ContactPoint - Shielding Records

The purpose of ContactPoint is to help improve services to children with a strong emphasis on early intervention and prevention. Access to ContactPoint will be restricted to authorised users who need it as part of their work. This will include those working in education, health, social care, youth justice and some voluntary organisations, all of whom will have enhanced Criminal Records Bureau clearance. Users will be trained in the safe and secure use of the system and compliance with the Data Protection Act and Human Rights Act.

ContactPoint will only contain the following basic information:

1. Name, address, gender and date of birth of all children in England up to age 18
2. Name and contact details for:
   • parents or carers
   • educational setting (eg. school)
   • primary medical practitioner (eg, GP practice)
   • other services working with the child

ContactPoint will NOT contain any detailed information (such as case notes, assessments, medical data or exam results).

The Regulations, which came into force on 1st August 2007, provide the legal framework for ContactPoint under section 12 of the Children Act 2004.

The facility to hide or "shield" data from ContactPoint users is principally intended to prevent the whereabouts of a child being identified either through:

• Visibility of the address details from ContactPoint
• ContactPoint providing enough information for a likely whereabouts to be deduced (e.g. a service address)

It is vital that shielding is only applied where there are strong reasons, for example, where a practitioner has reason to believe that not doing so is likely to:

• Place a child at increased risk of significant harm
• Put a child's placement at risk (in the case of adoption)
• Place an adult at risk of significant harm
• Prejudice the prevention or detection of a serious crime

The need to shield a record may also arise for children/young people and or their parent/carer in a very limited number of unique circumstances not covered by these categories, for example, siblings or co-habiting children and young people and will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Shielding is not unique to ContactPoint and is entirely consistent with the Data Protection Act 1998 which requires security to be appropriate to the harm that may be suffered by the individual.

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