This document discusses the use of social media in social work practice. It provides context on the increasing use of the internet and social media. It explores opportunities for using social media to engage with clients and communities. However, it also examines issues around privacy, ethics, and safeguarding concerns. The document advocates for agencies to have clear policies and training to guide appropriate social media use among practitioners.

1. Social Media in Social Work Spaces:
Exploring opportunities & issues for
social work practice
Tuesday 31st January 2017
#mrcsalford

2. Dr Joanne Westwood
Making Research Count
at The University of Salford
#mrcsalford

3. • University/HE and social work/Care education
• Different partnership models
• Dissemination of research in progress and findings
• Research informing and shaping practice
• Experts and specialists contribution
• Conferences, seminars, workshops etc…
• Your CPD
What is Making Research Count (MRC)?
#mrcsalford

4. • Making Research Count (MRC) is a national network :
http://hub.salford.ac.uk/mrc/about-us/mrc-national-network/
• 10 English universities/partnerships with local agencies including
children’s and adults’ services, health trusts and independent
sector organisations
• A continuing programme of conferences, seminars and
workshops
• Promote communication/dissemination between those examining
social work/care in the English context and those engaged in it
Making Research Count (MRC)
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5. • Events in the last 12 months include:
– Child imprisonment
– Child sexual abuse and exploitation
– Social housing
– Rights and dignity in marginalised communities
– Stress and supervision in social work practice
– Welfare and austerity
– Adoption and identity
– Family Group Conferences
– Working with marginalised groups
Making Research Count (MRC): Salford 1
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6. • All events are filmed and available on our web site:
http://hub.salford.ac.uk/mrc/mrcevents/
• Certificate of attendance and presentation materials
• Follow us on Twitter: @mrcsalford
• Collaboration and joint initiatives
• Influence/contribute to our programme of events?
• Contact: mrc@salford.ac.uk
Making Research Count (MRC): Salford 2
#mrcsalford

7. • Social Media in Social Work Spaces: Exploring opportunities and
issues for social work practice
• Domestic Violence: forced marriage, recovery narratives and local
research on DV in Salford (February)
• Identifying and responding to sexual abuse in sport (March)
• Learning from research with and about children and young people
in the Gypsy/Roma Traveller communities (April)
• Supporting and assessing social work students on placement
(May)
• Social Pedagogy (May)
• Looking after children and young people in residential care (June)
Forthcoming events: Salford MRC 2017
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8. Questions?
#mrcsalford

9. Dr Joanne Westwood
University of Salford
Social Media in Social Work Practice:
Social media: Opportunities in practice
#mrcsalford

10. Outline
• Context: Increase in use of internet, public
investment in technology, digital divide and
social media as a form of communication and
networking
• Using social media in the workplace: ethics
and boundaries
• Pushing forward new ways of working with
people and communities using social media

11. Statistics: internet use on the
increase
• The internet was used daily or almost daily by 82% of adults (41.8
million) in Great Britain in 2016, compared with 78% (39.3 million) in
2015 and 35% (16.2 million) in 2006.
• In 2016, 70% of adults accessed the internet ‘on the go’ using a mobile
phone or smartphone, up from 66% in 2015 and nearly double the 2011
estimate of 36%.
• New analysis on the use of smart TVs show 21% of adults used them to
connect to the internet in 2016.
• In 2016, 77% of adults bought goods or services online, up from 53%
in 2008, but only up 1 percentage point from 2015.
• Clothes or sports goods were purchased by 54% of adults, making them
the most popular online purchase in 2016.
• Speed of delivery was a problem encountered by 42% of the 16 to 24
year olds who had bought online compared with 15% of those aged 65
and over.
• In 2016, 89% of households in Great Britain (23.7 million) had internet
access, an increase from 86% in 2015 and 57% in 2006.
• 25% of disabled adults have never used the internet
Internet users in the UK: 2016 (ONS)

12. Social media use : UK
Increasing and at an earlier age:
http://www.thinkdigitalfirst.com/2016/01/04/the-
demographics-of-social-media-users-in-2016/
Facebook: 32 million user accounts
LinkedIn: 21 million
https://press.linkedin.com/about-linkedin

13. Research emphasis:
• Relevant research: UK and beyond
– Personal/professional boundaries
– Ethics Singh Cooner:
https://sites.google.com/site/socialworksocialmedia/
– Book groups in social work education and practice: Taylor
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02615479.2013.832190
– Power and control and service user privacy
– Parenting, children’s use of digital media
– Adoption and contact :
https://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/sass/research/briefings/ResearchBriefin
g13-ChattingOnlineWithMyOtherMother.pdf
– Online abuse and exploitation
– Employer expectations
– Social media in Higher Education
– Social media/marketing
– Big Data and using social media to undertake research

