The government is talking directly to suppliers about the next stage of enhancements to information sharing systems used by social care professionals working with vulnerable children.

The Phase 1C enhancements will be the latest changes to the Integrated Children’s System (ICS). Phase 1B included more comprehensive search facilities and the ability to ensure that assessments are not completed until a child has been seen.

In April, Computing revealed that 90 of 150 councils had missed the 31 March deadline for the implementation of Phase 1B enhancements.

These councils were given until 30 September to do so, or face having to return unused funding or capital assets to the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF).

ICS, which promotes early intervention by social services, is part of the government’s Every Child Matters policy, established to prevent children from slipping through the social care net.

Local authorities have defined what they want from the systems, and the department is in the process of consulting with suppliers, who expect a specification to be issued in the next two months.

There has been a realisation by the DCSF about the size of the project, and it has been taking an increasingly proactive role, according to a spokesman for one ICS supplier.

“It has gradually become more engaged and that’s partly because of supplier pressure,” he said.

“Suppliers needed more advance notice of requirements, and the DCSF has realised the project is larger than it imagined.”

Colin Gunner from the consulting arm of local government user group Socitm said: “A key point is that all but one of the recognised suppliers has built their ICS system in an existing softw are framework that is being used to deliver other applications to their customer base.

“Development of new ICS functionality has to be scheduled into an existing software development schedule ­ so it can easily take one year from specification to delivery. On top of this, there is the need to add time for individual local authority quality assurance, training and rollout.”