Welsh bid to force new database use

The Welsh assembly government wants to make it compulsory for local authorities to use a new computer database to find care placements for looked-after children.

It is looking at ways of using its performance indicators so councils would be expected to show that they access the database – called the Children’s Commissioning Support Resource (CCSR) – to find residential placements or foster carers for children.

CCSR manager Barbara Street said the assembly government was “exploring ways of making it a requirement under the Children Act for authorities to use this”.

The database, which is funded by the assembly and run by the Welsh Local Government Association, lists vacancies in all 22 local authorities as well as independent sector providers. It has been developed over the past six months and will go live in July.

The Scottish executive has approached the WLGA about developing its own version of the database and the association is also discussing how it could be integrated with databases of English fostering consortiums on the Welsh border.