Social workers are on the front line when it comes to the millions of French people who are far from or in difficulty with digital technology. The transition to an all-digital world is having a major impact on the organization of social services. The irruption of digital technology in social work also calls for an increase in skills as well as a revaluation of functions.

As the High Council for Social Work (HCTS) prepares to publish a guideline on the digital transition in social work, the Regional Directorate for Youth, Sport and Social Cohesion (DRJSCS) of Hauts-de-France, has asked the Regional Institute of Social Work (IRTS) of Hauts-de-France to conduct a survey of social workers " to study their practices and especially to collect and analyze their needs to support people in a situation of illiteracy due to their social fragility.

A total of 70 social workers were interviewed.

• Although 87% of them have a computer (fixed or laptop), and 100% of them have a connection, only 13.3% of the administrations/structures surveyed have a computer intended to help the public become autonomous within a defined place.
• 81% of the social workers surveyed express fears about the protection of the data of the persons they accompany. " If the social worker receives the person in open spaces, in shared offices, he/she alone enters the person's personal data on his/her work computer or when he/she returns to the office after a home visit, he/she uses his/her professional email for the beneficiary's file..." (Only 3.2% of the persons accompanied, in fact, use their own equipment). (Only 3.2% of the people supported use their own equipment). "This state of affairs, " comment the authors of the survey,"questions the practice of the social worker from the point of view of responsibility and secrecy linked to the person's personal data, in his or her role as a relay or mediator.
• 65% say they are aware of the resources for supporting people in e-government within their structure. Most of them use them to redirect their audience (45.7%) and/or to request technical support (19.6%).
• 76% of social workers in government agencies claim to have been made aware of the digital switchover. This proportion drops to 41% among social workers from medico-social institutions.
• Only 24.5% of respondents are aware of innovative projects to help people become self-sufficient through e-administration.
• 49% declare having difficulties in the pedagogical support of the user (difficulties linked to the illiteracy of the supported public or to the cognitive difficulties of the person).
• For 21% of them, " their practices are not efficient because of a lack of support: tutorials, procedures, pedagogical methods of support...". To remedy this, 34% often feel compelled"to do things for the user which is in contradiction with the principles of social work".
• 14% received training in the professional use of digital technology. "These trainings were exclusively about the office automation aspect and not about the pedagogy of digital support".
• 48% of the social workers declare having difficulties in the accompaniment but also in the transmission of digital know-how.
• 80% recommend the integration of a digital component in social work training programs
• 38.5% would like to see training focused on platforms and/or e-administration.

The dematerialization of administrative procedures, a new challenge for social workers.

• Legislative context and social issues
• E-administration, a national issue in the light of European guidelines
• E-administration in Hauts-de-France
• The dematerialization of administrative procedures: how do social workers appropriate it?
• Problematization

• Presentation of the surveys
• Methodology: probability sample
• Results of the study and interpretation and/or verification of the four hypotheses upstream of the e-administrative process, the question of material resources
• Pooling: a lever for "tooling up" the efficiency of e-administration support practices?
• Information and/or communication: from adherence to the appropriation of a new paradigm within the social worker's practices
• Training by or for the social worker in the accompaniment to e-administrative procedures?

Hauts de France: three studies on inclusion issues

• Territorial diagnosis of the fight against illiteracy in the Hauts-de-France (University of Lille (UFR of Geography and Urban Planning - Institute of Urban Planning and Development of Lille - Master 2 Urban Planning and Development).
• The dematerialization of administrative procedures, a new challenge for social workers (Regional Institute of Social Work of Hauts-de-France (State Diploma of Social Engineering).
• The digital transition, threat or opportunity for the use of social rights (University of Lille (Master 2 Strategies of Social Development)