Government IT schemes designed to revolutionise how information is stored and shared by social services departments are in danger of stalling because of a lack of funding and confusion over how they should operate.

Trailblazer pilots for Information Sharing and Assessment (previously Identification, Referral and Tracking) have been delayed by a year, Community Care has learned. It is meant to test systems for information-sharing between agencies that work with children, culminating in the shared children's database outlined in the Children Bill.

The 10 pilots were each given £1m to spend on the database by March this year but the deadline was extended until September and then again recently until March 2005.

Co-chair of the Association of Directors of Social Services children and families committee John Coughlan said councils had been slow to spend the money because of the complexity of the projects.

Meanwhile, because of funding shortfalls, all 16 three-star councils look set to miss the October deadline for implementing an electronic social care record system (ESCR) which holds information on individuals. This information is currently kept in paper files and correspondence such as e-mails. All departments are expected to operate the new system by October 2006.

The Association of Directors of Social Services and a handful of IT suppliers are lobbying the government for £1m for each council to fund the ESCR and the single assessment process. ADSSpresident and Leicester social services director Andrew Cozens estimated it would cost his department £1m to ensure all staff have their own computer.

The business development director of one of the IT companies lobbying for money, Tony Barron at Anite, said the government was expecting councils to implement the new system on a "shoestring".

"There is no national funding for ESCR but other parts of councils, such as revenue and benefits which have set up similar systems, have had funding from the Department for Work and Pensions," he said.

A Department of Health spokesperson said £75m had been given to social care for IT, but this had not been ringfenced for implementing the ESCR system.