Closure of search facility on Childcare Link

[SineadHanks]

Does anyone know or understand why the Government are closing the search facility on this site?

childcarefinder.direct.gov.uk/childcarefinder/

It's all very well saying 'contact your local authority' but if you are planning a move, or want to compare childcare in various areas, this tool was invaluable.

Plus it costs nothing!

So why make life harder for mums by withdrawing this valuable resource?

Because it didn't work very well, it never provided all the up to date details, the search facility didn't list all the providers, so they are going back to the original system which worked fine.
Each local authority had to upload all the details on their own websites each month so just as easy to get the information you need off the councils and more accurate.

It took me over a year to get the correct details listed as the system couldn't cope with some postcodes.
The cost must be huge to maintain up to date details as we have to go through our local councils for the correct details to then be uploaded.

The Labour Gavernment ruind this facility when they shut down childcarelink and opened up this sorry excuse of a replacement on the direct.gov.uk site. Pity.

It was so useful. Why can't we have the old one back?!?!?!

At last someone has taken the right decision - I wonder how much money was wasted on this - and how much more it is going to cost for LAs to get out of the contracts they have outsourced to provide systems and resources to update the central database from their own information.

And all this to provide a completely useless service :(

At last someone has taken the right decision - I wonder how much money was wasted on this - and how much more it is going to cost for LAs to get out of the contracts they have outsourced to provide systems and resources to update the central database from their own information.

And all this to provide a completely useless service :(

Worked fine - according to whom? What if you are looking for 'nearest' which is close to two seperate local authorities?

It's an old fashioned myth that 'entering postocdes' necessarily costs money for LAs...UpMyStreet pioneered this quite some time ago. These days it's easy to set up a system which automatically updates your own and an external website.

You make some good points SineadHanks, and this might have been a good idea on paper but I am afraid that in the crazy world of the public sector it was doomed to failure. Specifically (your points in bold):

What if you are looking for 'nearest' which is close to two seperate local authorities?

Yes that is a bit of a pain, I live within 1/2 a mile of three LAs so I had to contact each one separately to get a list when I was looking for a CM. That was not really the end of the world though.

It's an old fashioned myth that 'entering postocdes' necessarily costs money for LAs...UpMyStreet pioneered this quite some time ago.

Yes, in fact any half-decent web programmer can set something up in an afternoon that will do this. That is not the hard part though...

These days it's easy to set up a system which automatically updates your own and an external website.

Ah yes, given a blank sheet of paper and a responsive IT facility it is. Unfortunately many LAs are tied in to systems they have bought/leased/subcontracted to provide their CM information and found it impossible to effectively link that in to the central system. Some have set up parallel systems, some have gone out to tender for replacement systems complete with updates to the centre, some have asked their existing suppliers to amend their systems with varying degrees of success and cost...

I believe there are about 350 local authorities in England and Wales. If each one of those has spent £15,000 on this project that would be over £5m. How much was spent centrally I wonder? And all for nothing :(

[sardonic laugh] I have just reread some of the messages on this thread from when this system first came in.

Why not just bring back the old website which worked so well. Can't remember why it was shut down. I think it somehow came under the government's jurisdiction. Perhaps THAT is the problem.

From what I know:

Opportunity Links provided a system called ChIS (Childcare Information System) from 1998 to 2009. iChIS is also it's name I think. Reading this from Derbyshire County Council, the iChIS system was provided FREE to local authorities.

DCSF decided to review things and devolve funding to local authorities. Thus local authorities then had to obtain their own systems, for which they got Information System for Parent and Providers (ISPP) Capital and Revenue Grants. Derbyshire in the document linked, says cost was £49,700, of which £11,000 was revenue contribution, the rest capital. Annual maintenance cost of new system £5,700.
I think the grant covered the initial cost but not annual maintenance.

Strix, the old system was Government, it was just operated by Opportunity Links. Why change it... hard to know but I suspect it may be something to do with how funding works. Looks like the cost may have been pushed to the local authority and then the LA given a grant to pay for the initial setup cost.

Until 31st March, PKHD Support site is available. Contains technical documents and other bits and pieces about the system. Doesn't mention anything about the closure, apart from saying the site will be deleted on 31st March.

Some more info from NAFIS - Aggregator Information Update :
"The Department is making the source code that was used to build the Aggregator freely available for anyone to use under an Open Government license. Our intention in doing this is to enable other organisations to build their own versions of the Aggregator so that they can collate LA data and make it available but we will not be able to control or direct developers in using the code. This means that there will be no "caretaker" version of the Directory until someone builds one and comes to an arrangement with LAs to publish their data."

So a National search system may become available in future, if someone decides to build it.

National Helpline Closure - due to only getting 400 calls a week (Feb 2011). Also it seems to be that all the national call number was doing was collecting statistics and passing callers on to the local FIS. So parents could just call the local FIS instead and the local FIS then keep a record for statistics purposes.

Ah, so Derbyshire spent £49,700. Make that £17.5m wasted

I wonder if it happened like this:

An organisation was commissioned to write a report on how things could be made better.

That organisation recommended that the system was replaced by individual systems devolved to individual LAs.

Individual LAs put their systems out to tender and the successful organisations received £££ to reproduce 350 times over what was already available.

If this is right, I wonder who these organisations are? And who in central government was responsible for all of this?

at MrA

hello, sailor

Anyway, tis a fiasco

It hasn't changed here in Dorset, i have been arguing with them since god knows when, we now have to go to the Dorsetforyou council site.

On there we have to look for WORD, which holds the childcare providers.

Anyone want to see if you can find any?

WORD? What does that stand for?

Precisely Nick, I have no idea, but that is what they have decided to call the part of the site for childcare, nothing relevant, like CHILDCARE.

Nobody can ever bloody well find it!

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