Can app technology support social workers, children and families to work together on achieving behavioural change?

Apps are widely used across many sectors to help us with hard and difficult change and achieve our vision and goals for a better life. Apps like Kooth, Headspace, Mondays.com and Calm lead way in making complex behavioural change satisfying and enjoyable. My Power is a project that brings the advances of 21st century technology to relational social work practice.

The idea:

Using and app, My Power, to bring child in need and child protection plans to live. Making children’s plans accessible for families, 24/7, where ever they are at. The app pathway is grounded in behavioural change models and technology that we all know and use. Co-produced with children and families, practitioners, technology experts and the multi agency team around the child My Power is a tool developed for users with users.

Purpose:

My Power is a tool to empower the voices of children and families. Accessing social care can be an anxious and complex process. My Power is a space where children, young people and their parents and carers can create the goals and outcomes they set to achieve with their socila worker using multi media, such as impages, videos, voice recordings and text. Famililes will have access to the app via their own device and can add comments and multi media updates on actions they have set. Families and social worker can send message to request updates from other professionals to make sure everyone is kept in the loop with how child in need and child protection plans are progressing. Moving away from social workers recording updates in offices away from from families and on behalf of their colleagues from health and education.

My Power is rooted in a transparent and strength based approach to social work practice. My Power empowers families to self activate and build on skills they already possess. The gamified check ins support the development of value based decision making, reflection and emotional intelligence.

What My Power Is?

• My Power is a tool to for interactive statutory CiN and CP planning.
• My Power is an app for children and families and practitioners to bring their behavioural change journey to live.
• My Power is based on consent, transparency and coproduction of child in need and child protection plans designed jointly by children and families and their social worker.
• My Power has a voice and video call function to aid remote interaction.
• Users will have real time access to My Power, and can reflect and comment on their goals and actions 24/7.
• Users will agree and sign off updates to goals and actions at end of each session supporting co production and trust without misinterpretation.
• Practitioners can respond to comments, and review users progress on actions and goals.
• Practitioners can export pdf copies, electronically and sync My Power to client management systems (Liquid Logic) to streamline record keeping.
• Power is end to end encrypted, and the parameters of using My Power, i.e. safety, disclosures, privacy, confidentiality, boundaries, are agreed at log in.

What My Power Isn’t?

• My Power does not replace social worker’s practice skills, knowledge and experience. In fact, its success is dependent on the skills of practitioners.
• My Power is not a tool for families to contact/ get hold of social workers 24/7 or in emergencies.
• My Power does not replace the need for physically spending time with families.

What do you think? We would love to hear your feedback on our idea?