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Dept for Education and Skills

Answer

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when the Integrated Children's System will be implemented. [195336] Margaret Hodge: By December 2005, information on all children referred to local authorities with social services responsibilities will be being recorded on the IT system which supports use of the Integrated Children's System (ICS). The ICS will be quite different from the information database(s). The ICS is a national framework for Councils with Social Services Responsibilities' (CSSRs') work with children in need and their families. It provides a single approach for assessment, planning, intervention and reviewing based on an understanding of children's developmental needs in the context of their families and communities. It is designed to improve outcomes for children in need. The information gathered in the course of working with children and their families must be recorded by social services. These records have traditionally been paper-based but a growing number of councils now have electronic record keeping systems in place. As part of implementing the integrated children's system, social service records will all be kept electronically, replacing paper-based systems. The ICS is simply a better way to maintain and meet existing record keeping requirements and, therefore, requires no legislative provision. The ICS will provide a more effective way of keeping and accessing records relating to social services work with children and families than exists at present. This will help improve standards of service to children and families. The information database(s) provided for by the Children Bill will not contain detailed case information such as this. The information sharing databases will be broader in their coverage than the ICS (they will cover all children in England, whereas the ICS will record information about the 4 per cent. of children in need known to social services at any one time), but narrower in terms of the information they will hold about the child. They will contain basic information about all children and the contact details of practitioners working with them across the board. This will be a new and valuable tool in aiding a wide range of practitioners in working together to meet children's needs. There is no explicit relationship between the IT system which supports the use of the ICS and the information databases. The IT system which CSSRs purchase for the ICS is designed to hold information about children in need and their families, who are in receipt of services from social services. It is, therefore, a specialist system for holding case based data.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

195336; 426 c1530-1W

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Children Data protection Databases Social services

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk