The Child Protection-Information Sharing (CP-IS) system is beginning
to be rolled out. It will connect hospital emergency departments, out-of-hours
GPs, walk-in centres, and local authorities throughout England.
The system is quite straightforward. It will flag-up if
a child is subject to a child protection plan or is being cared for by a local
authority. In addition it indicates if children have frequently attended accident
and emergency departments in the past.
I am in favour of this sort of IT. It is simple. It has
limited objectives. It doesn’t pretend to be something it isn’t. It isn’t mass
surveillance. It is appropriate and proportionate. It is likely to work.
Why haven’t we had this system sooner? I can’t say for sure
but the silly infatuation some years ago with complicated and unproven systems
like ContactPoint and the Integrated Children’s System has certainly distracted
and detracted from providing sensible IT systems which are likely to be
effective in keeping children safe.
