Please could you confirm whether your local authority has formal policies and/or formal guidance in place to support digital or online contact arrangements specifically? (Y/N). If yes, please could you answer the following questions.
1. Do you have formal policies and or guidance do you have in place to guide practitioners and professionals regarding digital contact?
Yes
Do you have formal policies/guidance supporting kinship carers, foster carers, special guardians, or other carers regarding digital contact?
Yes
Do you have formal policies/guidance supporting birth parents of children who are being cared for or have been adopted regarding digital contact?
No
Do you have formal policies/guidance supporting children and young people who are being cared for or have been adopted regarding digital contact?
No
Other Yes/No (please specify)
No
2. If your Local Authority (LA) answered YES to any of the above, please provide a copy(ies) and if they are now included in your publication scheme or otherwise publicly available please could you direct me to relevant links with titles of documents.
Guidance can be viewed from this Devon County Council webpage
3. Do you provide any training or training course(s) to equip the digital literacy/competence in support of online/digital contact arrangements for any of the following groups:
Children and young people in care?
No
Birth parents of children and young people in care?
No
Carers including kinship, foster, special guardians, and other carers?
No
Practitioners and professionals involved with digital contact arrangements.
No
Siblings, grand parents or other family members involved with digital contact arrangements?
No
Other Yes/No (please specify)
No
How Do I? flyers are available for our practitioners and these are shared where needed with others. Starting during the first Covid lockdown and continuing since, contact supervisors supported other professionals, carers and parents on how to access online/digital contact arrangements when required.
4. If your LA provides training programmes for any of the above groups in support of digital/online contact arrangements, please can you provide any information and signpost me to any links or online advertising, or supply any other leaflets, or course content relating to questions 3 above.
Information can be viewed from this Devon County Council webpage. The document has been redacted to remove the personal information of third parties. We believe that the release of this information contravenes the first data protection principle, and this information is therefore exempt from disclosure pursuant to Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.