Families framework pilots are sought

Councils with social services responsibilities are being invited to
bid to become pilots for the Department for Education and Skills’
new framework for working with children and families.

Three councils will be selected to run the integrated children’s
system (ICS), which will be part of the introduction of e-social
care records in 2005 and support wider government initiatives
including the identification, referral and tracking system to help
information sharing.

But Liberal Democrats home affairs spokesperson Simon Hughes warned
that the new tracking system could be undermined because of its
reliance on unproven IT.

Hughes told Community Care‘s sister magazine, Computer
Weekly: “To rely on a combination of expensive IT, some of
which is still on the drawing board, is to multiply the risks both
to children and the exchecquer.” 

– The closing date for pilot applications is 20 August. Contact Jim.Brown@doh.gsi.gov.uk