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Abstract for Seminar
For five years English and Welsh children's social workers have been using computer systems based on a set of 'business' processes specified by government that have shackled them to their desks for up to 80% of their time. Paradoxically this was not the fault of the developers, but arose from a series of cultural, managerial and political errors. Recently I was a member of the current government's review of childrens' social care and, partly based on my experiences, I will look at the reasons why government systems fail, examine the history of the Integrated Children's System (ICS) as it was then known, examine many of the errors that were committed with ICS, look at the design of a potential successor and present a heterodox view of the development of human-centred systems that are intended for chronicling. ICS is a valuable warning that is equivalent to the medieaval practice of placing the bodies of miscreants on the walls of a city to warn others. It has implications for educators, developers and customers. Most of this seminar will be accessible by a wide audience-not just computer scientists.
Darrel Ince is Professor of Computing at the Open University. He is the author of around 120 research articles and 22 books. His books have been translated into French, German, Greek, Spanish, Chinese and Mongolian. He was a member of the coalition government's review of child protection. His current research centres on simplicity in systems development and reproducibility in scientific research.