Monday, April 12, 2004

An e-mail from ARCH

I received this mailing today from ARCH - Action on Rights for Children.

Children Bill - Urgent

A new Children Bill is currently before Parliament and the Government anticipates that it will be passed by the end of July.

The Bill will allow the Government to establish one or more databases containing information about all children and their parents, including low-level 'concerns' from every agency involved with each family. Agencies - including GPs - will share the information. From birth, every child in England and Wales will have a file on the system.

An example of the kind of 'concerns' that will be flagged on a child's file include children's and parents' physical and mental health issues, 'frequently moving house', 'non-constructive spare time/easily bored', 'criminal area of residence', 'negative home influence on education', 'poor general parenting skills' - and many others besides.

As the Bill will overturn the Common Law duty of confidentiality, information will be shared without the knowledge or consent of children and their parents.

More information is available on the following websites:

http://tracking-children.lse.ac.uk

http://www.arch-ed.org/chldrnbill.htm

http://www.spy.org.uk/spyblog/archives/000254.html

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