Compliance and governance requirements

Unscheduled care

For unscheduled care:

• CP-IS is mandated via the Information Standards Notice DCB1609: Child Protection - Information Sharing
• it's also included in the standard contract for providers of NHS unscheduled care
• it's endorsed by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and is included in the key lines of enquiry during CQC inspections

CP-IS is available to the following unscheduled care settings:

• emergency departments
• emergency dental services (when connected to and emergency department in a hospital)
• walk-in centres
• ambulance services
• GP out of hours
• paediatric wards
• maternity units
• 111 services

Scheduled care

For scheduled care, CP-IS is mandated from the end of March 2024, as explained in the NHS Long Term Plan (see 'Milestones for digital technology', page 99).

The Long Term Plan says CP-IS will be extended to 'all health care settings'. Based on advice from safeguarding specialists, we are focussing on the following care settings:

• general practice (in hours)
• child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS)
• sexual assault referral centres
• termination of pregnancy services
• school nursing and health visitors
• community paediatrics
• dentistry (appointment based services, including emergency care)

The Information Standards Notice mandating the use of CP-IS will be updated to include the new scheduled care settings.

Local authorities

For local authorities, CP-IS is not formally mandated, but it is nevertheless in use in 100% of local authorities.

For details on the suppliers who have registered their interest in CP-IS, see the CP-IS supplier interest list page. 

• Child Protection - Information Sharing (CP-IS) service page
• How CP-IS works
• What CP-IS does
• When to use CP-IS
• How to use CP-IS
• Service availability
• Implementation and integration