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And So it Starts.

19 replies

discoverlife · 22/02/2008 17:33

I was contacted today by Connexions. Not unusual you might say... But My eldest is 22 my middle one left home 3 years ago and is 20, they have both worked since they left school.

My son is 10 and is has been HE'd since January 2008. We only moved into this house in June last year.

How have connections got my name and number?

BTW we told them that we didn't talk to the likes of them.

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themildmanneredjanitor · 22/02/2008 17:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

discoverlife · 22/02/2008 17:36

It is the govenment department that supposedly helps children with career choices and job hunting. They also ask the kids for information relating to their parents income and job status.

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dippydeedoo · 22/02/2008 17:37

why dont u speak to them? please enlighten me my eldest ds is 14 and i dont know???

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dippydeedoo · 22/02/2008 17:38

oh no why is that relevant to know tho? am i naive / gullible??

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Blandmum · 22/02/2008 17:46

Do they ask about parental income? I've never heard of that.

They work with children who go to school as well, they actually do help with getting jobs and/or getting on educational courses. They provide information.

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Blandmum · 22/02/2008 17:46

their website

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Blandmum · 22/02/2008 17:49

interestingly they also provide information on H Ed

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discoverlife · 22/02/2008 18:15

It is on one of the forms that kids are asked to fill in. Parents name address, estimated income and whether on benefits. The kids not knowing better tend to fill these details in.

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discoverlife · 22/02/2008 18:16

If they provide information, where did they get my name and phone number from? My guess is the LA and Martyn is too young for their help anyway.

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discoverlife · 22/02/2008 18:18

Just had a quick scan of their web page and it actually has more info than our council has.

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Blandmum · 22/02/2008 18:20

I assume so, but have no knowledge of the 'inner workings' of Connexions.

They just provide kids with information though, nothing sinister.

I assume the information on parental income is so they can assess a kids eligability for payment while in full time education post 16. there is a sliding scale of payment depending on parental income.

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Julienoshoes · 22/02/2008 18:39

Nothing sinister?

'ARCH':Action on Rights for Children, doesn't think so;
From their
database masterclass

The Connexions service offers a complete careers, counselling and advice service to 13-19-year-olds. It was created in 2000 to address two issues:

The need to ensure that young people gained the necessary education and skills to meet the requirements of the ?knowledge economy
The need to reduce the high number of young people over 16 not in education, employment or training
The Learning and Skills Act 2000 provided for the establishment of the Connexions service, and for ?Learning and Skills Councils?: the local public/private partnerships responsible for Connexions. Sections 114-122 of the Act allow for information to be collected and shared without consent across a wide range of agencies in order to identify young people in the target age group, and to spot those who are ?disengaged? from education or showing signs of having personal problems that might present a ?barrier to learning?.

The agencies empowered to share information are:

local authority;
health authority;
primary care trusts;
learning and skills councils;
police;
probation services;
youth offending teams.

Every young person is allocated a ?personal adviser? (PA) who brokers access to services, and is responsible for carrying out an in-depth personal assessment of the young person. This assessment process is known as APIR (Assessment, Planning, Implementation and Review) and covers every area of the young person?s life, including information about parents, family and friends. Online access to the APIR framework is no longer available, but guidance can be viewed here.

Using APIR, the PA can obtain information from the young person and make assessments under the following headings:

physical health
income
housing
social and community factors
family history and functioning
capacity of parents/carers
risk of committing criminal offences (or re-offending)
relationships within family and society
attitudes and motivation
identity/self-image
aspirations
life skills, key skills and basic skills
achievements and participation
substance misuse
mental health/emotional well-being

Each local Connexions service aims to collect information about everyone aged 13-19 in their area, and this is held on the Connexions Customer Information System (CCIS). Consent is normally sought before information is stored or shared with other agencies, but the consent can be a ?one-off? to grant all agencies access to the electronic record until such future time as consent is withdrawn. In other words: the consent need not be limited to a specific time, place or piece of information and the young person cannot refine the consent to specify which of the agencies listed above may or may not have access to specific information. The government confirms this in the final para of a PWA.

As far as information gleaned from the APIR is concerned, a young person?s PA will decide which parts of it should be shared.

The Connexions service believes that any young person in the target age-group (ie 13 or over) can consent to information-sharing in their own right, without the knowledge or involvement of parents, so long as the PA believes them to be ?competent?.

Information is held on the CCIS until a young person reaches 20 (25 if they have special educational needs) and is then archived for a further 3 years.

The whole Database Masterclass is worth a read-as is the ARCH blog as is the ARCH website

Don't know about your children but my children, when given the evidence about Connexions made an informed decision to have nothing to do with them at all.

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Julienoshoes · 22/02/2008 18:49

Connexions are also mentioned on the Joint Organisation Briefing on Children's Databases
Arch have joined with 'Privacy International', 'No2ID', 'fibr'(foundation for information policy research), 'Open Rights Group' and 'Liberty'.

They say
All of our organisations have serious concerns about:
*the security and legality of children?s databases
*the extent of the data that is being collected and shared
*the scale of the intrusion into family life and children?s privacy
*the sensitivity and subjectivity of the data being shared
*the undermining of parental authority
*effects on professional practice
*the diversion of funding urgently needed for frontline services

When those organisations say they are concerned about something, then I am very concerned for the privacy and rights of my children and grandchildren

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Julienoshoes · 22/02/2008 18:57

And if you would rather have visual information about the Childrens databases (of which of course Connexions is one) then have a look at the 3 ARCH You Tube films

I'll shut up about this-well for a little while wink

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discoverlife · 22/02/2008 18:59

Thank you Julie, I knew the information, but couldn't remember where I got it from.

So they have the information from the LEA.
And of course we are pigeon holed already under the education part (HE), low income, benefits, disabled parent, and disabled child part. I bet they recommend DS2 gets a job in Tesco's as a shelf stacker.

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juuule · 22/02/2008 19:58

Connexions were no use whatsoever when my 16yo ds was looking for paid employment. Just kept going round and round in circles pointing him at college or training courses which included time at college. Tried the jobcentre which pointed him to Connexions.

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dippydeedoo · 23/02/2008 22:57

you will laugh i gave ds1 strict and stern instruction not to be giving out any answers to any agency after reading this lol i always say he has to say 'with all respect im not comfortable with this and id rather my mum was here,ill phone her now'....this is to be used in almost all situations...

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fillthatnappylittlekiwi · 24/02/2008 14:24

Dippy- that is brilliant!

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dippydeedoo · 24/02/2008 15:52

lol glad u approve - wether it will ruffle feathers at school ? ill have to let u know lol

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