Social workers and technological advancement are rarely seen in the same sentence. This didn’t stop Dominic Campbell from futuregov and the LGiU bringing together representatives from social care and the Twitterati to look at the serious business of safeguarding children through the application of social network sites.
The concept is simple: just equip health and social workers, teachers and representatives from the voluntary sector with a secure network where they can exchange real time thoughts and information on the children and families that they support. Ok, my social care background rang a few alarm bells on safety, security and data protection – lets face it keeping children safe is a risk averse task.
But common sense prevailed. With the numbers of people communicating on social network sites exceeding those that communicate on email we have to move with the times. We have a moral duty to make sure that services and technology available to social workers are fit for purpose. The recipients of social services deserve nothing less.
The next meeting will take place on April 2 2009 at the LGiU offices between 5:00 and 7:00 . Join us in our assessment , and help our search for opportunities to test web 2.0 technologies for social workers and their partners.
