by political editor Paul Francis

Kent County Council is to replace an IT system used by social workers that has cost thousands of pounds after it was found to have major shortcomings.

The so-called Integrated Children’s System was heavily criticised by Ofsted inspectors in their report that uncovered serious failings in the council’s services for vulnerable children.

Now KCC has concluded the system is not fit for purpose and plans to replace it at a cost of potentially up to £1.5m.

The original system was put in place to record and co-ordinate the details of up to 2,000 children referred each month to KCC as potentially at risk.

It was supposed to work as a monitoring framework for anyone involved in case planning for those children.

But it was the subject of criticism by both social workers and care managers. They said it was ineffective and complained reports on children and their case histories could not be properly recorded or shared.

It emerged in April that nearly 2,700 cases involving potentially vulnerable children had not been assigned to case workers at the height of the crisis in the county council’s social services.

An independent report commissioned by social services chiefs says the system is not capable of being improved in the ways needed.

As a result, KCC has decided to replace it and award a new contract but it will cost the taxpayer between £1m and £1.5m.

Cllr Jenny Whittle, KCC cabinet member for specialist children’s services, said:

"All authorities were required to have an integrated system and we were one of about half a dozen authorities to use a system provided by Capita.

"They were a market leader at that time and on the face of it, it did everything that the specification asked of it. However, the system has not worked well in Kent and has not served our interests."

Ofsted said in last year’s report that tackling the inefficiencies of the system should be a priority.

Although KCC was able to make some improvements a report released this week said that it was unlikely to "meet the wider needs of the council unless significant development was undertaken by the supplier."