Report of the Strategic Director of Children’s and Education Services

The Liquidlogic Children’s System (LCS) has been operational since 23 July 2019.  This report provides an update on progress, following the implementation of the new system.

The Committee received a report of the Strategic Director of Children’s and Education Services which provided an update on progress, following the implementation of the new system.

Officers referred to the main points and themes within the report which included:

• The rationale for change;
• Project delivery;
• Data quality;
• Benefits;
• Performance report building;
• Contingency arrangements for a focused visit and/or inspection; and
• Systems strategy.

The Service Lead (Leaving Care Service) gave Members a demonstration of the system.

Some of the key points and themes that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• Whether the service was ready if Ofsted carried out a visit;
• Issues with data migration;
• Whether other agencies working with children, such as schools, would have access to the system;
• Whether social workers could use the new system on a tablet and, if so, whether this presented a risk of a data breach; and
• The impact on staff of moving to the new system.

The Strategic Director of Children’s and Education Services informed Members that he had met with senior Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMIs) regarding the issues with migrating to the new system, particularly the impact on producing performance reports, and that Ofsted understood that this was not unusual when moving to a new system.  He reported that, when migrating from one system to another, the data categories were not the same, so officers had been working to resolve these issues.  He advised Members that social work staff still had access to the old MiCare system to look at historical records but that, over time, this would no longer be necessary. 

The Strategic Director of Children’s and Education Services informed Members that giving other agencies access to the system could breach the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) but that in the future the service would look at how the Liquidlogic system could interface with systems used by schools to support practice, without breaching the GDPR.  The ICT Strategic Business Partner reported that, with the right data-sharing agreements in place, Liquidlogic could be used to share appropriate information with partners in a way which had not been possible with the previous system, MiCare.  He reported that, at present, social work staff did not have access to Liquidlogic through a tablet but that this would be reviewed in future.  He advised Members that Council-issued devices such as laptops and mobile phones were already encrypted to ensure data was secure.

The Children’s Social Work Team Manager reported that there had been a range of responses from staff to the introduction of the new system.  She informed Members that some staff could already see the benefits of it, including those who had already used the system elsewhere, whereas others who were less confident in their computer skills were anxious about making a mistake and wanted to keep to the system they knew.  She outlined the range of support that was being provided to staff to assist them in using the new system and that it would take time for some staff to get used to it.

The Deputy Director of Children’s Services informed Members that the service had predicted and planned for the issues which had arisen, for example, in relation to data migration and levels of staff confidence in using the new system.

The Chair commented that this appeared to be an improvement on the previous MiCare system and advised that, while the Committee was not requesting a further report on Liquidlogic, it would be useful to have the impact of Liquidlogic on practice referenced in future reports.

Decision

To request that officers refer to the impact of Liquidlogic on social work practice in future reports to the Committee, where appropriate.