Then Come The Vaguely Threatening Letters...

Re: the School Entry Wellbeing Report.

Already the reminder letters are being sent out to parents in Lincolnshire:

Dear parent/carer/guardian

A short while ago we wrote to you about the school nursing service and enclosed a health and wellbeing questionnaire.

This questionnaire has not been completed and returned school. Please complete and return this within the next 7 days so that an assessment can be made about the health and well-being of your child.

If you have any concerns or issues you wish to discuss, please contact a member of the school health team on the above number.

Nothing about it being voluntary.

No information about this whole thing has been made available to parents. There are just vague statements about making "assessments".

How is the information going to collated? Is it on a database? How is the information organised? Who does the collating? What criteria are being used to make these assessments? Who decides to act upon an assessment? What happens when action is to take place? Do parents have any say in it? How long is the information going to be retained? Who gets to see it? Will all or parts of it be made available to other government departments (Social Services, Inland Revenue, etc?)

Bin it and complain, because they are going to harass you with reminders.

Big Brother Child Snooping Shit Storm

Big Brother quiz for new school parents: Officials launch 83-point probe into families' lives | Mail Online

Ha! The Mail's got it. That's fucked them. Now everyone knows.

More on School Entry Wellbeing Report

Firstly, a correction to my earlier post: the organisation mentioned was Big Brother Watch, not Statewatch. This has been corrected in the relevant post.

Secondly, the story headlines this morning's Lincolnshire Echo:

Parents of Lincolnshire children who have just started school have been sent an 83-point Big Brother-style questionnaire probing into family life.

Lincolnshire Community Health Services has begun sending out questionnaires to parents of every child who entered reception class in September.

Along with routine health questions, parents are asked whether their child lies, has temper tantrums, steals from home or has at least one good friend.

Other questions directed at parents include "did you enjoy school?" and "how does your child engage/connect with strangers?"

Lincolnshire Community Health Services insists the pilot questionnaire is confidential and will only be viewed by school nurses.

To repeat: it is not compulsory to fill in this questionnaire.

It is intrusive, unnecessary and impertinent.

If you get one, bin it - and complain.

BBC Only Get Child Snooping Partly Right

Just watched Look North dealing with the School Entry Wellbeing Report.

Fairly even-handed, with a guy from Big Brother Watch putting the case against; although the presenter kept making the mistake of talking about the information on the form going to the school and the education authority, when it's actually destined for the Health Service.

And the guy from Big Brother Watch missed a chance to make the point that many of the questions were directed at the parents and were concerned with personal, non-health issues.

More On State Child Snooping

The School Entry Wellbeing Report, another piece of intrusive and impertinent state interference, is being trialled in Lincolnshire.

The questionnaire is issued by Lincolnshire Community Health Services, who now seem to have taken on responsibility for social engineering as well.

A copy of the document can be found on the Charters and Caldecott Scribd site. A better quality reproduction may be forthcoming.

This gives a good representation of the questions being asked of parents:

Are you in paid employment?
Is your partner is paid employment?
Is the house overcrowded?
Did you enjoy going to school?
Did you achieve all the qualifications you hoped to achieve?
Have you attended any further education courses?
How does your child behave when you leave the room?
How does your child behave when you return to a room?
Do you get help and support from family members?
Does your family provide you with any financial support?
Do you have friends you can talk to?
How many times a week does your child eat red meat?
How often does your child eat a take away meal?
How often does your child drink plain water?

All of this dovetails neatly with ContactPoint, of course, the big database that most parents haven't heard about, which went online earlier this year and whose purpose is to collate information on every child from year zero to 18. For their own good, naturally.

Completing the 'Wellbeing' Report is voluntary but it is being presented as compulsory, and the authorities will doubtless try to bully non-compliant parents.

I know what my answer would be.

Labour Stasi Hoover Up Data On Five Year Olds

UK.gov hoovers up data on five-year-olds • The Register

Linconshire seems to have chosen as the guinea pig for another state surveillance scheme, this time of five-year olds.

The government obsession with collecting data has now extended to five-year-olds, as local Community Health Services get ready to arm-twist parents into revealing the most intimate details of their own and their child’s personal, behavioural and eating habits.

The questionnaire – or "School Entry Wellbeing Review" – is a four-page tick-box opus, at present being piloted in Lincolnshire, requiring parents to supply over 100 different data points about their own and their offspring’s health. Previously, parents received a "Health Record" on the birth of a child, which contained around eight questions which needed to be answered when that child started school.

The Review asks parents to indicate whether their child "often lies or cheats": whether they steal or bully; and how often they eat red meat, takeaway meals or fizzy drinks.

However, the interrogation is not limited to intimate details of a child’s health. Parents responding to the survey are asked to provide details about their health and their partner’s health, whether they or their partner are in paid employment, and even to own up to whether or not their child is upset when they (the parent) returns to a room.

As if ContactPoint and all the other databases aren't enough.

If you're a parent of a five-year old I think your reply to this kind of interference and bullying should be robust, to put it mildly.