Exploring Practice - Digital Lives of Care-experienced Children: What Policy and Practice Mean for Young People
Digital technology is central to how young people learn, build relationships, access services and prepare for adulthood. For children in care and care leavers, opportunities to access technology and develop digital skills are likely shaped by the structures and experiences of care.
The Digital Lives of Care-experienced Children project, based at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford and funded by the Nuffield Foundation, is examining how care-experienced children and young people secure the digital access, and develop skills and confidence they need, and how the adults and systems around them can support them.
This webinar will introduce the project and share emerging findings from its first phase: a mapping of the policy and practice landscape relating to digital inclusion and digital skills for this cohort. We will explore how issues such as digital access, online safety, skills and preparation for adulthood are reflected in policy and guidance; where responsibilities for supporting young people’s digital lives sit; and where gaps, inconsistencies and opportunities for stronger practice may be emerging.
The session will also consider the challenge of balancing protection from online harms with ensuring that care-experienced young people have opportunities to build digital confidence, independence and agency.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
- Why digital access, skills and confidence are important to the experiences and future opportunities of care-experienced children and care leavers.
- About the aims and wider programme of the Digital Lives of Care-experienced Children research project.
- How the project is mapping local and national policy and practice relating to digital inclusion, online safety and digital skills.
- About emerging themes from the policy-mapping exercise, including variation in how digital needs are recognised, where responsibilities sit, and potential gaps and examples of promising practice.
- Why supporting digital development involves balancing online safety with independence, opportunity and preparation for adulthood.
- How the research aims to contribute to future policy, practice and resources for professionals and carers supporting care-experienced young people.
PRESENTERS
Dr Andrew Brown, Post Doctoral Researcher, Oxford Internet Institute
Andrew is a postdoctoral researcher on the Nuffield funded project ‘The Digital Lives of Care-experienced Children’. Prior to joining the OII, Andrew worked as a Research Officer at The Rees Centre, in the Department of Education at the University of Oxford. At the Rees Centre, Andrew worked on several projects including the Alex Timpson Attachment and Trauma Programme in Schools; DfE funded evaluations of the Virtual School Head role; the evaluation of a pilot programme to increase adoptive placements for children with disabilities; and a Hadley Trust–funded project aimed at enhancing stability for children and young people in the care system. Andrew has a professional background as a teacher, senior leader in a special school, and teacher trainer, with a particular focus on inclusive education.
Dr Ekaterina Hertog, Associate Professor of AI and Society, University of Oxford
Dr Ekaterina Hertog is the Associate Professor of AI and Society at the University of Oxford. Her research interests lie at the intersection of digital sociology and family sociology. Her current research explores how digital technologies transform family life, with a particular focus on the adoption and impact of AI and digital technologies in childcare. She has published a position paper on ‘Data Driven Parenting’ as part of the British Academy Digital Good Society series and is developing a research programme on digital technologies in childcare. Her work on parental control technologies has received widespread media attention, including features in a BBC Ideas short film and podcasts by the Oxford Internet Institute and ParentZone. Her recent work examines the societal implications of digital monitoring technologies, investigating how these technologies affect parent-child relationships, children’s autonomy, and family well-being.
WHO'S IT FOR?
Children’s Social workers, fostering and leaving care practitioners, foster carers, residential care professionals, Virtual Schools, IROs, LA commissioners, policy leads, researchers
FEES
FREE for all
CONTACT
Telephone: 0207 520 7520 / 0310
Email: events@corambaaf.org.uk