Contact Point
All children and young people should get the best possible start in life. ContactPoint aims to make service better for children and young people by helping people to work together.
ContactPoint is a contacts list for people who work with children and young people. It will make it easier for them to work as a team.
ContactPoint is part of the Government's Every Child Matters plan, which all local authorities follow.
What information is held on ContactPoint?
| Name and contact details for: |
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Why is ContactPoint Needed?
Sometimes children and young people need extra help or support. If the people who are helping a child can find each other quickly they can.
- work as a team, which means that a child (or family) doesn't have to explain the same things losts of times to different people.
- find the right support quickly
ContactPoint will provide people who work with children with a quick way to find out who else is working with the same childe. This means they won't waste time trying to find out this simple information, or doing work already being done by other services. Which means professionals can spend more time working with and helping children and young people.
The active involvement of the voluntary and community sector is integral to the success of ContactPoint becauase of the sector's ability to engage children which other services find hard to reach, or are particularly disadvantaged.
The Project is engagin with umbrella bodies such as the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services (NCVYS) and National Council for Voluntary Child Care Organistions (NCVCCO), in order to reach as wide a range of voluntary and community sector organisations as possile. In November 2007 a series of 10 regional workshops, hosted by NCVYS and NCVCCO were held with representatives from medium and small voluntary sector organisations to promote engagement with ContactPoint and raise awareness.
Other key facts:
- You can ask to see the informationthat is held about you on ContactPoint, and you can ask to have it corrected if is wrong.
- ContactPoint uses the latest technology to keep your information safe and up-to-date.
- A young person's information will be removed from ContactPoint when they turn 18 (apart from some young people who can stay on until they are 25 if they want to).
- ContactPoint will only be used by people whose job it is to help children and youn people - such as headteacher, a GP or social worker. They must be trained and security cleared before they can use ContactPoint.
- There are ruels about sharing information that all professionals must follow.
Over time large number of both local and national partners will make use of ContactPoint. It is important, for security reasons, that they adhere to, and are seen to adhere to, a set of defined policies and processes, as set out in this document, that govern how they make use of ContactPoint in their day-to-day business.
If you are interested in becoming accredited so that practitioners can access ContactPoint, please contact the ContactPoint team at Darlington Borough Council:
Darlington Borough Council Contact Point Team
Central House,
Gladstone Street,
Darlington
DL3 6JX
Tel 01325 346760
Email: contactpoint@darlington.gov.uk