It is all very well for Ed Balls to fume & fulminate about the failings in his empire, & for Lord Laming (a good man) to say “Just do it” but it seems to me that in pinning hopes on an integrated database they are literally attempting the impossible
It is not easy, particularly with only press reports to go on, to know exactly what anyone means these days by the word ‘database’, which seems to have become an all purpose term for any set of data held on a computer, no matter what the structure or formal query procedures
It is also true that database technology has moved on a long way since I last wrapped a wet towel round my head at midnight
But going on the comments I have seen or heard, the Integrated Childrens Database does seem to rely on breaking down information into byte size pieces with a record for each child
This inevitably involves much repetition & duplication. The way to reduce this would normally be to create different records at other levels eg family, household etc
This is challenge enough – I am thinking here of the way the Census is set up to provide a once a decade snapshot of the structure of the population
But to keep track of that part of the population which is, by definition, chaotic & unstable – that is what makes me think it impossible. Child P for example was 'involved' with his mother & father, a child minder, 2 other men & several siblings, & had 60 recorded contacts with health or social service professionals
And even if it is possible, writing & using the software to reassemble it all into meaningful information to answer questions such as “Where is this child now?” or “What is the history of the new man in Mum’s life?” – just takes too much time, time in which disasters will happen
Then it occurred to me that blogging might offer a more ‘natural’ structure for social workers & others who need to keep records & keep in touch, to share information
Blogging offers automatic addition of 2 important pieces of information to each report – time & author. It also uses narrative form, much more suited to the nature of the task, the ability for others to add their comments, & offers natural keyword searches
Of course it would need to use formally structured blogs set up by the institutions involved, with for example special ‘forms’ for different aspects of a case, & an official set of labels or tags & case numbers
It should also be relatively easy for a separate grade of officer – maybe called child protection analyst – to extract the information needed for more formal, management reporting as a separate exercise
It ought to be possible to implement relatively quickly, & to adapt as it goes along as use & needs develop
And those at the top of the management tree of the Integrated Childrens database should remember the golden rule: bygones must be bygones, it is never worth throwing good money after bad
