HL Deb 15 November 2004 vol 666 cc112-4WA
The Earl of Northesk

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Why no provision has been made for the roll-out of the integrated children's system database in the Children Bill; and [HL4780]

Given the provision in Clause 9 of the Children Bill, what additional purposes are intended to be serviced by the integrated children's system database. [HL4783]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education and Skills (Lord Filkin)

The integrated children's system (ICS) will be quite different from the information database(s). The ICS is a framework for councils with social services responsibilities' (CSSRs') work with children in need and their families that provides a single approach for assessment, planning, intervention and reviewing based on an understanding of children's development 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 increasingly councils have electronic record-keeping systems in place. As part of implementing the integrated children's system, social service records kept on their work with children in need 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 chidren and families than exists at present. This will help to 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 are 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.

The Earl of Northesk

asked Her Majesty's Government:

To what extent the integrated children's system database is interoperable cross-departmentally with other government databases. [HL4782]

Lord Filkin

Under the guidance published by the Government, local authorities will have discretion as to how the database supporting the integrated children's system (ICS) is designed and operates, including its capacity to exchange information electronically with other systems.

The Government's guidance does not require councils with social services responsibilities (CSSRs) to ensure that the database(s) that they have purchased to support the ICS are interoperable with other databases, other than is implied by adherence to recommended standards for data management and interoperability. Databases which have been purchased by CSSRs with the purpose of implementing the ICS are operated locally by the ICS.

Any electronic exchange of personal information held within an ICS must be compliant with the Data Protection and Human Rights Acts.