Leeds forked out over £480,000 on the digipens, part of an electronic recording system that allowed staff to update centrally-held records direct from a client's home.

It was estimated the pens, along with electronic monitoring and rostering, would save the council £590,000 a year and their introduction scooped the authority a top information technology award from the Society for IT Management.

But four years after they were first used, council bosses have decided the digipens are too expensive and have abandoned them, with staff now going back to ballpoints.

The council bought 1,500 pens for £127,500, paid total subscriptions to the supplier of £135,426 and project management and associated costs came to £221,193.

The majority of the money came from a £300,000 Government grant and a £50,000 grant from the Regional Centre of Excellence, given in return for sharing learning from the project.

Despite the early optimism surrounding the scheme, adult social care chiefs have conceded the savings orginally estimated could not be achieved, although they maintain the pens produced some benefits that have helped them improve the service.

While the use of the pens has been scrapped, the council is introducing an electronic rostering system which it says will better match the needs of people using the home care service and the availability of staff.

Estimated to cost £212,000 to implement, the system is forecast to produce annual savings of £105,000 a year.

But Malcolm Naylor, of Otley, whose late wife required home care and who has campaigned for more investment in frontline adult care services, has already questioned the projected savings from electronic rostering.

He said: Why should we believe this when they were so wrong before?"

A council spokesman said: "The council is always seeking new ways to make its services more efficient and better for the customer. It was hoped that using digipens for electronic monitoring and rostering would help us do this.

"Despite initial success, in January it was decided to discontinue their use when it became clear the benefits were outweighed by the growing cost.

"The development of digipen technology led to significant benefits for residents and we are keen to ensure these are not lost.
"Technology moves on and we are introducing a new form of electronic rostering that will bring further benefits to service users.

"The new system will help us to give better care."