PG9. Child Protection Information Sharing (CP-IS)

1. Introduction

Caption: Introduction table

1.1	The Child Protection - Information Sharing (CP-IS) service helps health and social care workers share information securely to better protect children and young people who are known to children’s social care because they are: Looked after, or have been looked after within the previous 12 months [1]; or Subject to a child protection plan or have been subject to a child protection plan within the previous 12 months (including unborn child protection plans [2]).
1.2	CP-IS links records across health and social care in England to help agencies share information securely. It covers all local authorities in England; it's the only national register of children’s social care status, and the only system to provide information when a child is out of their home local authority area.
1.3	CP-IS is available to over 1,200 unscheduled health care settings (i.e. NHS care contacts that weren’t expected or planned before someone contacted the healthcare provider, such as emergency departments, ambulance and other emergency services) [3].
1.4	During the course of 2024, CP-IS will be extended to include additional unscheduled health care settings (e.g. hospital dentistry, child and adolescent mental health services, community paediatrics and sexual health services – those dealing with sexual assaults) as well as some scheduled health care settings (e.g. general practitioners, school nursing and health visiting services) [4]. CP-IS will eventually be extended to all health care settings.
1.5	CP-IS is used by all local authority children’s social care services in England.

2. How Does It Work?

Caption: How Does it Work

2.1	Local authority children’s services provide basic information about children looked after (and those who have been looked after within the previous 12 months) and children subject to a child protection plan (or have been subject to a child protection plan within the previous 12 months) electronically to the NHS where it is recorded centrally. When a child presents at a health care setting (see 1.3 and 1.4 above), their care or protection status is shared with the health care professional. Local authorities and NHS providers have signed a data sharing agreement to safeguard the confidentiality of the information being shared.
2.2	The information held by CP-IS for each child is as follows: NHS number; Details of their plan – type (care or protection), start date and end date (if applicable); Details of the 25 most recent CP-IS information accesses from approved care settings in England; The name of the responsible local authority - together with their office hours phone and emergency duty contact number.
2.3	All records in CP-IS are matched against the child’s NHS number. It is therefore very important for local authorities to use the correct NHS number for each child. CP-IS checks with local authorities to ensure that any data errors are identified and corrected.
2.4	When a child or young person attends a health care setting with access to CP-IS, the health team is alerted that their social care status together with the contact details for the social care team. The social care team is automatically notified that the child has attended unscheduled care. Both health and social care staff can see then see details of the child's previous visits (up to 25) to unscheduled care settings in England.
2.5	CP-IS does not have a user interface - users must access it indirectly via point-of-care applications, such as: Social care case management software; Electronic patient record (EPR) software in a hospital setting; GP software; The National Care Records Service.

3. Using CP-IS

Caption: Using CP-IS

3.1	For health care professionals working in unscheduled health care settings: CP-IS provides information about a child / young person’s social care status and home local authority to be considered in deciding how best to assist them; It also provides information about the child / young person’s attendance at other unscheduled health care settings; Whilst CP-IS automatically generates an alert that is sent to the responsible local authority social care system, health care professionals should also consider whether to contact the responsible local authority social care service whilst the child / young person is in the health care setting if there are any safeguarding concerns. During “office hours’ this would be by contacting the allocated social worker or personal advisor; outside of office hours, by contacting the emergency duty service.
3.2	For health care professionals working in scheduled health care settings: CP-IS is providing information that should already form a part of their health care record if they are in their home local authority area. If that information is not already contained within their health care record, then the health care professional should contact the responsible local authority for background information about the child / young person; If the child / young person attends a scheduled health setting outside of their home local authority area, then CP-IS will provide details of the responsible local authority; CP-IS does not generate alerts when children attend scheduled health care settings. Health professional should therefore consider whether or not they have a safeguarding concern and contact the responsible local authority social care service. During “office hours’ this would be by contacting the allocated social worker; outside of office hours, by contacting the emergency duty service.
3.3	For children’s social care professionals: When a CP-IS alert is received, a children’s social care professional should consider whether to contact the named health care professional who accessed the CP-IS record for more information about the circumstances leading to the child / young person presenting at an unscheduled health care setting; The social care professional should take into account: The age of the child / young person; The location of the health care setting; The frequency with which the child / young person has attended unscheduled health care settings; The reasons why the child / young person is subject to a protection plan or looked after.
3.4	Local authorities should have arrangements in place for the evaluation of CP-IS alerts for children who were subject to a protection plan or looked after but no longer have a named, allocated social care professional.
3.5	NHS digital have published case studies setting out how CP-IS has provided benefits to children and young people: Helped a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) to complete a full assessment of a vulnerable child; Helped staff at Northeast Ambulance Service's operation centre identify a neglected child; Helping health and social care staff to share information and better protect vulnerable children including: The value of closed cases; Providing evidence for social care teams; Protecting children when they are out of area; Improving decisi about clinical care; Protecting unborn children subject to child protection plans; Making better use of NHS resources. The case studies are published here: Benefits of Child Protection - Information Sharing

Further Information

About CP-IS see here: Child Protection - Information Sharing (CP-IS) service

Queries about CP-IS contact: cpis.operations@nhs.net

Notes

[1] Children Looked After includes those who are (or have been) subject to:

An Interim Care Order under Section 38 of the Children Act 1898;
A Full Care Order under Section 31 of the Children Act 1989;
Some local authorities also include children who have left care within the previous 12 months having been made the subject of an adoption order;
A voluntary agreement under Section 20 of the Children Act 1989, where they have been accommodated with the consent of those with parental responsibility or who is over the age of 16 and has agreed to be accommodated;
This will include information about care experienced adults who ceased to be looked after within the previous 12 months.

[2] Unborn child protection plans - a child protection plan for an unborn baby will sit on the mother’s record for CP-IS. The mother’s NHS number and demographic details are therefore provided for any unborn child protection plan which is to be shared via CP-IS.

Unborn children who have been allocated a child protection plan prior to birth will only upload to CP-IS if the mother’s demographic details including the NHS number are recorded on the local authority social care system, with the unborn child recorded as an unborn and linked to the mother’s record. When this information is uploaded to CP-IS the mother’s credentials will be used to allocate the unborn child protection plan against her NHS number. It is the mother’s health record the NHS will access upon treatment and therefore know a unborn child protection plan is present;
When the delivery of a baby occurs, the midwife will provide the local authority the NHS number for the newborn baby which will allow the local authority to end the unborn child protection plan and create the child protection plan against the baby’s record;
If there is a gap in time between the baby being born and named then the naming convention ‘baby [insert mother’s name]’ is used in the interim;
Social care systems each have their own conventions for how unborn child plans are managed within the system you use. For further information please view: CP-IS NHS number matching information - NHS Digital.

[3] CP-IS is mandated for use in the following unscheduled care settings:

Emergency departments;
Emergency dental services (when connected to an emergency department in a hospital);
Walk-in centres;
Ambulance services;
GP out of hours services;
Paediatric wards;
Maternity units;
111 service.

[4] CP-IS will eventually be mandated for use in all health care settings. In 2024, it will be extended to the following health care settings:

General practice (in hours);
Child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS);
Sexual assault referral centres;
Termination of pregnancy services;
School nursing and health visitors;
Community paediatrics;
Dentistry (appointment-based services, including emergency care).