WARNING letters informing parents their children are overweight have been sent to their classmates' homes after a computer blunder.

All 10 and 11-year-old pupils at Springfield Primary, in Sale, were weighed by the school nurse as part of a national initiative to stamp out obesity.

Under the scheme parents are informed of their child's height and weight by letter, which also alerts them to potential health problems if they are overweight. But up to 51 parents at the school were sent the wrong letters - giving them personal information about other people's children.

Health bosses say the problems were caused by a fault on their computer system which they put right as soon as they were alerted to the error. They said they have made changes to ensure it never happens again.

A mother who contacted the M.E.N. after discovering her daughter's personal details had been sent to another family said: "I find it very disturbing that somebody else could have my child's address, weight and other personal details.

"I know children are obese these days and I think the scheme is quite a good idea but if they can't guarantee they can look after the information properly I won't be allowing my younger child to take part, it just isn't good enough."

All the families affected were sent a written apology from Trafford Children and Young People Service, which runs the national child measuring service in the borough.

The letter, which was sent out in March, said: "Unfortunately even with good data quality procedures it has come to our attention that an error has occurred with the computer system which generated the letters.

Incorrect

"The system generated the letters placing the incorrect house number and street name against a pupils name and postcode. This means that letters have been delivered to incorrect addresses and may have been mistakenly opened by another family."

Although details of each child is kept by the local NHS the information is supposed to be kept confidential. It is not supposed to be shared with school staff.

Trafford Primary Care Trust (PCT) and council bosses, who run the children's service, have promised to send out the correct results soon.

It is understood no parents have complained to the school about the mistake.

Sheena Cumiskey Chief Executive of Trafford PCT and Executive Director of Trafford Children and Young People Service, Chris Pratt issued a joint statement, it said: "As soon as we became aware that there was a fault with the computer software which generated the letters we took swift action to correct it and make sure it did not happen again.

"This affected 51 pupils in one year group, at one school in Trafford, we are truly sorry for error. All families affected have been contacted directly and received a written apology."