Software flaws delay launch of child database ContactPoint

The government database that will hold details on every child in England and will be accessed by more than 300,000 users, has been hit by last minute delays.

A group of councils were poised to start testing the ContactPoint database for real next month, but last week the Department for Children, Schools and Families pushed back its introduction after uncovering a series of flaws.

Junior children's minister Kevin Brennan told CYP Now he decided to delay ContactPoint's introduction until January 2009 because tests uncovered bugs in the software created to run the database. He said the delay was also because the task of entering children's details on the system was taking longer than expected.

"During the testing process a number of issues came up and the team were not happy about putting it in front of users," he said. "Rather than press ahead I decided it is better to wait as the worst thing you can do is to put it out when it's not ready. These things sometimes come up, it's part of the process of testing a new system. It's like a new car for a grand prix - if a technical problem emerges you must deal with that when it occurs."

Brennan said the software bugs in ContactPoint related to the interface people would use to interact with the system and were not related to security issues. He also said the delay would not result in any extra cost for the £224m project.

The delay is likely to have a knock-on affect on ContactPoint's national roll-out, which some expected by the end of May 2009. But the Department for Children, Schools and Families said it never had a date for the system to go nationwide and that it would be a gradual process.

The Conservative Party said the delay was evidence that the system was in trouble. "This looks like further evidence of chaos at the heart of government," said shadow families minister Maria Miller. "Just weeks after Ed Balls' department delivered the disaster which was the SATs fiasco, it has been forced to delay another flagship scheme."

CYPNow