This author reflects on a venture to develop a residential childcare database service run in partnership between the [self-acclaimed] great and the good from 11 West Midlands Local Education Authorities (LEAs) and operated by CCETSW (Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work) and the National Institute of Social Work (NISW).
The project driver was regulatory1 and was possible due to the high availability of low-cost, robust database platforms.
Success is nuanced2; the database service outlived the CCETSW/NISW partnership, and subsequently, the LEAs maintained it.
Footnotes
Within family law, the legislative focus [shifted towards] keeping families together [..] the law now placed new duties on local authorities to provide help to needy children and families in their areas↩︎
Although an optimal outcome from a technical perspective. CCETSW was abolished in 2001 and replaced by the General Social Care Council (GSCC), the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC), the Care Council for Wales (CCW), and the Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC). This prototype was pre-internet and would not scale.↩︎