Like many of the councils that struggled to meet the original 31 March deadline for the phase 1B implementation of the Integrated Children’s System (ICS), Redbridge Council has put huge effort into delivering a compliant system.

The authority went live with its ICS system in April 2008, just 15 weeks after signing the procurement agreement with supplier LiquidLogic for the Protocol ICS system.

The system combines services from education and children’s social care into one integrated service and has 250 users at The Redbridge Pathfinder Children’s Trust.
Like many councils, children make up a significant percentage of Redbridge’s population. It is predicted that by 2016, 14 per cent of the population of this outer-London authority will be under 18, so building a system able to serve this growing population has been a priority.

The council was able to fast-track the system deployment by appointing a lead social care practitioner to act as a link between the staff who implemented the system and those using it. This ensured that users of the system were offered support and training, while guaranteeing that any issues that arose ­particularly ones involving elements of professional practice ­ could be quickly addressed.

“It now means that we have met the government’s targets for compliance with ICS, which means our social care staff have a system that will safeguard children in Redbridge,” says Carole Brown, head of resources at Redbridge Children’s Trust.

Following the success of the ICS rollout, Redbridge has begun work on implementing its electronic Common Assessment Framework (eCAF), another central pillar of the government’s Every Child Matters agenda. Redbridge expects to go live with that system later this year.

“We are now ahead of the game, not only in terms of ICS, but also in the facilitation of increased multi-agency working,” says Brown.