain information sharing

Seek consent
ContactPoint Benefits
Children, young
people and families
1. More effective
service delivery
and intervention
Practitioners
4. Able to quickly see
who else is providing
services to a child
2. More timely
response to needs
5. Reduction in
number of duplicated
referrals
3. Reduced
number of repeat
assessments and
referrals
6. Reducing time spent
on admin frees up time
to focus on service
delivery
Managers
7. Better identification
of children not
receiving universal
services
8. Better management
information – planning
service delivery
9. Increased Team
effectiveness
Information held
BASIC
DEMOGRAPHICS
UNIVERSAL
SERVICES
ADDITIONAL
INVOLVEMENT
INDICATORS
examples
Unique Identifier
Child’s Name
Gender
Date of Birth
Address
Youth Worker
CAF
Contact Details
Contact Details
Indicator
Education/School
Social Worker
Lead Professional
Contact Details
Contact Details
Contact Details
General Practice
SENCO
Contact Details
Sensitive Service
Contact Details
Parent(s)/Carer(s)
Contact Details
ContactPoint will not hold case data or assessment information
Fair Processing Notice

This is the notification to all children in Bedfordshire and their
parents which explains what information about them will be held in
the ContactPoint directory and the purposes it will be used for. This
is a statutory requirement.

Each household in Bedfordshire will receive a copy of the
notification

Children deemed to be at age of comprehension will each receive a
copy of their own notification.

Parents with children below an age of comprehension or with
learning difficulties will receive a copy.
Who will have access?

Authorised practitioners in children’s services

Role based access controls

Security checked - including enhanced Criminal Records Bureau
(CRB) clearance.

Training will include:


safe and secure use of Contactpoint

Data Protection Act and Human Rights Act
Audit trail – what has been viewed, when & by whom. Usage
reports are also generated by the system
After ContactPoint has been used
What will a professional do after they have looked at
ContactPoint?

ContactPoint will show the contact details of professionals working
with the same child.

They may decide they want to contact and talk to each other to
make sure that child is getting all the support they need.

There are rules for all people who work with children and young
people about talking to other professionals.
***EVERYONE who works with children and young people must follow these
rules ***
The Big Picture
Local
Access Controls
Mediated
Access
Web
Access
DWP
NHS
DCFS
ContactPoint
ONS
DATA SUPPLY
Modified
CMS
National
Data matching
No IT
Access
PRACTITIONER ACCESS
DATA SUPPLY
other
Support services
(national and local)
other
150+ ‘accountable’ LAs
Please note data suppliers have not been confirmed
Record structure
National
Systems
DCFS
SWIFT
Sys One
BCC
Systems
Most likely
Name
Address
Health
System
New data reflected
into “Best” view.
All data, but NOT
Source identity
provided in
“Complete” View
How secure will ContactPoint be?

ContactPoint can only be used by people who need it to do their
job.

Before they can use it, each worker will have to pass strict security
checks and must have training.

Each user must have their own user name, password, PIN and a
security token (this is higher security than in most banks today).

Security experts will keep testing ContactPoint to make sure only
the right people can get into it.
Security (cont’d)

Workers will have to give a reason before they can look at a child’s
record on ContactPoint.

A record will be kept every time a worker looks at ContactPoint.
This record will be looked at regularly to make sure ContactPoint is
being used in the right way.

If someone tries to use ContactPoint for the wrong reasons they
could face a big fine or even prison.
Viewing ContactPoint
Via Case
Management
Systems (CMS):
SWIFT, Tribal, QES
& YOIS etc.
ContactPoint
Practitioner is
working with a
child or young
person
Authorised practitioner views
ContactPoint directly – ideally
via their Client Management
System
Management
Information
Mediated access – authorised ContactPoint user accesses
ContactPoint through another authorised user
Help for Organisations

The ContactPoint system will have lots of help for organisations.

The initial training programme will be securely delivered before
using the directory.

There are 28 Organisational Accreditation conditions to supply data
or use ContactPoint an organisation must meet many of the key
conditions – in certain cases all of them.

For further information about ContactPoint and on policies in place
to protect ContactPoint and users of ContactPoint please email the
Bedfordshire ContactPoint team at [email protected] or
you can find out information at
www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/contactpoint
ContactPoint
Close
For further information:
www.ecm.gov.uk/contactpoint
Email:
[email protected]