News about the third member of the children’s database triumvirate, the Integrated Children’s System:
South Gloucestershire Council has announced that it has completed an implementation of Capita Children’s Services’ One Integrated Children’s System (ICS) and the service will soon be rolled out to nearly 300 social care practitioners within children’s services.
One ICS is being used to combine the council’s educational and social services information into a single child record to help staff make accurate assessments about the needs of individual children and young people.
Might be a better idea if the social worker responsible for a looked-after child went along to parents’ evenings and communicated with his/her school, same as any other half-decent parent. And what about children who are not in care? Does education suddenly cease to be the responsibility of parents and child as soon as they need any level of social care involvement?
Apparently:
Assessments of need will become more standardised across departments, making it easier for practitioners to understand a child’s circumstances across multiple services.
So all we need now is standardised children. Don’t social workers just talk to children and families any more?
