Avonbourne School

The Department of Health
The Department of Health uses aggregate information (at school year group level) about pupils' height and weight for research and statistical purposes, to inform, influence and improve health policy and to monitor the performance of the health service as a whole. The DH will base performance management discussions with Strategic Health Authorities on aggregate information about pupils attending schools in the PCT areas to help focus local resources and deliver the Public Service Agreement target to halt the year on year rise in obesity among children under 11 by 2010, in the context of a broader strategy to tackle obesity in the population as a whole. The Department of Health will also provide aggregate PCT level data to the Healthcare Commission for performance assessment of the health service.

Primary Care Trusts
Primary Care Trusts use information about pupils for research and statistical purposes, to monitor the performance of local health services and to evaluate and develop them. The statistics are used in such a way that individual pupils cannot be identified from them. Information on the height and weight of individual pupils may however be provided to the child and its parents and this will require the PCTs to maintain details of pupils' names for this purpose. PCTs may also provide individual schools and LAs with aggregate information on pupils' height and weight.

The Department for Education and Skills
The Department for Education and Skills uses information about pupils for research and statistical purposes, to inform, influence and improve education policy and to monitor the performance of the education service as a whole. The DfES will feed back to LAs and schools information about their pupils for a variety of purposes that will include data checking exercises, use in self-evaluation analyses and where information is missing because it was not passed on by a former school.

The Children Act 2004
The Children Act 2004 provides for the Secretary of State to issue Regulations requiring the "governing body of a maintained school in England" to disclose information for inclusion on the Information Sharing (IS) Index. The purposes of the index are to:
a. help practitioners working with children quickly identify a child with whom they have contact;
b. determine whether that child is getting the universal services (education, primary health care) to which he or she is entitled; and
c. enable earlier identification of needs and earlier, more effective action to address these needs by providing a tool to
help practitioners identify which other practitioners are involved with a particular child; and
d. encourage better communication and closer working between practitioners.
The index will hold for each child or young person in England:
a. basic identifying information: name, address, gender, date of birth and a unique identifying number based on the existing Unique Identifying Number/National Insurance Number;
b. basic identifying information about the child's parent or carer;
c. contact details for services involved with the child: as a minimum school and GP Practice but also other services where appropriate; and
d. the facility for practitioners to indicate to others that they have information to share, are taking action or have undertaken a common assessment in relation to a child. The index will NOT record statements of a child's needs, academic performance, attendance or clinical observations about a child. All practitioners and system support staff (in LAs who will be responsible for maintaining the data) will have to have relevant training and to have undergone rigorous checks and appropriate security clearance procedures. To ensure high standards of accuracy, information on the IS Index will be drawn from a number of sources including the termly School Census from which, from January 2007, pupils' home address will be collected.

Ofsted
The DfES will also provide Ofsted with pupil data for use in school inspection. Where relevant, pupil information may also be shared with post 16 learning institutions to minimise the administrative burden on application for a course and to aid the preparation of learning plans.

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