Making Middlesbrough one of the safest places for a child to grow up online.
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Background
Ralph Jordinson is co-chair of the Digital Resilience Networking Group (DRNG) and Risk and Resilience coordinator for the Vulnerable, Exploited, Missing and Trafficked (VEMT) practitioners group in Middlesbrough. Here he shares how the UKCIS digital resilience framework has supported and informed the groups work.
A few years ago, a Middlesbrough Executive set about achieving a goal similar to the government’s - to aspire to be one of the safest places for a child to grow up online. Influenced by the UK Council for Internet Safety (UKCIS) Sexting in schools and colleges guidance, and the Children’s Commissioner for England’s ‘Growing up digital’ report, some fantastic developments and targets have emerged, which are now being rolled out in our sub-region. We have also been exploring how we might utilise the new UK Council for Internet Safety Digital Resilience Framework to achieve our ambition.
"The Digital Resilience Framework has heavily influenced our approach to all risk-taking behaviour in Middlesbrough"
How we used the digital resilience framework
We have completely changed our approach, even down to changing the name of our unit from the Risk Reduction Team to the Risk and Resilience Team, and we now adopt a similar resilience framework for all risk interventions, not just for those that are digital.
This has taken a number of different forms:
Understand when they are at risk online – make informed decisions about the digital space they are in
Our model promotes a widespread understanding of the risks young people face online. We develop understanding through a 4 Pilar Digital Resilience Model:
Digital Networking Group
Alert System and Disruption
Voice of the child
Digital Parenting and Workforce Development
We promote educational models linked with the PSHE Associations programme of study on Digital Resilience. We also recommend the development of whole school approaches to PSHE and RSE with all of our member schools. We have also developed delivery models using young people and parents as educators.
Know what to do to seek help online
We actively promote several agencies for reporting something when things go wrong via our MASH. For our parents, we promote services such as Parent Info and THINKUKNOW. For Children, the teams working young people work closely with the Risk and Resilience Team sitting on the Strategic Vulnerable, Exploited, Missing and Trafficked practitioners group (VEMT).
Recover when things go wrong online and receive the appropriate support
Working closely with partners from enforcement we bring the topic of digital resilience to the VEMT. We also offer Digital Parenting workshops to all parents whose children have taken risks online to embed parenting as an important part of the recovery process.
Learn from experience
Our model promotes the message of not simply avoiding risks online or using scare tactics, we reinforce that in many cases exploration of the online world is essential to modern-day living. We share best practice with members of the Digital Resilience Networking Group on how to make improvements around Digital Resilience and our Digital Parenting element supports young people and parents/carers to reflect on previous online harm incidents.
"We need new approaches to resilience that don’t alarm children with scare-stories. We need to help them understand that technology is a fantastic tool"
Why the digital resilience framework was helpful
The unit coordinates a multi-agency response to online risk-taking behaviours across the town - a big remit, which involves talking about relationships and sex education; harmful behaviours; county lines; sexual exploitation; and everything in between - that in-between part often being digital safeguarding. We want agencies not only to be aware of the risks to young people but also of how they will equip them to learn, adapt and recover when something goes wrong. The message of Understand, Know, Learn and Recover should be fundamental in all risk-reduction approaches. The digital resilience framework is helping us to achieve this in a very practical way.