In 2020 the Welsh government proposed a children’s education database requiring local health boards to disclose the following information on behalf of all children resident in the area: name, address “or whereabouts”, gender, date of birth, identifying number, contact details of person with parental responsibility or care of child, details of school attended or alternatively details of education otherwise than at school. These plans were not taken forward. Read more about the 2019-20 guidance and database activity here https://edyourself.org/new-home-education-guidance-wales-may-2023/#background The 2020 government database consultation response can be read here
In 2024 the government came back with a supposedly scaled-down version which it believes will overcome the privacy and over-reach objections to the previous database, firstly because the database will be smaller and secondly because health services will only have to provide the child’s details, not information about the parents. This consultation CLOSED on 25.4.24.
2020 Regulations The Children Act 2004 Education Database (Wales) Regulations 2020
2024 Regulations The Children Act 2004 (Children Missing Education Database) (Wales) Regulations 202X
Click here to see exactly how the 2020 regulations have been adapted https://edyourself.org/data-sharing-childrens-database-wales/ and what has been added in 2024
Instead of being a database of all children [2020] it will be a database of school-age children requiring investigation as “potentially missing education” (if they are not registered with a school or alternative provision). LAs will still receive details of all children in the relevant age bracket but the government is keen to stress that this will only be a “list” rather than a database. Read more here https://edyourself.org/gp-data-half-a-million-children-wales/
Instead of local health boards having to supply full information for the database [2020], initially they will only be required to supply the child’s name, address, gender, and date of birth. Local authorities will be responsible for collecting the rest of the information required for the database themselves. You can read exactly what information will be required here plus how the database would work and who would have access https://edyourself.org/details-childrens-database-wales/
A NEW element of the 2024 proposals is that the information sharing duty will apply directly to family doctors [“GMS contractors” in the consultation] as well as to local health boards. Read more here https://edyourself.org/gp-data-half-a-million-children-wales/
My starting page on the 2024 Wales database plans is here https://edyourself.org/wales-cme-database-consultation/ The consultation closes on 25.4.24.
Legal powers for the database are explained here https://edyourself.org/legal-powers-for-childrens-database-wales/ where it can be seen that the Children Act 2004 (which is the parent act already on the books) allows for broader data sharing once the database is established also that the existence of the database would permit the government to make further regulations “notwithstanding any rule of common law which prohibits or restricts the disclosure of information”
The proposals as currently drafted will have a significant impact on home educated children already known to the local authority, read more here https://edyourself.org/wales-database-impact-children-already-known/ and here https://edyourself.org/limit-of-cme-law-wales/