A new ICT system is needed to change the way that social workers work and improve child protection services, according to a report out today.
The final report of the expert review of child protection, led by Professor Eileen Munro from the London School of Economics, says that despite changes to the much criticised Integrated Children’s Services system, new IT is now needed.
It also says that social workers should be involved in the design of new systems, that they should support a ‘narrative’ of a child’s involvement with child protection and other services, and that they should be more flexible so they can adapt easily to changing circumstances.
Launching her report this morning, Professor Munro said the “one size fits all” approach to child protection, introduced in the wake of high-profile scandals such as the Victoria Climbie and Baby Peter affairs, had not worked.
“Top down government targets and too many forms and procedures are preventing professionals from being able to give children the help they need and assess whether that help has made a difference,” she said.
“Professionals should instead concentrate on making good quality assessments that really focus on delivering the right help for the child, and checking whether that help has improved the child’s life.”
The report says that new IT is needed to support this change in emphasis. Many social workers have complained that ICS presents ‘substantial obstacles to good practice’ because the system is inflexible and focuses on repetitive data entry.
The ICS was introduced following the Laming Inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbie in 2002, to improve the sharing of information between agencies.
The report notes that initially councils were given little input into ICS. “Although mandatory requirements to use the prescribed recording system have recently been removed, most systems currently in use were developed on that basis,” it adds.
“A major challenge for local redesign is therefore to develop, with social workers, new ICT systems to meet their case recording needs.”
NHS Connecting for Health recently set up an online forum, the Social Care Informatics and Innovation Exchange, to encourage social workers to share views on how to improve ICS.
The review makes a number of other recommendations. It says the government should remove the statutory requirement on local authorities to complete assessments within “often artificial set timescales”, so social workers can take immediate action to help families.
It also says that services should be freed from other “unhelpful government targets” and prescribed ways of working, and that the inspection regime should be changed so that Ofsted takes more account of the views of professionals and families.
It also calls for front-line social workers to be retained and for the government to appoint a Chief Social Worker to advise it.
When it comes to redesigning IT systems, the report sets out three principles for local authorities to consider in the design and implementation of new software.
These include the need for recording systems to maintain a systemic and family narrative, to describe all of the events associated with the interaction between a social worker, other professionals and the child and their family.
They also include the need for ICT systems to be able to adapt with ease to changes in local child protection system needs, operationalstructures and data performance requirements.
And the report stresses that the requirements for ICT systems should primarily be based on a human-centred analysis of what is required by frontline workers.