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Social work in the digital age

Published on 09 October 2018
Update on 26 September 2022
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Summary

One of the 21 measures of the Poverty Plan, announced by the President of the Republic on September 12, concerns "the renovation of social work to better accompany people's lives"and to take into account, in particular, " the digital transformation of access to rights".

The High Council for Social Work (HCTS), convened a " Digital Use in Social Work" working group in 2018 to address the following issues:

  • "Why and how do social workers take (or need to take) hold of the digital issue?
  • How can social workers contribute to addressing the digital divide without replacing the actors in charge of this issue?
  • How can the social worker contribute to accompany people in the use of digital technology, on the positive aspects that these tools can bring them but also in response to the problematic aspects linked to the use of the Internet (addictions, putting sensitive personal data online, exposure of a vulnerable public to certain risky practices such as radicalization or pornography for minors...)?
  • What benefits can social workers gain from digital tools to improve their professional practices?"
On July 3, the High Council for Social Work (HCTS), meeting in plenary session, approved a guideline text on the digital transition in social work, which will be made public after a final round of discussions with partner organizations. It will be progressively completed by practical sheets dealing with the different facets of digital intervention in social work.

The departmental councils of Seine-Saint-Denis, Loire-Atlantique and Isère, for their part, have undertaken to reflect together on thefuture of the social professions from the dual perspective of human resources and solidarity.

The Department of Calvados, for its part, organized a day devoted to the articulation between social work and digital technology last May.

Social work in the digital age

This is the theme of a special report published by the Revue française de service social

As an introduction to this dossier, Joran le Gall, President of the National Association of Social Service Assistants (Anas), observes that "social work has long been at a distance from the computer tool. In fact, in the core business of helping people, computers do not seem to be indispensable. Nevertheless, computerization is gradually penetrating social work in two ways: the dematerialization of administration (e-administration) and the computerization of social files.This dossier aims to provide answers to the following questions

The first part of the dossier(Information technology in social work, state of the art and challenges) sets out the general framework of computerization and its challenges, both in terms of the design of a tool and its daily use in a professional setting.

The second part(the dematerialization of administrations: new conditions for access to rights?) deals with the dematerialization of administrations and the questions it raises for access to rights for the public, as well as certain proposals currently being implemented in order to limit the non-use of rights by the people being supported.

The third part(IT as seen by professionals) deals with the relationship between professionals and the tool, a source of many questions for professionals in the field.

How to protect the personal data of the persons accompanied? 

The dematerialization of public services leads social workers to repeatedly ask the people they accompany to provide them with personal data in order to help them carry out their procedures online, or even to carry them out for them: declaration of quarterly situations on the CAF website, sending an email to a social organization, creating an email account, tax declaration, etc...

Social workers are thus increasingly asked to create e-mail boxes and make appointments in conditions of confidentiality that often raise questions: it is not uncommon for the access codes to the various accounts to be found in the drawers of the agents of the structures.

The HCTS Ethics and Deontology Commission had developed, in 2017, with the participation of the CNIL services, recommendations on "personal information about supported persons: data to be protected and sometimes shared".

To this end, the National Plan for Digital Inclusion provides for the creation of a " digital caregiver charter" . It also provides for the experimentation of a toolcalled "France Connect Aidants"which will allow social workers to identify themselves as a third party carrying out a procedure for someone else. This tool will secure the digital caregivers as well as the data of the people they are supporting.

The renovation of social work

The presence of social workers will be strengthened for the entire population in order to better support life paths, limit non-use and intervene before difficulties or breakdowns occur.

This implies working both on the places of social intervention, which must be more open and mutualized with services to families concerning the whole population, and on the missions of social workers, which are changing significantly due to the new place taken by users, the digital transformation in access to rights, as well as the evolution of forms of poverty.This new approach will require transforming training and certain social work professions in order to develop "outreach" practices, adapt to real needs and intervene in the event of events and breakdowns that can lead to exclusion.

Summary of the file Le travail social à l'épreuve du numérique of the Revue française de service social

Joran Le Gall : Editorial : IT in social work ?Computers in social work, state of the art and challenges
  • Thibault Jouannic : Incursion into the world of software development
  • Joran Le Gall, Sandrine Dumaine: Interview with Adrienne Charmet, campaigns coordinator at La Quadrature du Net
  • Didier Dubasque: When digital technology takes over our lives
Second part: the dematerialization of administrations: new conditions for access to rights?
  • Pierre Mazet: Implicit conditionalities and the production of inequalities: the hidden costs of administrative dematerialization
  • Reconnect team: Reconnect, digital technology for the autonomy of precarious people Matti Schneider : The conditions for adopting digital technology in social services Vincent Meyer, Audrey Bonjour, Élise Daragon : The digital social assistant and the socionaut
Part 3: IT as seen by professionals
  • Patrick Milhe Poutingon: Getting involved rather than undergoing, social work tested by the digital versus the digital tested by social work
  • Olga: Paths of a thought in computer country
  • Joëlle Arneodo, Mathilde Legrand : The social file in the digital age, the experience of a social café
  • Véronique Cornu : In social work, ethics should be an OCD
  • Muriel Bombardi, Keltoum Brahna When computerization rhymes with reification

    • Références :

Sources

Social work in the digital age

One of the 21 measures of the Poverty Plan, announced by the President of the Republic on September 12, concerns "the renovation of social work to better accompany people's lives"and to take into account, in particular, " the digital transformation of access to rights".

