What consideration has the Welsh Government given to reviewing IT systems used by children services across Wales to improve information sharing?
Wales Community Care Information Systems (CCIS)
Local Authorities across Wales are responsible for procuring and managing the IT and data systems that best suit their needs. 15 Local Authorities across Wales have opted to use the Wales Community Care Information System (WCCIS) to provide their children’s services digital data systems. The roll-out and maintenance of the WCCIS is supported by a national programme infrastructure with strategic plans being developed to ensure its continued and ongoing development and review.
Safeguarding
On 29 November 2022, I published the Delivery Plan – National Action Plan on preventing and responding to child sexual abuse.
The report set out what has been delivered under the Plan between July 2019 and June 2022 and identifying areas for further action is published. The plan supports our ambitions for making Wales a place where children are listened to, have access to high quality, child-centred help and can realise their right to be protected from harm. As a result of the National Action Plan, work is underway to capture and record data on the prevalence of child sexual abuse to inform the planning of future services.
Welsh Government will engage with partners and with young people on developing a new National Action Plan, as well as drawing on, where appropriate, the report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. Our commitment to make sure that we do everything we can to protect children and young people in Wales from sexual and other forms of abuse remains a priority for Welsh Ministers.
Logan Mwangi Child Practice Review
As part of our programme to transform children’s services in Wales we will address specific recommendations arising from the Child Practice Review (CPR) arising from the death of Logan Mwangi, in particular, National Recommendation 4:
- The Review recommends that Welsh Government considers the commissioning of a full review of Health, Social Care, Education and Police recording, information gathering and sharing systems. There should be a clear focus on reducing the number of information systems, streamlining information sharing and enabling key agencies to have greater information at key points of decision making).