This morning The Sunday Times revealed the existence of a ‘secret database’ holding information on 8 million schoolchildren. Information which has been uploaded by schools and social workers, and ranging from photographs to academic records and records of bad behaviour in school.
The database – named ‘One’, and created and operated by a company
named Capita – allows schools to upload information daily, which
councils can then share with ‘other agencies’, such as youth offending teams,
NHS staff and charities.
If you think this all sounds a bit déjà-vu-ish, then you’d be right. Labour’s ContactPoint database – created in 2005 as a reaction to the Victoria Climbié case in an attempt to improve child protection and cost £224 million to set up – was run along very similar lines. The database was intended to store the details of 11 million children, but was shelved in 2010 by the coalition due to security issues.
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