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Tracking systems proposed in the Children Bill will deter parents from seeking help and advice, according to the policy director for a leading children's rights charity.

Terri Dowty from Action on Rights for Children said parents were "insulted" by the implications of the bill which suggest they are "untrustworthy". Speaking at the London School of Economics last week, Dowty said that a database flagging up concerns about children could stop parents getting the right support.

Clause 8 of the bill allows agencies, including police, health and schools, to share information on children with each other.


Dowty added: "Placing families under surveillance changes the whole dynamic of family life. It will make families less likely to ask for help. It's hard to see how scaring parents away from sources of advice and support can possibly help their children."

She also said the central role played by parents in the lives of their children was at risk of being superseded by a state vision of how children should be brought up. The bill is making many parents feel that they are being subjected to "some kind of state takeover bid", she added.

During the second House of Lords reading of the bill, Lord Northbourne, a cross-bench peer, said it was unfair that parents would be denied access to the information in the database that other professionals were party to. He added that it was "dangerous" to send a message out to parents that the government does not "wholly trust" them.


At the meeting, Di McNeish, head of research and policy at children's charity Barnardo's, said the problem could be overcome by listening to parents and children themselves.

"The real gap in information-sharing is not between professional and professional but between professionals and families."

McNeish added: "It's also about a recurring failure to really listen to children. Of all the recurring themes in child abuse inquiries this is the one that should concern us most. In most inquiries, the child's silence is the most deafening."