Kingston Borough Council has defended the much-criticised Integrated Children’s System (ICS), which has been blamed for keeping social workers at their desks when they should be in the field.

A government-commissioned survey in May 2007 found the main complaint was that the system is difficult to use and too “prescriptive and uniform”.

But top-quality professionals should be able to treat the system as an everyday part of their work, said Duncan Clark, head of prevention and safeguarding for learning and children’s services at Kingston.

“We are not asking staff to be IT bods, we are asking them to learn to use a tool to enhance practice. Very skilled workers capture data in a distinct way. It should not be seen as a distraction,” he said.

“Any distraction caused will be short-lived. If staff are still stuck at their desks because they are not adapting, they are probably doing less harm there than in the field, because that is not a good-quality social worker.”

Kingston's system, provided by Liquidlogic, organises information and events to present a coherent picture of the case, said Clark. It also insists that set recording patterns are followed and that terminology is consistent.

Kingston says it has gone beyond the government’s requirements for data sharing in social care. As well as implementing the latest enhancements to its ICS software on time ­95 out of 150 English councils failed (Computing, 10 April), Kingston has set up Advancing Services for Kingston Kids (ASKK).

ASKK is an information-sharing hub that helps social care professionals put services in place early by identifying, logging and monitoring low-level issues that could escalate.

“There are 500 children we would not know about now without ASKK,” said Clark.

ASKK’s technical system went live in March 2008, helping the sharing of information about young people among multi-agency professionals.

A separate system flags incidences of domestic violence in the borough.

“We will be able to report on all domestic violence cases in Kingston in one place, and see where they occur and so on, which will help us with trend analysis and to target services,” said John Hayter, acting strategic manager for performance and IT.