Why use this resource?

Welcome to “Digital Skills for Social Workers”, a learning resource designed to encourage social workers and social work students to think and learn more about the impact of the digital world on our work.

Why?

Why do we need to consider the digital world when social work is all about people skills and relationships? The 2019 Coronavirus pandemic propelled us into using digital platforms and technological solutions as a necessity to help us carry on our work while minimising the risk of infection. However, the digital world was already having a significant impact on people’s lives well before the pandemic.

Social media is now a well-established way for people to keep in touch, share ideas, advertise products or engage in political debate. Most written communications are digital. Many people use banking apps to manage their finances. Smart phones are part of everyday life. Online shopping is a normal activity. Technology enabled care including assistive technologies are continually being trialled and improved to enable people to live better quality lives.

Social work needs to reflect society. We need to be able to respond to current and emerging needs in order to ensure we are supporting the social and emotional wellbeing of the individuals, families and communities with whom we work. We need to be in tune with the world people live in.

The digital world has both the capacity to facilitate some of the adversities that people have to deal with – cyber bullying and online scams, for example– but equally, it has the potential to provide solutions or support for those experiencing adversity, such as assistive technology or online support services like Childline.

Understanding someone’s digital world, as well as their physical environment and in-person connections, can give us a rich insight into their lives and what may help or hinder them fulfilling their potential or accessing practical or emotional supports. Understanding our own digital behaviours can help us ensure that we are protected as workers when engaging in digital activities, and developing our digital skills will better enable us to assess and use digital opportunities as a helping resource.

We believe that,

The workforce should be enabled to take advantage of the huge range of learning opportunities afforded by embracing digital learning.
We must work to avoid the emergence of a two-tier workforce, characterised by those who apply their digital capabilities to their everyday learning and practice, and those who “don’t do technology”.
Service users should expect and be enabled to take advantage of the digital opportunities in society.
A skilled and confident workforce needs to develop its own digital capabilities in order to support people to this end.
Our social work and social work student registrants should be able to develop and apply their digital capabilities to support their own learning as well as their everyday practice.

Using the Resource

The resource focuses on the following areas:

We have identified these as key areas that social workers and social work students should know about. If you click on any of the tiles, you will find some initial pointers to help you start thinking about the topic and how it might affect your work, or the lives of the people you work with– we have built in links to further information in case you are interested in learning more. Some of the information may already be very familiar to you and some may be less so. The purpose is to enable you to see how this aspect of everyday life relates to your work and get you thinking about how you are currently making use of your knowledge, skills and values. Having a value-based approach to the digital world is fundamental, as there are many ethical considerations to work through.

We are always interested in ensuring our resources are valuable tools for the workforce and are keen to hear your feedback, or ideas for future topics which could be included in this resource.

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