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Child Protection

In a second. I have two points to make in the time remaining to me. I completely agree that we need well-trained, well-led and well-motivated social workers who spend as much time as possible with vulnerable children and their families. That is why we have set up the social work taskforce, and why we are considering the quality of training, leadership and mid-career training. They have an important job, and it is important that we work hard with the taskforce to implement that process. I have also asked the taskforce to make it a priority to review the effectiveness of procurement and IT using the integrated children's system, which was an important part of the speech made by the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham. I know that there have been concerns that the IT systems have not worked as well as they should in some areas, but the integrated children's system does not ask practitioners to collect more information than they should to do their jobs. As we heard earlier, it is vital that proper detailed records are kept. In fact, the reason why Scandinavian children's protection systems are commended is that Sweden and Denmark use the ICS system, as do Canada and Australia. Computing magazine reported last year that the head of safeguarding in Kingston, Mr. Duncan Clark, believed that"““top-quality professionals should be able to treat the system””—" ICS—"““as an everyday part of their work.””" It reported that Mr. Clark had said:"““We are not asking staff to be IT bods, we are asking them to learn to use a tool to enhance practice…Any distraction caused will be short-lived. If staff are still stuck at their desks because they are not adapting, they are probably doing less harm there than in the field, because that is not a good-quality social worker.””" Myriad quotations from the experts in the field state that ICS, well used, is a good system, but that we have to address the IT issues and ensure that social workers have the training to use it well, as they do in Sweden, Denmark, Canada and Australia. That is what we are asking the taskforce to do.