Paper
The Integrated Children's System and disabled children: parents’ and practitioners’ initial experiences and evaluations
- issue: Issue 1 / 2010
- authors: Wendy Mitchell and Patricia Sloper
- keywords: social workers
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abstract
Background
The Integrated Children's System (ICS) is currently being implemented in Children's Service Departments across England and Wales. The ICS is part of a wider government policy aiming to re-shape children's services, especially services for children in need. The ICS is premised on a single approach to assessment/review, ideally providing a more coherent, comprehensive and efficient system of electronic information recording and sharing amongst different groups of practitioners. It is hoped that this will facilitate more timely implementation and better targeted outcomes for children in need. Despite its holistic aims, questions have been raised about the use of ICS with certain groups of children, especially disabled children, particularly children with learning and/or communication impairments.
Purpose
This paper reports the results of an evaluation of the pilot programme of ICS within four pilot authorities in England and Wales with special reference to disabled children and their families. The disability study was part of a wider study of ICS implementation commissioned by the Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) Welsh Assembly Government.
Methods
Families were interviewed from two English and two Welsh local authorities. Twenty two families with children with a range of disabilities, receiving a variety of services and in different socio-economic circumstances, were recruited by social workers from disability teams in the four authorities. Qualitative face-to-face interviews were conducted with the families; parents, mostly mothers, were interviewed at home. Interviews explored parents' experiences and knowledge of the ICS system.
Sixteen social workers who had conducted ICS assessments with the participating families were interviewed. Telephone interviews explored the practitioners' knowledge and experiences of using the ICS, especially with regard to disability issues. Social workers also completed a short questionnaire about the ICS forms they had used. Data was analysed by the researchers using 'framework analysis'.
Key findings
Results suggested that social workers could see some potential advantages surrounding the introduction of ICS, such as information sharing amongst social work colleagues and the reduction of multiple data entry. However, many social workers expressed important questions and concerns regarding the appropriateness and usefulness of ICS for disabled children. The paper discusses some of these key concerns, in particular, the use of and ability for 'standardised' forms to be used across all groups of children. A number of social workers noted a continuing focus on child protection issues, felt the forms produced generalised information and also feared that sensitive and participatory working with disabled children may be hindered. In particular, concerns were expressed about the inclusion of alternative forms of information, such as photographs and drawings produced by disabled children. More general concerns regarding the impact of ICS on social work practice and the use of standardised time scales were also expressed.
Results from parents interviews indicated that most had very little or no knowledge about ICS and had received limited information about its introduction. In practice, parents could not see any change in how assessments had been conducted post ICS introduction. In addition, parents also knew little about their records being moved to electronic storage but concerns surrounding confidentiality varied.
Recommendations and implications
The paper concludes with suggestions for future improvements, the need for greater disability awareness and a clearer focus on outcomes. Disability specific areas of concern are identified, and their implications are considered, these include:
- Modifying standard forms in order to include opportunities for social workers to record both disability specific information and 'other' information, such as alternative milestones and/or outcomes achieved by disabled children. More sensitivity and a general move away from inappropriate child protection focused language
- Further consideration of how to attach and use 'other' information to electronic records, especially visual information produced by disabled children
- Developing more appropriate time scales for working and completing ICS assessments with disabled children and their families, recognised that this process frequently takes longer.
- Providing more disability related ICS training for staff, especially practitioners working with families with disabled children
These concerns demonstrate that although the principle of viewing all children as children first is recognised by social workers working with disabled children and their families, in practice, the appropriateness of having one standardised ICS format and set of forms is questioned. Social workers working with families with disabled children frequently employ different approaches but current ICS forms do not accommodate these different practices or the needs of disabled children. Changes are clearly required to the existing ICS, changed based on the everyday experiences and expertise of social workers working with families with disabled children.
Key references
Mitchell, W. and Sloper, P. (2006) Evaluation of the Pilot Project Programme of the Integrated Children's System: The Disability Study. Final Report prepared for Social Policy Research Unit. York: SPRU, University of York.
DCSF website:
http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/socialcare/integratedchildrenssystem/about/
Contact details
Dr Wendy Mitchell, Social Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of York, YO10 5DD, UK.
Tel: 0044 1904 321950
Email: wam1@york.ac.uk
Professor Patricia Sloper, SPRU, University of York. Address as above.