Social workers' IT system unwieldy

By Lauren Higgs Thursday, 27 November 2008

The government's electronic system for managing children's social work is unfit for purpose, a local authority specialist has claimed.

Woman using computer

Speaking at Capita Children's Services annual conference last week, Donna Shkalla, head of management information for children, families and education at Kent County Council, claimed social workers find the Integrated Children's System (ICS) unwieldy.

She said the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) framework is too complex for practitioners, children and families. It requires social workers to fill out forms, which include up to 900 data fields.

"Social workers say the processes they used before ICS protected and managed cases, but they feel that the ICS framework doesn't do the same thing," she said.

She added that frontline workers, who are "incredibly frustrated" by lengthy computerised forms, often have to write supplementary notes because they cannot tell a child's story using ICS.

When printed, a core assessment report amounts to 40 pages. "We actually have an example of a social worker having to take conference reports to a case conference in a wheelbarrow because they couldn't physically carry them," she said.

Kent County Council now plans to investigate the effect that ICS is having on social workers' workloads.

Ian Johnston, chief executive of the British Association of Social Workers, said practitioners feel they have been forced to use ICS. He said: "The message I'm getting from people is that ICS doesn't help them at all."

The DCSF was unable to comment as CYP Now went to press.