Child welfare: it is time to get IT right

The government must learn the lessons of the past and put proper systems in place for the most vulnerable members of society

Rumblings of discontent about new child welfare IT systems are becoming public, in a depressingly familiar process that threatens to turn into another problem for government technology.

An independent report last May provided the first warning ­ – expressing “serious reservations” and questioning the fitness for purpose of the Integrated Children’s System (ICS).

We have now learned that the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) chose not to publish the criticisms, instead releasing a watered-­down summary of the findings. Alarm bells should surely have started ringing then.

Last month, nearly two thirds ­ – 95 out of 150 ­ – councils failed to meet a key ICS implementation deadline.

There have already been widespread calls to scrap ContactPoint, the national children’s database that, along with ICS, sits at the heart of the government’s Every Child Matters policy to improve social care for vulnerable children ­ – a plan put in place in 2003 in response to the murder of eight-year old Victoria Climbie (Calls to scrap youth database).

Another independent report earlier this year questioned the security of the database, yet once again the government has refused to publish its findings in full.

Social workers are concerned about the delays, and the implications of failing to introduce the vital information sharing systems are all too apparent in such a sensitive area.

We have seen this mix of political intransigence, independent doubts, and professional discontent all too often in past public sector IT failures.

In most of those cases, such concerns came too late. But with ICS, many councils are progressing well and can offer best practice to help those lagging behind. This is a complex project, but enough has been achieved for DCSF to get the rollout back on track.

Delays to technology projects are a fact of life in IT, and are not necessarily cause for criticism. But when such a sense of déjà vu pervades, government needs to prove it has learned the painful lessons of the past.