National children’s database gets go-ahead

The government has given the go-ahead for the creation of an electronic information sharing index containing information on all children aged 0 to 18 in England.

The IS (information sharing) Index was launched by Beverley Hughes, children’s minister, who said that the aim was for the database to be rolled out by the end of 2008.

The index will contain basic information on each child, including their name, address, gender, date of birth and a unique identifying number based on the existing child reference number/National Insurance number.

It will also contain basic identifying information about the child’s parent or carer and contact details for services involved with the child which as a minimum will be school and GP practice, but also other services where appropriate.

The aim of the index is to allow practitioners working with children to identify and contact one another easily and quickly to enable better sharing of information. Those expected to use the index include GPs, health visitors, school nurses and accident and emergency staff as well as social services teams.

The index will also include a facility to allow practitioners to indicate to others that they have information to share, are taking action, or have undertaken an assessment, in relation to a child.

However the government has emphasised that the index will not provide an integrated case management system, or replace case record systems already under development in health (NHS Care Records) or social care (Integrated Children’s System), and it will not record statements of a child’s needs, academic performance, attendance or clinical observations about a child.

Hughes said the creation of the index followed Lord Laming’s inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbie. Lord Laming found that information about Victoria had not been properly recorded and communication between professionals from different agencies had been poor. He recommended that government explore the benefits of developing a national database containing basic information in respect of all children and young people.

Hughes said: “These proposals balance the need to do everything we can to improve children’s life chances whilst ensuring strong safeguards to make sure information stored is minimal, secure and used appropriately. Parents and young people will be able to ask to see their data and make amendments. They will retain full rights under the Data Protection Act.”

Access to the index will be according to the role of the practitioners, all of whom will need to have undergone relevant training and checks. The government’s policy statement says children and young people, and where appropriate their parents, will have the right to ask to see their information and challenge it if it is wrong.

The policy statement says consent would not be required to record contact details for the majority of services but will be required to record contact details for targeted or specialist health services, where there is a strong public expectation and practitioner culture that information will only be shared where informed, explicit consent has been secured.

The index will not replace the Child Protection Register, nor will there be a flag on the index that the child is on the Register, since this is sensitive case information.

The Care Record Development Board (CRDB) said last month that it has resisted requests for agencies concerned with child protection to draw information directly from the NHS Care Records Service and for every attendance by children at accident and emergency departments to be logged on the index.

The government has opted for a central index, as favoured by most local authorities, with the data partitioned into 150 parts, one for every local authority in the country. The perceived benefits of a central index are that it will ensure that the system works for children who move areas or who access services from more than one area. Partitioning the data will enable local authorities to take the lead in maintaining the accuracy of the data for children living in their area. Technical access to the index will be via a web link.

The government has tested to the proposals for an information sharing index at 41 trailblazer sites across England and says it will invest £243 million in the creation of the index plus a further £41 million a year to maintain it. The government estimates the index could save £88 million a year in time spent by practitioners trying to identify and contact each other.

The initial set-up costs will include the cost of ensuring the original data supplied to the index is accurate, that there are robust systems in place to ensure security, and that staff are trained to use the index properly. Operating costs will pay for the staff needed to ensure the ongoing security, accuracy and auditing of the index.

Links

Announcement from the Department for Education and Skills

Policy statement on the information sharing index

Requests for direct access to NCRS resisted

Baby steps