The minister for children, Beverley Hughes, is surely right: the proposed national inventory of Britain's 11 million children, the child index, will not be a 'technological magic wand'. It will not prevent child abuse catastrophes.
It may help to keep track of children, it may identify the last point of contact with the disappeared ones, and it could, for example, clear up the mystery surrounding the whereabouts and well-being of the hundreds of migrant children who disappear from public records.
Professor Richard Barker makes the interesting argument that the index, which originated in the Laming report into the death of Victoria Climbie, is a positive affirmation of the state's responsibility for children - as the holder of an index it also holds responsibility. 'At the moment, children are, in a sense, the property of their parents. The index asserts the state's responsibility towards them, to try to keep them safe,' he says. At a time when the prevailing political wind supports shedding state responsibilities, this is an important gesture.
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