About Us

About us

A little bit about Choosing Digital
Contents
Who are we?
Why we developed Choosing Digital
‍How did we do it?
What is Choosing Digital?
The ethical decision-making journey‍‍

Who are we?

Choosing Digital is a collaborative project from Research in Practice in association with the London Innovation and Improvement Alliance (LIIA), the Association of London Directors of Children’s Services (ALDCS) and The North West Association of Directors of Children’s Services (NWADSC).

Our collaboration with Professor Harry Ferguson, Dr Laura Kelly (both University of Birmingham) and Professor Sarah Pink (Monash University) on their ESRC-funded child protection and social distancing research over 2021-22 informed and contributed to this resource.

The content is open access and available to everyone.

Choosing Digital is not a finished product, but a continually developing resource. If you have anything that you think would be useful to add, please send it to us at: choosingdigital@researchinpractice.org.uk

Our objectives:

Maximising the potential of digital practice to...
rebalance power dynamics
improve relationships
increase engagement

Why we developed Choosing Digital

During the COVID-19 pandemic the social care sector, along with the rest of the world, had to move to digital-based interaction. This was a very different way of connecting for the majority of social care workers and the young people and families they work with.  Many were concerned that the human nature of social work could never be recreated in digital spaces. The reality was that digital practice sometimes worked really well and sometimes didn’t – we were interested in finding out how to make digital practice work for everyone.

We worked together to develop Choosing Digital as a practice tool to use with families, and a toolkit of ideas to support digital practice, to help everyone understand when and where digital practice might be possible, preferred, or potentially unsafe, especially in decision-making meetings.  

Our objectives:

Maximising the potential of digital practice to...
rebalance power dynamics
improve relationships
increase engagement

How did we do it?

We took a design thinking approach to developing this product. Meaning we were.....
  • user-centred – purposefully prioritising the needs of the users from the outset.
  • empathetic – understanding the problem from the users perspective.
  • collaborative – using co-design to directly involve users in the designing of outputs.
  • iterative – quickly enacting changes in response to user feedback.

Who we worked with:

Young people
Parents and carers
Social worker practitioners
Workforce development leads
Strategic leads

Our ethos:

Digital as well as, not instead of.
Digital practice starts at an organisational level.
Successful digital practice is thoughtful and planned.
Successful digital practice is inclusive and considered, prioritising the voice of the young person.

What is Choosing Digital?

Choosing Digital is a collaborative decision-making tool that recognises the benefits of a blended approach to interaction (both in-person and digital) between young people and their social care workers.

We explore interaction more generally and how it can be used to develop relationships. We are not suggesting that digital interaction should replace physical interaction in social care practice, but that families and practitioners consider the benefits of a blended approach to practice in social care.

Alongside benefits there are, of course, downsides. The guidance within this tool supports ethical, collaborative decision-making, enabling social care workers and the young people they’re working with to decide when to meet digitally and when not to.

This process has been designed to engage and empower young people, their families and their workers. It is not a prescriptive framework because it can't be - the right blend of ‘blended’ will be different for everyone. To be truly child-centred, decisions about digital interaction need to made for that specific young person, at that specific time, for that specific situation.

Our ethos:

Digital as well as, not instead of.
Digital practice starts at an organisational level.
Successful digital practice is thoughtful and planned.
Successful digital practice is inclusive and considered, prioritising the voice of the young person.

The ethical decision-making journey

Choosing Digital logo
This website was developed by Research in Practice in collaboration with young people, parents, social care workers and managers, from the London Region and the North-West Region and with the support of LIIA, ALDCS and NWADCS.
Our collaboration with Professor Harry Ferguson, Dr Laura Kelly (both University of Birmingham) and Professor Sarah Pink (Monash University) on their ESRC-funded Child protection and social distancing research over 2021-22 informed and contributed to this resource.
The Association of Directors of Children's Services logoLondon Improvement and Innovation Alliance logoNorth West ADCS logoResearch in Practice logo
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