Personal details of ALL British children and their families to be kept on a national register - for the government to lose again??? Link to sign the petition against this move.

[Astrophe]

sign the petition here

Personally, the proposal makes me feel very uneasy, not least because the government hasn't even told parents about it.

The petition ends on 20th of December, so get cracking people.

Every day this country looks a little more like Stalinist Russia.

done

Its scary isn't it?

read that some people famous & the like wont be on it!!!

Not as scary as ID cards. Not to mention all the wasted money that is much needed elsewhere (i.e. education)

Oh, that's an interesting point. Are the bank details of the Beckham kids on that CD? What about Apple Paltrow-Coldplay (can't remember his name)?

Done.
I would have said it was a good idea, but I don't trust the government to keep the data safe and I don't trust some of the professions that would have access to it.

Couldn't agree more 2ifbysea. Signed and I shall be emailing all of my friends about this too.

Yup. The only way to escape being on this Stalinist database is to become a politician or a cleb. Watch me become a teen pop star in the next 6 months just to protect my family...

Gloria - I think it's just as scary as ID cards because the database is the start of ID cards, by stealth. Do you think the State will just delete the entry on each person once they hit 18?

bump

Just in case anyone else is as daft as I am, you need to click on a link that No.10 will email you before you will actually be counted as being on the petition.

it´s hardly stalinist, and it´s not terribly alarming imo either. it´s not a general database for government agencies to share any and all data, but a place where professionals can register their concerns about possible abuse. It was set up in response to the Victoria Climbie case I think.

It is not in the same league as either id cards (and accompanying databaSE) or the NHS "spine".

It is vaguely possible that this database will result in more false abuse claims - and if it does I´ll be the first to call for its abolition, but it is rather more likely that more serious cases of abuse will be spotted earlier.

also astrophe, when you say the govt hasn´t told parents about it, do you mean we shopuld all be sent a letter individually? it has already been in all the papers.

Well I hadn't heard of it!!!

Do these petitions ever make a difference? - is there a critical number of signitures that has to be reached. I am not convinced it will help prevent abuse - I am a health professional and would not want to have to put my concerns about a child onto a giant database. I would be onto social services if I thought there was a problem. Surely it is common sense and professionalism of those involved with a child which will protect him/her most effectively - if the health professionals haven't got those attributes then a giant database won't be much help.

neither had I! maybe I'm just ignorant of the news

senora - sign, or don't sign, obviously its up to you.

sanae, apparently if it can get into the 'top 100' petitions (in terms of number of signatures) thats a good thing, but I'm not sure exactly what it means. I don't know if they help, but surely they can't hurt?

sorry, I thought this was a topic for debating things, not simply corralling people to a cause.

signed, gladly. The history of massive government IT projects does not fill me with confidence. Or their record on keeping data safe. If it's not good enough for their children it's not good enough for mine, frankly.

Agree this is ID cards by stealth - our children will already be on an ID database so it's a fait accompli for a future government.

And I'm not impressed by the excuse that they are doing this in Victoria Climbie's name. Poor kid was failed by rank incompetence, not a lack of IT.

And I think I saw a stat somewhere that 350,000 people will have access to this database. It's just impossible to keep data safe with so many people handling it. And by the law of averages, some of those people will be paedophiles, or otherwise malign.

I agree Edam. I thought there were issues to do with social workers not wanting to visit her home in case they caught something, and child protection professionals not recognising scabies.
The poor kid's name gets dragged out to justify every abuse of power by SS or intrustion into our lives by the government. Shameful.

was she though edam? I rather thought she was killed by competent professionals who were reluctant to share their mild suspicions, and that better protocols would have helped. and if we are to encourage people to share suspicions what difference does it make whether it is via post or via a national database?

(I am prepared to be persuaded btw. I just don´t hate the very idea of data sharing).

quite, Kathy - the very organisations responsible for failing Victoria Climbie dare to mis-use her name in order to expand their powers. I think the boss in charge of SS in the borough actually got promoted while the junior SW was hung out to dry.

IIRC the scabies thing was that doctors or SWs or both fell for her aunt's story that Victoria's scars were caused by scabies, and used it as a reason to avoid visiting her. Shocking.

didn't mean it like that senora, feel free to debate, I just can't be arsed tonight

SS and the NHS need a change of culture to encourage more sharing, not a massive IT database that is diverting money that could be better spent elsewhere and fall into all the traps already exposed by every other massive government IT project.

When SS and the NHS doesn't work well together, it's because each (and each separate bit of the two organisations) tends to guard information jealously. They distrust each other, speak different languages and suffer from the assumption that if only the other would deliver their side of the bargain everything would be fine. IT ain't gonna change that.