House of Lords Select Committee on the Merits of Statutory Instruments

Call for Written Evidence on

draft Children Act 2004 Information Database (England) Regulations 2007(also known as ContactPoint)

Urgent invitation to comment by Monday 2 July 2007

The Committee has decided to take evidence on the draft Children Act 2004 Information Database (England) Regulations 2007. The draft Regulations set out proposals for the establishment and operation of a database - ContactPoint - under section 12 of the Children Act 2004.  The Regulations place a requirement on local authorities to participate in the operation of the database; specify what information will be held, who must or can provide it, and how long it can be retained; who can be granted access; and how accuracy will be maintained.

In laying these Regulations before Parliament, DfES have stated:

"ContactPoint is a key element of the Government's Every Child Matters programme to transform children's services, by supporting more effective prevention and early intervention, to ensure that children get the additional services they need as early as possible.  The goal is to improve the five outcomes for children set out in the document "Every Child Matters: Change for Children ": being healthy; staying safe; enjoying and achieving; making a positive contribution; and achieving economic well-being.  ContactPoint aims to improve the experience of public services for all children, young people and families.  It will enable practitioners across education, health, social care, youth justice and the voluntary sector to find out who else is working with a child or young person so that they can, where appropriate, work together to deliver better coordinated support."

The purpose of the evidence session is to inform the House about:

•how ContactPoint will work in practice; and

•how  it aims to achieve its objective 

so that the House and Committee can most effectively scrutinise the merits of the statutory instrument. The purpose is not necessarily to challenge the decisions but to improve the House's understanding of the way that ContactPoint will work.

The Committee will take oral evidence from officials of the DfES on Tuesday 10 July. In addition, the Committee hereby invites written evidence by 20.00 on Monday 2 July 2007.

Further details of how to submit your evidence are in the attached link.