UK to outfit social workers with mobile IT

The U.K. government has announced UK$13 million funding to boost mobile working by children’s social workers.

The money from the Department for Education and Skills is aimed at helping employers invest in mobile devices, laptops and PDAs.

Children’s minister Parmjit Dhanda said: “Supplying social workers with mobile technology will result in significant time savings, allowing more flexibility. This will ultimately result in social workers spending more time having face to face meetings with the people they are there to support – society’s most vulnerable children.”

He added: “This UK $13 million grant will help the sector to continue adopting new and better ways of working.”

Guidance on spending the money will be sent to local authority children’s services directors shortly, coinciding with a spring report on the children’s services workforce strategy.

The DfES said grants would be conditional on mobile devices having appropriate security capabilities and on staff receiving training on security issues, with the uploading or downloading of caseload data subject to both physical and program security requirements.

The issue of data security for staff working with children was highlighted earlier this week when an NHS primary care trust admitted a laptop containing names, addresses and dates of birth of 11,500 children had been stolen from its office. Nottinghamshire teaching PCT said it did not know why the children’s data was held on the laptop, which was protected only with a password.

Related content:

Voice is the lifeblood of the telecommuter

Most firms offer telecommuting

SARS piques interest in teleworking

U.S. legislators rally for telework adoption

Would you recommend this article?

Share

Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think of this article!
We'd love to hear your opinion about this or any other story you read in our publication.


Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

Featured Download

Featured Articles

Cybersecurity in 2024: Priorities and challenges for Canadian organizations 

By Derek Manky As predictions for 2024 point to the continued expansion...

Survey shows generative AI is a top priority for Canadian corporate leaders.

Leaders are devoting significant budget to generative AI for 2024 Canadian corporate...

Related Tech News

Tech Jobs

Our experienced team of journalists and bloggers bring you engaging in-depth interviews, videos and content targeted to IT professionals and line-of-business executives.

Tech Companies Hiring Right Now