ContactPoint (the database that was intended to keep a basic record of the contact that all children and young people had with agencies) was shut down on 6th August 2010. The government is not considering an alternative approach which intended to support key practitioners in protecting vulnerable children from harm.

The government has acknowledged the potential value of a quick and reliable means of discovering whether another professional has worked with a vulnerable child, e.g. when those children who are 'most vulnerable' move across local authority boundaries or access services in more than one area. However, the coalition government has decided that ContactPoint is not the answer.

As an alternative to ContactPoint, a 'national signposting approach' is being explored. This would focus on helping a strictly limited group of practitioners  find out whether a colleague elsewhere is working, or has previously worked, with the same vulnerable child. The government intends to report on this in the Autumn.

Changed will also need to the made to the national electronic version of the Common Assessment Framework (eCAF). Wolverhampton will be among the first Local Authorities to start using eCAF when it is introduced.

For more information about the closure of ContactPoint see www.education.gov.uk/news/news/ctptclose