WRITTEN ON January 30th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, What do we want?

Eileen Munro tells it like it is in Guardian commentisfree

Under Labour policy, the family’s relationship with the state is being subjected to a transformation that erodes their privacy and autonomy. It is being done in the name of child protection and “safeguarding” children. The aims appear honourable and desirable; it may seem obvious that losing a few civil liberties is a small price to pay for the security and welfare of children, but when you look closer, it is very steep: the benefits are questionable while probability of dangerous outcomes seems high.

The transformation of family life is founded on the assumption that sharing information among practitioners is the route to improving children’s safety and welfare. This has led to a proliferation of databases in social care, health, education and youth justice. They include ContactPoint, the eCAF, the National Pupil Database, the Management of Information across Partnerships, and the Universal Management of Information System.

It has long been accepted that family privacy has to be breached when there are concerns of parental abuse or neglect. But current policy extends this to cover any concern about a child’s development or, as the government puts it, where a practitioner thinks that a child is not making appropriate progress towards the government’s desired outcomes for children.

Some terrific comments also – some quite hairraising.