Yesterday Cllr Merrick Cockell criticised Government plans for a children's database. Here Nick Seaton of the Campaign for Real Education adds his opposition.
Full credit to Conservative councillors in Kensington and Chelsea: they are launching a publicity campaign to raise awareness among parents about the government's new ContactPoint database.
ContactPoint, which is costing taxpayers £224m, is intended to keep detailed records of every child in the country, combined with information about their parents or guardians. Along with records of school performance and behaviour, it will also provide details of personal and medical history (for school nurses), plus any family contact with social services or law enforcement officers.
Worse still, it is estimated that up to a million officials will have access to the records, ranging from teachers to social workers to police officers to any Tom, Dick or Harry with an interest. Who can
guarantee they won't gossip about anyone they and others may know? Who is to say that all of them will have spotless characters with regard to personal information about millions of children, many of whom may
be particularly vulnerable?
Now that school nurses provide free contraception to girls and boys, regardless of whether they are below the legal age of consent, that too is a useful guide for predators as to who is, and who is not,
sexually active – or disposed to alcohol or drugs. What a helpful target Labour ministers are constructing for paedophiles.
Ministers tell us that ContactPoint should avoid a repetition of the Victoria Climbie tragedy, when all the agencies of the state failed to prevent the abuse and murder of a young girl by her guardians. Tosh!
The officials responsible for safeguarding such vulnerable children probably work in the same offices, or in offices nearby. Why don't they talk to each other?
Merrick Cockell, the leader of Kensington and Chelsea council, points
out that many parents know nothing about ContactPoint, which is true.
Those who do know about it are deeply concerned about the invasion of
their family privacy, which is yet another Labour tactic to seize the
upbringing of children away from parents and into the clutches of the
socialist state.
An important aspect of Cllr Cockell's intervention is that the details
of the children and families of celebrities and politicians will be
'shielded' from prying eyes – a good example of socialist
'equality': some are more equal than others.
What is needed now is for families all over the country to request that their details are 'shielded' and the so-called inclusivity of ContactPoint will be threatened. If every Conservative local authority exposes the dangers, and millions of parents object, the whole disgusting scheme may yet fall apart.
What is everyone waiting for?
