The government has told councils not to invest in local
child protection IT systems ahead of work taking place at national
level.
The Department of Education and Skills (DfES) said it hoped to
complete a business case by Autumn for a national system.
The DfES warned councils that any systems they were currently
introducing to improve information sharing about children at risk
would not meet future statutory requirements.
A DfES policy announcement, entitled Key Messages for Local
Authorities on Information Sharing Indexes in Children’s Services,
said, "The department is leading the project to develop a national
network of children's databases or index systems, as announced in
the government green paper Every Child Matters - its response to
the Laming inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbié.
"Work on this is still at the early design and planning stage.
The current preferred approach is for a network of 150 local
indexes, managed at upper-tier local authority level, plus a
further co-ordinating system."
It added, "DfES recognises that local authorities may already
have pursued, or wish to pursue, IT solutions to facilitate local
information sharing. Local authorities should be aware that no
available system currently meets all the requirements of an IS
index.
"Therefore, any investments made by a local authority now must
be regarded as an interim measure. The DfES will not provide any
specific funding to support interim IT solutions."
Such investments include current IT systems developed by
DfES-funded Trailblazer projects to test new ways of sharing
information about children and multi-agency working.