More Articles:

Database flaws 'eclipse gains'

The Times December 15, 2006

Alexandra Frean

Plans to hold details of every child in England on an electronic database could lead teachers to make wildly inaccurate and unhelpful assumptions about the welfare of individual children, Britain’s independent schools have said.

The Independent Schools Council (ISC) said that the database, known as the Information Sharing Index, could also deter children and their parents from seeking medical or other help that was genuinely needed for fear that their problems would be entered into the database and then leaked.

Jonathan Shepherd, general secretary of the ISC, said that the database, which is being set up in response to the Victoria Climbié child abuse inquiry, would benefit some vulnerable children but would put even more at risk.

The purpose of the index is to allow social workers and other professionals to share information about children they believe to be at risk of harm.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2505376,00.html