1. ContactPoint
Bringing ContactPoint to you, your staff and children across Bedfordshire …
Tracee Cossey ContactPoint Communications Officer

2. 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

3. 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.

4. 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.”

5. 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

6. 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

7. Information held
INDICATORS
BASIC
DEMOGRAPHICS
UNIVERSAL
SERVICES
ADDITIONAL
INVOLVEMENT
examples
Child’s Name
General Practice
Contact Details
Youth Worker
Contact Details
CAF
Indicator
Gender
Education/School
Contact Details
Social Worker
Contact Details
Lead Professional
Contact Details
Unique Identifier
Date of Birth
SENCO
Contact Details
Sensitive Service
Contact Details
Address
Parent(s)/Carer(s)
Contact Details
ContactPoint will not hold case data or assessment information

8. Support services (national and local)
The Big Picture
Local
D A T A S U P P L Y
No IT Access
Mediated Access
P R A C T I T I O N E R A C C E S S
Web Access
Modified CMS
National
Data matching
Access Controls
Support services (national and local)
SECURITY
ContactPoint
DWP
D A T A S U P P L Y
NHS
DCFS
ONS
150+ ‘accountable’ LAs
other
other
Please note data suppliers have not been confirmed

9. Record structure National Systems BCC Systems Health System DCFS SWIFT
Sys One
Name
Address
Most likely
New data reflected into “Best” view. All data, but NOT Source identity provided in “Complete” View

10. 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
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.

11. Viewing ContactPoint
Via Case Management Systems (CMS): SWIFT, Tribal, QES & YOIS etc.
ContactPoint
Authorised practitioner views ContactPoint directly – ideally via their Client Management System
Practitioner is working with a child or young person
Management Information
Mediated access – authorised ContactPoint user accesses
ContactPoint through another authorised user

12. 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

13. Children, young people and families
ContactPoint Benefits
Children, young people and families
4. Able to quickly see who else is providing services to a child
6. Reducing time spent on admin frees up time to focus on service delivery
5. Reduction in number of duplicated referrals
Practitioners
Managers
7. Better identification of children not receiving universal services
1. More effective service delivery and intervention
8. Better management information – planning service delivery
2. More timely response to needs
3. Reduced number of repeat assessments and referrals
9. Increased Team effectiveness

14. 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 Sharing Protocols signed off by each agency as part of their agreement to use ContactPoint.

15. 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.

16. 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 ***

17. 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.

18. 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 fine or prison.

19. 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

20. 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 the Bedfordshire ContactPoint team at or you can find out information at or

21. ContactPoint
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