The failure to roll out an IT system designed by outsourcing firm Capita could cost council taxpayers an extra £4.2 million, according to the Labour group.

The Mosaic IT system was designed to improve Barnet Council’s ability to manage the needs of adults who require social care.

But ongoing problems with the system mean it is still not able to bill clients and the council may not be getting a full picture of the adult social care budget.

The council pledged £4.2 million to find a new delivery partner to complete the rollout of the case management system at a July meeting of its policy and resources committee.

Capita has previously come under fire over a £2 million fraud case, and Labour councillors have called for the council’s contracts with the firm to be torn up.

Labour’s adults and safeguarding spokesperson Councillor Jess Brayne said: “Yet another incident in the saga of Capita cock-ups, costing the people of Barnet and placing additional pressure on the adults team – who deal with the most vulnerable in our society.

“The Conservatives’ policy of outsourcing to Capita is causing chaos throughout the council – they need to be held to account.”

At a meeting of the adults and safeguarding committee on September 20, Cllr Brayne called for a report into the Mosaic problems to be carried out and brought back to a future meeting of the committee.

But her motion was defeated after Conservative members voted against the proposals.

The council’s contracts with Capita are currently under review and some services that have been outsourced to the firm – including finance and strategic HR – could be brought back in house.

A Barnet Council spokesman said: “The new case management system went live in April last year, but the implementation has seen issues with performance.

“There have been a number of improvements made but it has been agreed that it would be most effective for an alternative provider to carry out the work to resolve the remaining problems.

“The council is currently in discussions with Capita about the funding arrangement for the additional work.

“We will be looking closely at what can be learned from this, and the findings will be reported to audit committee in due course.”

Cllr Richard Cornelius, leader of Barnet Council, commented: “Mosaic is in use, and plans to improve its functionality presented two options.

“The first was to work with Capita. The second was to find a specialist provider which has carried out successful updates in other councils.

“Such a specialist provider has been found. They will be offering significantly more competitive and, we hope, low-risk options for these upgrades.

“We will also be restructuring the adults service to make more efficient use of Council staff.”

A Capita spokesperson said: “We have reached a joint agreement with Barnet Council to introduce a specialist partner to best support the needs of the authority going forward.”