MyPowerApp® – How tech can support change for families in need of help if co-created with frontline experts and end users?

I have fuzzy memories of driving down the dead end road where the Caritas have their red brick offices in my hometown in Hildesheim, Germany. I can’t remember what day it was, and what I did before or after the appointment. I drove down in my Mum’s old white polo fox. I remember sitting down with the lady social worker. Her kind smile when offering me a biscuit. The same lady who refused to send me the information she had about my birthfather. She had emailed to say that I would have to come and meet her at the offices if I wanted my information. I felt hot and shaky. Acutely aware of the power and control she had over something I felt so strongly belonged to me. I had asked why she couldn’t just post my files to me? I was living in the UK by then. Or at least tell me what’s in them? I was not given an explanation. Just a firm ‘No’. The uncertainty scared me. What could be so difficult for me to deal with that I would need the face-to-face support from a social worker? Was he dead? Was I too late and missed the chance to ever meet him? When I saw how she looked at me, in-the-know and prepared, her curiosity and empathy felt nosey and patronising to me. I hated it! I closed up. I took the piece of paper with my birthfather’s contact details and the birthday card he had send on for me for my 5th birthday, which I had never received. I remember noticing how he called me ‘Corinna’ in his card. I wasn’t prepared to share anything about my emotions. I remember thinking ‘just give me my stuff and get away from me you nosy cow!’ I never got to see my adoption file, nor did I share my experience of finding out details for my birthfather with the well-meaning social work lady, or the Caritas. I will always remember the imbalance of power, and how I had none!

17 years on, and ‘a social work lady’ myself, I wonder…

What if 24-year-old-me had been trusted with a power-equaliser? A tool to redistribute power enabling the social work lady and I to purposefully see into my past together?

What if I had been trusted with a choice of when, where, how and with whom I wanted to access my own information? With clarity of purpose for a social worker’s presence?

What if all children and families who are supported by social workers were trusted with power in when, where, how and with whom they want to access their own information? With clear purpose of how information is linked to intervention offered to them?

In their preferred language, at a time and place that for them, with an option to share their reflections, updates and feedback on what is recorded about them?

And so it hatched. The big solution to the complex problem: A co-designed tech tool to redistribute power to key stakeholders crucial to effective social work ‘change intervention’.

I lead the co-creation of the MyPowerApp®. A coaching tool to support and facilitate behavioural change intervention. 

A group of frontline social workers, professionals who work with families day-to-day, researchers and most importantly children and parents with experience of working with social workers took part in the discovery journey. Findings were captured in a Usability and Acceptability Study. 

We asked:

Why can it feel tricky for families to access their own social care plans?

What causes social workers spending 80% of their time updating recording systems? 

What is in the way, of social workers engaging children and families in purposeful direct work, a key factor to drive forward behavioural change, and a statutory requirement?

How could tech improve transparency for families and expand social workers capacity to deliver systemic and trauma informed practice? 

We co-produced a coaching tool, the MyPowerApp®, co-designed with families, social workers, social work leaders and professionals from education, housing, mental health and third sector organisations, to structure behavioural change intervention in a way that is strengths based, visual, in your pocket and fun!

End Users Defined Their BIG Vision

1. To enhance access, clarity of purpose and ownership of social work change intervention plans (i.e. Early Help, Child in Need, Child Protection and Child Cared For/Leaving Care plans) for children and families, and the team of safeguarding partners around them.
2. To expand capacity for social workers to spend time with families from as a low as 20% (see 80:20 BASW study and campaign) to become 80% of their frontline practice focus.

The Urgency

is highlighted by high levels of attrition with many experienced social workers leaving frontline practice. More money spend on processes which are not directly linked to purposeful outcomes for families. And further harm to children which could have been prevented by everyone communicating effectively from the start. 

Amazingly, a prototype of the MyPowerApp® has now been co-created with users!

Facilitated by social workers, families have 24/7 access to their own change plans. MyPowerApp® provides one space for everyone to see goals, track actions and update on progress via a visual, interactive and strengths based plan for positive behavioural change.

We already know the positive impact tech can bring for us to self-manage and achieve complex behavioural change: Headspace helps us to be more mindful. Noom reinforces healthy eating habits. And the Fitbit encourages us to move.

My Power transforms children and families’ access to help, reinforcing purposeful change plans co-produced with social workers and safeguarding partners.

Parents and Young People can request updates on actions from teachers, support workers and nurses. Progress on actions is shared in real life by the right person at the right time. Freeing up social workers’ time, from administrating and recording information on behalf of every safeguarding partner. Thus, creating capacity to re-focus on spending time with families!

I did not ask why my birth father had not consented to my adoption? What help my birth parents had accessed to make their decisions? Why my adoptive parents had to return me to a social worker for a day in the first week they took me home… I kept stumm. Silenced by the trauma of ‘powerlessness’ I felt… 

AND…

I am excited to now step into my power. To co-create a vision of a future where social workers and safeguarding partners share their power with families as equal partners. Co-producing purpose driven plans for change, for a better life!

If reading this, sparks up a little hope somewhere in your body, then maybe you are sensing your power. It’s in all of us. Let’s use it!

We are recruiting volunteers from diverse backgrounds of social work, health, police, education, housing, DWP, family support, therapeutic interventions and most importantly people with experience of working with a social worker, who have an interest in ‘tech for good’ to try and test the alpha version of the My Power App. 

Join #mypower to co-create a tech tool to support families to coproduce goals for positive change with social workers and safeguarding partners.

Sign up to participate in virtual ’think-aloud-testing’ and ‘fault-finding-workshops’ run by our research partner, the University of Manchester. Receive details of times and dates (never spam) by emailing ‘Sign Me Up’ to hello@coco-operative.co.uk or completing the Event Registration Form below 👇 👇🏾

*The My Power App is developed by This is Focus, funded by The Alex Timpson Trust and Zing, and the prototype is subject to an independent research evaluation led by the University of Manchester. A special thanks to New Beginnings Parents and Stockport Local Authority who supported our Accessibility and Usability Study.

Project Owner is Coco Operative – Community Interest Company