Some of the UK's most vulnerable children are being put at
risk because a government agency set up to protect them lacks a
vital computer system.
With two children a week dying from abuse, children's minister
Margaret Hodge could soon be facing questions about whether lives
could have been saved if the systems had been in place sooner, a
trade union leader said.
The Children and Family Court Advisory Service (Cafcass) was
formally established in April 2001 to represent the interests of
children in contested residence and contact cases in the
courts.
When it was launched, civil servants believed that an integrated IT
system, including a case record management system, would be at the
heart of Cafcass, with £20m of the £22.5m start-up costs allocated
to IT investment.
Yet the case records system was abandoned and a new system is
unlikely to be operational until 2005. Cafcass chairman Anthony
Hewson told a Parliamentary select committee earlier this year that
if he had continued with the project, "We would have probably ended
up in front of the public accounts committee for an IT system that
really would not work."
Cafcass now finds itself spending £3.5m a year on IT. It has a
modern IT infrastructure but relies on old, standalone PCs to run
spreadsheets and paper systems to manage case work.
Harry Fletcher, deputy general secretary of Napo, the union
representing many Cafcass staff, said, "It is difficult to find out
where the £20m set-up costs have gone. It could be five years
before Cafcass has an integrated IT system."