Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

ContactPoint

ContactPoint is a national directory of all children in England.

It will enable people working with children and young people to quickly find out who else is working with the same child or young person, making it easier to deliver more co-ordinated support.

The purpose of ContactPoint is to help improve services to children with a strong emphasis on early intervention and prevention. Currently practitioners can spend days trying to find out who else is working with a child or unknowingly duplicate work that is already being carried out by another service.

ContactPoint will only contain the following basic information:

1. Name, address, gender, date of birth and an identifying number of all children in England (up to age 18);
2. name and contact details of:

• Parents or carers;
• Educational setting (e.g. school);
• Primary medical practitioner (e.g. GP practice); and
• Other services the child is receiving.
•  

There will also be the facility to indicate if a list contact is a Lead Professional for a child and /or if they have completed an assessment under the Common Assessment Framework.

ContactPoint will NOT contain any case information such as case notes, assessments, medical data or exam results and will only be available to authorised staff that need it to do their jobs.

The ContactPoint project is being run by the Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) to a national programme and is being scheduled to go live in November 2009 in Stockton.

For more information on ContactPoint, please visit the Every Child Matters Website.