ContactPoint up and running in 17 authorities

The controversial online database ContactPoint, holding contact details for every child in England, is up and running in 17 local authorities in the north-west, children's secretary Ed Balls has announced. Around 800 professionals from children's services and charities Barnado's and KIDS began using it from Monday. It is due to be rolled out to the rest of England by summer (News, 27 January). The 17 'early adopter' local authorities have employed trained teams to manage data in their areas and to train frontline users. Work on updating the database was halted in April after some local authorities found flaws in shielding details of vulnerable children (News, 2 April).