Private schools say no to providing pupil details for Government database

Private schools are refusing to provide information on their pupils for use in a controversial Government database.

The £224million system, called ContactPoint, aims to hold the details of every school-aged child in England, including GP and parents’ mobile-phone numbers, as well as a log of what services they use, such as a school nurse.

It is estimated that this information could be used by more than one million people, from police officers to school administrators.

Now, in the latest blow to the widely criticised database, the Independent Schools Council, which represents the private education sector, has joined critics who fear that data will not be secure and could be used improperly.

ISC chief executive David Lyscom said: ‘The only effective way to safeguard our children’s data is to scrap the whole ContactPoint system.’

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