CP-IS reaches full coverage in London for first time

The Child Protection Information Sharing (CP-IS) system has reached 100 per cent coverage in London for the first time, flagging young patients arriving at unscheduled healthcare settings to their social workers.

Sharing safeguarding information between health and children’s social care when a patient who is considered vulnerable and at risk turns up in an unscheduled NHS setting, such as an A&E or minor injury unit, the project triggers earlier interventions and enables appropriate action to be taken to prevent or reduce future harm happening to children.  

Between seven to nine thousand children are now being flagged in unscheduled care settings every month.

Wendy Clark, executive director of Product Development at NHS Digital, said: “The Child Protection Information Sharing system is a fantastic example of using IT to provide interoperability across health and social care and enabling support services to protect young people who are most at need.  

“It is now live in 142 local authorities providing an extra layer of protection for 180,000 of the most vulnerable children when they attend emergency and unscheduled health care settings in the NHS. We are dedicated to delivering the commitments set out in the NHS long term plan to further expand CP-IS into primary care and support growing interoperability across health and care sector.”