Jeanette Pugh, director of the Department for Education and Skills'safeguarding group, made the admission in a letter sent to children'sservices directors last month.
Despite confirming that the 1 January deadline for implementing theIntegrated Children's System remained in place, she conceded that veryfew local authorities would achieve this.
As a result, the department looks set to scale back its plans for thesecond phase of the project. In the letter, Pugh said: "It is likelythat we will want to consider a more-focused approach to Phase 2,concentrating on a smaller range of functions and capabilities. Thisapproach may include pilot developments with those authorities whosestate of readiness is most advanced. This will allow both DfES and localauthorities to take better account of the demands of complementaryinitiatives."
Ministers are also considering whether to let councils who fail toimplement the system by 31 March, hold over money for the project intothe 2007/08 financial year so that they can pay IT suppliers when allthe work is done.
In her letter, Pugh said that one major reason for the setback wasbecause an IT firm used by a number of local authorities had yet todeliver the software needed to run the system. These councils arecurrently expecting to implement the system in August next year.
Other reasons for the delay included different interpretations of whatthe system was supposed to do and the failure of some authorities togive the project "sufficient urgency". The letter also said theinitiative had been obscured by more recent developments in the EveryChild Matters agenda, such as the Information Sharing Index.
Nushra Mapstone, the British Association of Social Workers' professionalofficer for England, said the failure of councils to meet theGovernment's deadline was no surprise.
"Social workers might have more of a sense of relief about this becauseof the pressures the system will bring," she said.
"There are issues about the need to train and induct staff so they canuse the system and that's stressful when there are not enough socialworkers anyway. Just by looking at the children's agenda you can see howfrenetic it is and I don't know how anyone can realistically think thiscan all happen at once. Something has to give."
The Integrated Children's System aims to provide social services with amodel for the assessment, planning, intervention and reviewing of allchildren in need.
