We are pleased to announce that WPC has won a second contract to continue supporting groundbreaking child and domestic abuse management software.

The Case Administration and Tracking System (CATS) - originally developed for Nottinghamshire Police - helps child protection and domestic violence units to manage and track the progress of case files.

CATS provides a central database for all such cases within a police force and gives officers a much clearer picture of vulnerable people referred to them. The data collected can be used to piece together vital information on a particular child’s family background, helping officers make more informed decisions about their welfare.

CATS was developed in the absence of a national database for Child Protection, and in light of the recommendation in Lord Laming's report into the death of Victoria Climbie that police forces must have an effective child protection database and IT management system in place. The CATS domestic abuse module was developed later to complement the child protection system.

WPC is currently developing an integrated version of CATS that will enable police users to merge their child protection and domestic abuse databases. This will improve the functionality of CATS for existing customers and form the basis of a fully integrated public protection solution.

The CATS system has now been implemented successfully in the child abuse investigations units of 14 police forces, and the domestic abuse units of six forces. CATS is available to all UK police forces by a subscription arrangement.

WPC secured the three-year contract for the continued support and development of CATS following a competitive tender process. The contract was awarded by Nottinghamshire Police on behalf of the national CATS Strategy and User Groups.

WPC director Alan Walker said: “We are delighted to be able to continue our support for the CATS system. WPC enjoys an excellent reputation for supporting its systems with both end users and police IT staff.

“We have made a number of enhancements since we were awarded the first CATS contract in April 2007. We have moved the system over to the latest Microsoft .NET framework to improve functionality and are working closely with users to ensure that applications are MoPI (Management of Police Information) compliant.

“We look forward to continuing our work with current and future CATS users to help maintain and further develop the functionality of this innovative system.”