Early warning system set to revolutionise child protection

Published on Friday 6 January 2006 11:37

A COMPUTER system designed to warn doctors, teachers, social workers and police when a child is at risk is set to be launched in the Lothians.

The introduction of the "e-care" children's information system - the first of its kind in Scotland - follows a series of high profile cases in which authorities were heavily criticised for failing youngsters who were in their care.

The sophisticated software will be piloted in West Lothian, before being rolled out across the rest of the Lothians, and will allow authorised professionals to see if a child is already a concern to other agencies.

It will also allow key workers to see if the child is on the child protection register, has a significant medical problem or if the child has been missing school or hospital appointments on a regular basis.

Dr Helen Hammond, a consultant paediatrician with NHS Lothian, is leading the project which has been developed in collaboration with the local council, police and justice department.

She said the need for information sharing was first identified in Scotland following the death of three-year-old Kennedy MacFarlane, who was murdered by her mother's boyfriend in Dumfries and Galloway almost six years ago.

In Edinburgh, the inquiry into the death of Caleb Ness in 2003 and the case of three-year-old Michael McGarrity, who was found in a flat in Leith beside his mother's dead body in November, had also raised serious concerns.

"Each of those inquiries had raised the importance of sharing information and of, I think in particular, the issue of getting in early and realising the accumulated concerns across the agencies," said Dr Hammond.

"Personally, since the Kennedy MacFarlane inquiry, I have been very concerned about the sharing of information and, when the funding from the Scottish Executive came up, it was something I saw as really important for us in moving the different work we were already doing forward."

Around 300,000 of Scottish Executive money has been spent on the system's development and talks are on-going to roll the system out in Edinburgh and East Lothian.

This is the first time a system has been used to promote child protection in Scotland but similar projects have been developed in England in the wake of the murder of eight-year-old Victoria Climbie, whose plight was overlooked by police, social workers and medical staff.

Dr Hammond explained that the level of access depended on the person's job, where they worked. For example, teachers would only have access to information about children attending their school.

She said: "There are three levels to the system. The first level will be purely identity information.

"The second level allows us to see what professionals are involved with the child already and when they saw the child and how we can get in touch with them. We don't need to know why they are in contact with that child.

"We are also developing a third level which is a chronology which allows us to see the pattern of care for the child.

"That will show major incidents such as the child going on the child protection register."

In West Lothian, child protection workers from the police, social work and health departments will begin training in the next few weeks.

Although the dates have yet to be confirmed, Dr Hammond said the public will get a chance to view the system at a series of meetings at the end of this month.

"We want to make the public aware of what we are trying to do and how we are going to do it," she said.

She added: "I think probably the most important thing is early intervention so that people get the help they need when they need it.

It is just a tool for us and it's not intended in any way to replace people working together on the phone or face to face. This should just make it easier for people to do their job."