The High Council for Social Work (HCTS), convened a " Digital Use in Social Work" working group in 2018 to address the following issues:

  • "Why and how do social workers take (or need to take) hold of the digital issue?
  • How can social workers contribute to addressing the digital divide without replacing the actors in charge of this issue?
  • How can the social worker contribute to accompany people in the use of digital technology, on the positive aspects that these tools can bring them but also in response to the problematic aspects linked to the use of the Internet (addictions, putting sensitive personal data online, exposure of a vulnerable public to certain risky practices such as radicalization or pornography for minors...)?
  • What benefits can social workers gain from digital tools to improve their professional practices?"
On July 3, the High Council for Social Work (HCTS), meeting in plenary session, approved a guideline text on the digital transition in social work, which will be made public after a final round of discussions with partner organizations. It will be progressively completed by practical sheets dealing with the different facets of digital intervention in social work.

The departmental councils of Seine-Saint-Denis, Loire-Atlantique and Isère, for their part, have undertaken to reflect together on thefuture of the social professions from the dual perspective of human resources and solidarity.

The Department of Calvados, for its part, organized a day devoted to the articulation between social work and digital technology last May.

Social work in the digital age

This is the theme of a special report published by the Revue française de service social

As an introduction to this dossier, Joran le Gall, President of the National Association of Social Service Assistants (Anas), observes that "social work has long been at a distance from the computer tool. In fact, in the core business of helping people, computers do not seem to be indispensable. Nevertheless, computerization is gradually penetrating social work in two ways: the dematerialization of administration (e-administration) and the computerization of social files.This dossier aims to provide answers to the following questions

The first part of the dossier(Information technology in social work, state of the art and challenges) sets out the general framework of computerization and its challenges, both in terms of the design of a tool and its daily use in a professional setting.

The second part(the dematerialization of administrations: new conditions for access to rights?) deals with the dematerialization of administrations and the questions it raises for access to rights for the public, as well as certain proposals currently being implemented in order to limit the non-use of rights by the people being supported.

The third part(IT as seen by professionals) deals with the relationship between professionals and the tool, a source of many questions for professionals in the field.

How to protect the personal data of the persons accompanied? 

The dematerialization of public services leads social workers to repeatedly ask the people they accompany to provide them with personal data in order to help them carry out their procedures online, or even to carry them out for them: declaration of quarterly situations on the CAF website, sending an email to a social organization, creating an email account, tax declaration, etc...

Social workers are thus increasingly asked to create e-mail boxes and make appointments in conditions of confidentiality that often raise questions: it is not uncommon for the access codes to the various accounts to be found in the drawers of the agents of the structures.

The HCTS Ethics and Deontology Commission had developed, in 2017, with the participation of the CNIL services, recommendations on "personal information about supported persons: data to be protected and sometimes shared".

To this end, the National Plan for Digital Inclusion provides for the creation of a " digital caregiver charter" . It also provides for the experimentation of a toolcalled "France Connect Aidants"which will allow social workers to identify themselves as a third party carrying out a procedure for someone else. This tool will secure the digital caregivers as well as the data of the people they are supporting.

The renovation of social work

The presence of social workers will be strengthened for the entire population in order to better support life paths, limit non-use and intervene before difficulties or breakdowns occur.

This implies working both on the places of social intervention, which must be more open and mutualized with services to families concerning the whole population, and on the missions of social workers, which are changing significantly due to the new place taken by users, the digital transformation in access to rights, as well as the evolution of forms of poverty.This new approach will require transforming training and certain social work professions in order to develop "outreach" practices, adapt to real needs and intervene in the event of events and breakdowns that can lead to exclusion.

Summary of the file Le travail social à l'épreuve du numérique of the Revue française de service social

Joran Le Gall : Editorial : IT in social work ?Computers in social work, state of the art and challenges
  • Thibault Jouannic : Incursion into the world of software development
  • Joran Le Gall, Sandrine Dumaine: Interview with Adrienne Charmet, campaigns coordinator at La Quadrature du Net
  • Didier Dubasque: When digital technology takes over our lives
Second part: the dematerialization of administrations: new conditions for access to rights?
  • Pierre Mazet: Implicit conditionalities and the production of inequalities: the hidden costs of administrative dematerialization
  • Reconnect team: Reconnect, digital technology for the autonomy of precarious people Matti Schneider : The conditions for adopting digital technology in social services Vincent Meyer, Audrey Bonjour, Élise Daragon : The digital social assistant and the socionaut
Part 3: IT as seen by professionals
  • Patrick Milhe Poutingon: Getting involved rather than undergoing, social work tested by the digital versus the digital tested by social work
  • Olga: Paths of a thought in computer country
  • Joëlle Arneodo, Mathilde Legrand : The social file in the digital age, the experience of a social café
  • Véronique Cornu : In social work, ethics should be an OCD
  • Muriel Bombardi, Keltoum Brahna When computerization rhymes with reification

    • Références :

Sources

Labo Société Numérique

Labo République Française Agence nationale de cohésion des territoires
Social work in the digital age