14. Current and on-going issues
in social work practice
– Safeguarding : risk assessment and management
– Fostering and residential care
– Engagement and communication with children,
young people and their families
– Professional conduct
– Service user surveillance and social worker
“stalking”
– Confidentiality and anonymity

15. Use of social media in the
workplace
• BDO (2012/13) increase and encourage social
media use is good for business
• Employers “blanket ban”
• Strain: McDonald and Thompson (2016)
– Employer related (surveillance of staff)
– Worker related (negative comments about
employer)
– Using social media for personal life in the workplace

16. Using social media in social
work practice
• Reach of social media
• Agency policies
• Privacy rights of service users
• Safeguarding issues when working online
• When is it ok to use social media in work
• What policies and practice issues have you come
across?
• What works?

17. Risks of social media e.g.
children and young people
Location and identification of children/young
people at risk (i.e. young people in care at risk of
CSE/grooming, families fleeing domestic
violence)
• Cyberbullying of children and young people
looked after
• Contact between birth families and their
children in care (residential, fostering and
adoption)

18. Privacy
• EG: Looked after young people:
– Concerned about threats to privacy
– Making the hidden public (i.e. experience of being
in care)
– -controlling their own information
– No different from general population in limiting self
disclosure
– Using social media for peer relations, sharing
music, interests etc.. (Fitch 2012)

19. Reach of social media
Social media users considerably underestimate the
reach of their online posts and misunderstand who
can see the information they share (Bernstein,
Bakshy, Burke, & Karrer, 2013).
Are social work service users likely to be more or
less aware of the reach and permanency of their
posts?

20. Does your organisation/agency
have a protocol to agree social
media use to search for service
users?
• Yes we have a protocol
• No we don’t have a protocol?
• I don’t know if we have a protocol?

21. Is it ok to search for service
users on social media?
• Yes or No?
• Under what circumstances is it ok?
• How is this activity governed in your agency?

22. Sage and Sage 2016
Surveyed child welfare workers about their
beliefs, values, activities, and training related to
social media:

23. If you do have a protocol: who
was involved in developing it
and how is it reviewed?
• Service user and carers
• Policy/planning and governance
• Practitioners/managers
• Others? State who

24. Training, support and
supervision
• What training, support/supervision is available
for social workers using social media in their
practice?

25. Questions?
#mrcsalford

26. Ideas for using social media
in social work practice
• What activities might you introduce which
capitalise on the benefits of social media?
• What support do you need to introduce these?
• Who else would need to be involved in this
project?

27. References
• BDO (2012) BDO (2012) From housing and litter to facebook and twitter
http://www.bdo.co.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/186524/BDO_Local_Government_Team_
-_Updating_your_status_social_media_report.pdf
• BDO (2013) Following the trends. Results from the 2013 BDO Local Government Social
Media Survey – today’s trends and making the most of the medium.
http://www.bdo.co.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/186525/following_the_trends_2013.pdf
• Kimball, E., & Kim, J. (2013) , 'Virtual Boundaries: Ethical Considerations for Use of Social
Media in Social Work', Social Work, 58, 2, pp. 185-188
• Fitch, (2012) Youth in Foster Care and Social Media: A Framework for developing privacy
guidelines. Journal of Technology in Human Services. 30:2, pp94-108
• Bernstein, M. S., Bakshy, E., Burke, M., & Karrer, B.(2013) Quantifying the invisible
audience in social networks. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors
in Computing Systems (pp. 21-30). New York, NY, USA: ACM. doi:
http://doi.org/10.1145/2470654.2470658
• NSPCC (2016) Online Safety: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-
children-safe/online-safety/
• McDonald, P., & Thompson, P. (2016). Social media(tion) and the reshaping of
public/private boundaries in employment relations. International Journal of Management
Reviews, 18(1), 69-84. doi: http://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12061
• Sage and Sage (2016) Social Media Use in Child Welfare Practice. Advances in Social
Work Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 93-112.
https://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/advancesinsocialwork/article/viewFile/20880/20536

