The inner London borough of Hackney is one of the most densely populated in the capital, and the second most deprived local authority area in England. Hackney Council went live with CP-IS in December 2016. At the time, 640 children in the area were either looked after or subject to a child protection plan (including unborn children).
Joanne Ridgley, the Social Care Practice Lead at Hackney Council during the implementation of CP-IS, describes how CP-IS is bringing unexpected benefits by providing positive evidence for social workers.
"Child A had been subject to a child protection plan as the parents had failed to seek appropriate interventions around the child's development milestones and overall needs.
"One of Child A's parents presented to an emergency department and explained that a sibling had hurt Child A and they wanted to have them checked for injuries. Child A was examined and the injuries noted were concurrent with the explanation and they were appropriately discharged.
"As Child A had presented at an unscheduled care setting that had implemented CP-IS, staff were aware of the child protection plan and an automatic notification was sent to the local authority. The child's social worker contacted the safeguarding nurse at the hospital to find out why Child A was seen and what action was taken.
"The social worker made an additional visit to the family to discuss the incident and check on the welfare of the child. The social worker then informed the Core Group Meeting attendees about the incident. This group is responsible for developing and monitoring a child protection plan.
"The fact that the parent had sought immediate medical advice enabled the social worker to present this as an example of how the parenting skills were improving."
Joanne Ridgley,
Social Care Practice Lead, Hackney Council
"No safeguarding concerns were raised during the visit to accident and emergency. So this only happened because of the CP-IS automated notification and the subsequent discussion between health and care staff."