Baby P: Ed Balls admits new child protection law would not have saved his life – Telegraph
Anne Marie Carrie, the director of children’s services for Kensington & Chelsea in west London, was applauded for suggesting that the £224million being spent on setting up the ContactPoint database could have been used to fund more social workers.
Pointing out that it will include personal details of all 11 million children in England and will be accessed by at least 330,000 users, she said: “I see that as a bigger safeguarding risk in this era of data loss.”
I’m struggling to work out what is particularly new about the law under discussion. It requires they set up a Children’s trust – Haringey already has one. And as for contact point – it might have helped with Victoria Climbie, as it would gather records together in one place, but then again, if it was in place, would the adults who were abusing her just have stopped taking her for medical care? None of these databases will do anything to improve the work of the ppl actually dealing with the children, and when it comes down to it, it’s ppl who make the difference, not computers.
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