28. References cont…
• Westwood, J., Campbell, A., Dill, K, and Shaw, A., (submitted under review) Service
user feedback: Developing and implementing a service user feedback APP: Making it
‘App’en: reflections from Northern Ireland and Scotland. Social Work Education: The
International Journal
• Westwood, J. and Taylor, A. M.L. (2016) Developing Digital Competence for Practice
Transformative Learning for Social Work; Learning for and in Practice (eds.) Stone, C.
and Harbin, F. Palgrave MacMillan
• Westwood, J. (2016) Social media in social work education: developing teaching and
learning strategies: International Handbook of Social Work Education. In (eds.) Taylor, I
Bogo, M., Lefevre, M. and Teater, B. Routledge
• Westwood, J. (2016) Social media for students in practice (eds.) Bellinger, A., and Ford,
D. Practice placement in social work: Innovative approaches for effective teaching and
learning. Policy Press. http://www.policypress.co.uk/display.asp?k=9781447318613
• Westwood, J. (eds) (2014) Social media in social work education. Critical publishing
http://criticalpublishing.com/browse-by-subject-1/social-work/social-media-in-social-
work-education.html
• Westwood, J. Taylor, A., and McKendrick, D., (2014) Student social workers use of
social media: a cross national survey in (eds.) Westwood, J., Social Media in Social
Work Education. Critical Publishing.

29. Donna Peach
University of Salford
Social Media in Social Work Spaces
#mrcsalford

30. Introduction
The importance of social work skills in social media
spaces
The value of online communities
Maintaining social work relationships
Learning from both previous and current service users
Future challenges and opportunities
DONNA PEACH

31. Professional Capabilities Framework
DONNA PEACH

32. Social Work in Social Media Spaces
Professionalism
Values and Ethics
Diversity
Rights, Justice and Economic
Wellbeing
Knowledge
Critical Reflection and
Analysis
Intervention and Skills
Contexts and
Organisations
Professional
Leadership
DONNA PEACH

33. Valuing Online Communities
Professionalism
Values and Ethics
Diversity
Rights, Justice and Economic
Wellbeing
Knowledge
Critical Reflection and
Analysis
Intervention and Skills
Contexts and
Organisations
Professional
Leadership
DONNA PEACH

34. Maintaining Social Work
Relationships
Professionalism
Values and Ethics
Diversity
Rights, Justice and Economic
Wellbeing
Knowledge
Critical Reflection and
Analysis
Intervention and Skills
Contexts and
Organisations
Professional
Leadership
DONNA PEACH

35. Learning From Service Users
Professionalism
Values and Ethics
Diversity
Rights, Justice and Economic
Wellbeing
Knowledge
Critical Reflection and
Analysis
Intervention and Skills
Contexts and
Organisations
Professional
Leadership
DONNA PEACH

36. Future Challenges and Opportunities
Professionalism
Values and Ethics
Diversity
Rights, Justice and Economic
Wellbeing
Knowledge
D
Critical Reflection and
Analysis
Intervention and Skills
Contexts and
Organisations
Professional
Leadership
DONNA PEACH

37. Refreshments
and Networking Break

38. Alicia Coad
ChatFOSS
ChatFOSS
#mrcsalford

39. Tuesday 31st January 2017
Salford University

40. ChatFOSS – Friends Only Stay Safe
• What is ChatFOSS
• History of ChatFOSS
• The key differences between ChatFOSS and other social media
• Role in social care

41. What is ChatFOSS?

43. Technical Information

44. History of ChatFOSS

45. Age appropriate
• ChatFOSS has an age rating of 3+
• Having an account as a child is not breaking any terms and
conditions
• Data is not be stored, your communications are private

46. ChatFOSS- Key Differences
• Nothing is deletable
• No profile pages
• Cannot mass share
• The making of friendships has been designed to make it
deliberately difficult – so that friendships that occur only in the
outside world occur online

47. ChatFOSS Friendships
• No one can search for you
• No invitations are received
• Parent/Carer gets notification of all friendships made

48. ChatFOSS screenshots

49. ChatFOSS communications

50. ChatFOSS message board

51. ChatFOSS Circles
• Cannot be put in a circle with people without your consent
• No ability for people in the circle who you are not
personally friends with to engage in one to one
conversation.
• Cannot remove people from a circle – individuals can
choose to leave

52. Monitoring of Usage
• Nothing is deletable
• Password changes or change in parental/carer email are
given notification to the parental/carer email.

53. Role of ChatFOSS in social care
• Enables children and young adults to engage in instant
messaging and photo sharing in a safe controlled
environment.
• Provides a safe secure environment to communicate with
people they should be communicating with
• Reduces risk of predators communicating with users.

54. ChatFOSS: Fun of Social Media,
Safety of the Playground
• First app built specifically for those under 13
• Gives an environment to learn how to use social media and
enjoy online instant communication
• Promotes a culture of sharing only with those relevant to
you
• Removes the culture of “likes”
• A generation of individuals who value their privacy
INTERNET ON YOUR TERMS

55. Questions & Conference Close
#mrcsalford