Lancashire to trial hi-tech child protection measures

Lancashire County Council are set to trial new hi-tech child protection measure  which may help to professional respond more quickly cases.

Under the new measures, information about at-risk youngsters will be shared between social workers, health professionals and other agencies at the touch of a button.

The system, ‘Child Protection – Information Sharing initiative (CP-IS)’, has been developed by Liquidlogic and is supported by NHS England and the Health and Social Care Information Centre.

CP-IS would be used for youngsters with a child protection plan, looked-after children and for pregnant mothers whose child has a ‘pre-birth protection plan’.

If there are repeated episodes where children attend accident and emergency wards or urgent care centres, this would be considered as a possible indicator for abuse or neglect.

Andrew Sofield, a lead officer for Lancashire County Council, said: “The CP-IS project will enable intelligent information sharing with health partners, to highlight when looked after children or those with a child protection plan present in an unscheduled health setting.

“Child protection has always been at the centre of our work in Lancashire and our determination to go live with CP-IS is testament to that.”

The company has been in discussions with 20 other local authorities over CP-IS and also demonstrated the system for Blackburn with Darwen Council earlier this year. Similar talks have been held with a number of north-west NHS trusts.