The National Programme for IT: will it be good for children?

NHS Connecting for Health set up a Child Health Programme in 2007 to map out and make the case for a common core content for electronic child health records. Because of the relatively low level of integration of existing systems, sharing is technically difficult, and a consistent community-based detailed care record does not yet exist. However, Government policy and good clinical care, emphasised by Lord Laming in 2003 and again this year, stress the importance of information sharing and a common record. A record with a common core content, readily available for every child and parent or carer and for each professional delivering their health care, would be an advantage. The basis of one already exists as the Personal Child Health Record. Systems are developing and are in operation in different parts of the country which are beginning to share information between different health organisations as well as integrating different systems.