Child Protection Database Live Date Next Month

The Child Protection Information Sharing Project is due to go live next month across local authority and NHS sites in North East London, North West England, Wakefield and North Tyneside.

Children identified as vulnerable by social services will be flagged to NHS staff in the event of an A&E visit or unplanned care setting.

The project is being developed by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), which claims the new system will cost £8.6m over a five-year period.

According to Tom Burnett, the programme manager for the project, the next few months will see engagement started with around 80 organisations for the second wave.  

It is hoped that the end of the roll-out will see 152 local authorities and 1200 unscheduled care settings on board.

Integration Across Departments And Services

Emergency departments, out of hours GP services, walk-in centres, paediatric wards, maternity wards, minor injury units and ambulance services will all be connected to IT systems used in local authorities’ child protection systems.

NHS trusts will be able to view information via a web browser and make changes to IT systems to integrate the new system into their patient administration system and electronic patient records to automatically pick up information.

“Because it’s a national system, information won’t be overlooked. It will improve intervention and more efficient and reliable information sharing,” claimed Burnett as this month’s HC2014 conference.

He added the project is intended to help NHS clinicians’ decision making when it comes to vulnerable children by letting them know a child is at risk or has visited another A&E department in the country recently.

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