A range of measures to try to improve the IT used by
social workers have been announced, after a report found poor
ITplayed a rolein the failures at
Haringey Council that led to thedeath of 17-month-old Baby
Peter.
The government has ruled out creating a national IT system, but
will attempt to improve the current network of local systems by
increasing flexibility and removing unnecessary features.
Social workers and council IT staff will be given more control
over how they comply with the national requirements, a deadline for
implementation will be relaxed to allow local problems to be ironed
out, and more support will be available for councils which are
assessing their system's usability.
IT problems highlighted
A recent report on the state of child protection in Britain
highlighted
a number of problems with the local implementations of the case
management system, the
Integrated Children's System (ICS).
Poor implementation and management of the ICS was cited as a
factor in the failure of Haringey Council to properly protect Baby
Peter, who died in 2007 at the hands of his mother, her boyfriend
and their lodger.
Lord Laming, who wrote the report, said of progress in social
care departments, "The current state of the technology -
particularly the local IT systems that support the use of the ICS -
is hampering progress."
Laming, a former social worker, has compiled two reports into
the state of children's services in the UK, and had plenty to say
on the IT used by social workers in both cases.
In 2003, he produced a report following the death of 8-year-old
Victoria Climbie, who died at the hands of her aunt and her aunt's
boyfriend, despite opportunities to remove her from their care.
That led to the creation of the ICS.
This year he wrote a report in the wake of the death of Baby
Peter, finding progress on his reforms to be slow.
IT is hampering progress
Laming recommended that the ICS be transformed into a national
system, saying its current incarnation is
hampering progress and stopping social workers from spending
time with children and families.
"Professional practice and judgement, as said by many who
contributed evidence to this report, are being compromised by an
over-complicated, lengthy and tick-box assessment and recording
system," he said.
Laming said the government should either roll out a single
system, or find a way to "assert stronger leadership" over the
local systems and providers.
Councils have already raised concerns about how compatible the
ICS is with their own systems, making effective implementation
difficult. And overly prescriptive guidelines from the government
have not helped.
Dave Wastell, professor of information systems at the University
of Nottingham, says rejecting a national system was a good
idea.
"A national system would be an expensive disaster. The general
software methodology for ICS was wise and sound, but they took the
specification too far, so that it became a straight-jacket - too
detailed, too rigid and too prescriptive," he says.
The Social
Work Task Force will report on progress in UK social care in
October this year, and will include comments on the ICS. The
government says further reforms of the system are likely.