Let social workers help scale back ICS demands

Frontline social workers should work alongside managers to identify which parts of the Integrated Children’s System (ICS) can be scrapped.

That is the message from BASW to professor Eileen Munro, who is undertaking an independent review of the system.

BASW England professional officer Nushra Mansuri said local authorities should set up working groups, involving practitioners and managers among others, to identify which ICS forms were repetitive and cumbersome.

“Not only are social workers the best people to ask but they also are creative in terms of coming up with solutions and alternative systems,” said Ms Mansuri.

“We need an infrastructure where practitioners themselves are involved in policy and practice development rather than it being something foisted upon them. This would make for a much better design of services in the future.”

“We don’t need any changes put forward by Munro to be a one-off. Let’s go out for a different way of working which engages social workers directly and consistently in improving the systems in which they operate in partnership with IT personnel,” she added.

Ms Mansuri made the comments after professor Munro urged social workers to give her their frank views on the how the child protection system can be improved. She is asking for responses to a set of questions [http://www.education.gov.uk/munroreview/] ahead of the publication of her interim report due at the end of this month.

BASW has repeatedly warned the government that social workers are demoralised by the bureaucratic burden they are under, which takes them away from direct work with children and families, and has long campaigned for a reduction in paperwork.

Professor Munro was commissioned by the government in June 2009 to carry out a review of the child protection system and to recommend ways to reform it. She will publish her final report in April.