Child protection system set up

7:30am Friday 22nd August 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

A ground-breaking computer system that stores and monitors allegations made against adults working with children has been created by Hertfordshire County Council.

The county's child protection unit and information systems team have pooled their knowledge and experience to design the Allegations Management System (AMS) to streamline the way information is collated and recorded.

Launched earlier this year, AMS is already attracting interest from other local authorities keen to replicate the system themselves.

Carol Taylor, head of child protection, said: “AMS really works in providing a consistent single electronic record that goes through all the stages of any allegation and keeps track of it.

“Whereas in the past, details of an allegation may have been logged in several different places, such as the police, the human resources team or other agencies, AMS holds all the information.

“It feels a lot safer, and although we cannot always prevent a child from being abused, this system should mean that we can intervene to stop abusive adults committing further offences against children."

AMS is operated by dedicated staff to ensure that each allegation is managed effectively – logging all the information related to a reported incident so that it can be securely held, retrieved and analysed.

Mike James from the information systems team said: “We spent many months designing and developing this system and we're getting major recognition that it is the best way yet of collating this type of information."

Jane Pitman, lead member for children’s services, said: “Hertfordshire County Council is leading the way, creating this innovative software system in-house operated by dedicated staff.

“AMS centralises information and is a much improved process to deal with allegations against adults working or volunteering with children.”