Child Protection - Information Sharing (CPIS) introductory guidance for ICBs

CP-IS has been utilised within unscheduled and emergency care settings since 2016. It can be considered well-established and proven.

With a track record of effectiveness within unscheduled care settings CP-IS has, over the last twelve months, successfully been trialled in a range of further priority care settings, including General Practice.

The early adoption of CP-IS within these new settings has evaluated effectively and there is a commitment to fully roll-out the service.

It is intended that ICBs (Integrated Care Boards) (Integrated Care Board) will be responsible for next phase of CP-IS implementation.

CP-IS enables the automatic sharing of Child Protection Plan (CPP) and Looked After Child (LAC) statuses with the NHS Spine. Allowing easy access to the information by clinicians at the point of care.

In all use cases CP-IS provides basic information relating to a child’s plan or looked after status, contact details for the host local authority and details of the last 25 attendances at an ‘unscheduled’ healthcare setting.

When a child subject to CP-IS attends an unscheduled care setting, the attendance is recorded, and the host local authority is automatically provided with basic information about that attendance. (No notification is sent when a child attend

The service is fully operationalised across all ICB (Integrated Care Board) areas in: emergency departments, walk in centres, minor Injury Units, GP out of hours, 111  and ambulance services, maternity units, [direct admittance] paediatric Wards..

The primary method for accessing CP-IS is via the National Care Record Service (NCRS). Although some system suppliers have developed integrated approaches to accessing the information

It is intended that, in future, CP-IS will be available across a wide range of clinical settings. The next stage of enhancing access to the service will prioritise delivery within:

• primary care
• mental health - CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services)
• sexual health – ToPS, SARCs (Sexual Assault Referral Centre)
• 0-19 Services – school nurses and health visitors
• community paediatrics
• dentistry – acute, community

The CP-IS programme team, based within NHS England, has provided the leadership, management, implementation, and development resources underpinning CP-IS throughout the lifecycle of the formative delivery. Following the continued success of the programme and clear safeguarding benefits the activity will transition from a ‘programme’ to a ‘Service Management’ approach.

From April 2024 ICBs will be accountable for the continued implementation of CP-IS and and associated system leadership; they will assume responsibility for ensuring that identified services (see 2.6) are routinely accessing CP-IS.

The ICB Executive Chief Nurse is responsible for the roll-out plan of CP-IS with the Local Childrens Safeguarding Partnership and the integrated care strategy

The Designated Professionals are responsible for being the first point of contact in the local system and for co-ordinating the health providers responses in conjunction with the CP-IS national team

Overall strategic direction and programme governance arrangements will remain with the CP-IS Programme board (Nursing Directorate, NHS England)

ICBs will provide oversight for any CP-IS declared incident within their geographic boundary. The ICB safeguarding lead must sign-off the incident closure report including any harm reported or any system quality issue.

Several approaches have been developed and tested, in partnership with ICBs over the lifetime of the programme.

A dedicated ‘project board’ including all relevant service areas and led by senior safeguarding professionals has proved very effective.  Closely managed ‘Task and finish’ arrangements linked to an existing multiagency strategic group such as the Health and Wellbeing Board, has likewise proved successful.

‘Delegating responsibility’ to service-level leaders has been less effective, often due to the resulting inconsistencies that are evident across operating procedures and business processes. Hybrid approaches, whereby operating approaches are mandated across an ICBs geography, but implementation is the responsibility of the individual service could usefully be tested.