Looked After Children Network

Hi all,

Apologies for taking a few days to get this up, but, without further ado, here is a quick reminder of what you signed up for at the residential last week...

The Networking For Care Action Project aims to produce a method for looked after young people around the country to link up. This might be comprised of an ongoing network, allowing young people to remain in contact after they leave care, and/or a 'live' network steered by and for young people in care.

We talked about a number of issues pertinent to this action project

- Safeguarding (obviously a huge issue, including issues around photographs, verification of
members, moderation and control of information)
- Resourcing (also involving the staffing of ongoing safeguarding and moderation, in addition to
costs of setting up a new site or commissioning creation of widgets)
- Carers (the problem of getting carers onside and neutralising fears of young people participating
or endangering themselves, in addition to general worries about internet and social network use)
- Using existing networks (the problems inherent in introducing young people to other social
networking sites, elements which might be transferable between a purpose built site and
mainstream SNS, use/expense of widgets)
- Benefits (yes, there are some! Suggestions so far include the ability to organise events at short
notice, running online consultations, creating a sense of community and remaining in contact
with young people after they leave care)

Possible Project Components

- Research/develop character/Mii creation to avoid identifying signed up young people
- Research/develop verification mechanisms to ensure a tight and secure network
- Consult young people about what is needed
- Creating a document/protocol detailing good practice in using SNS with young people in care
- Create a guide for looked after young people on using SNS including those purpose built for
them
- Pilot a website for the duration of the ALS

Action Plan

- I will register us a free ning site on which we can test some ideas and which could be used by a 'steering group' of interested parties to talk further about the idea
- We will all have a snoop about online, looking at what is available currently in this area and what tools we might employ for safeguarding. We can all post our insights and learning on the discussion board below
- Joy will draft some kind of brief good practice protocol which we can develop further as we go
- Gill will try and locate/formulate a possible job description for a worker tasked with verifying membership and moderating a SNS to give us an idea of the costs involved
- We will all contribute to the development of a guide for young people by involving existing young contacts

Please contradict or add to the above as you see fit.
It looks like a pretty good set of ideas and a demanding but interesting action plan... Good Luck!