Digital Solutions: Policy context

Unable to attend meetings in person, open centres or undertake home visits for months at a time, local authorities and other statutory and voluntary agencies rapidly scaled up digital systems to maintain contact with children and families – and ensure practitioners could continue to deliver support.

The pandemic highlighted how digital services can be part of the solution to delivering care and support to vulnerable children and families – and, in some cases, provide new ways of tackling problems previously unrealised. But it also illustrated what its limitations are and why digital approaches cannot fully replace all in-person provision.

“Face-to-face communication is essential in some circumstances to ensure families and children are receiving the support they need,” says Hannah Saunders and Fiona Gold, public services experts at PA Consulting. “But a lot of the time, virtual meetings, pop-up clinics and video-only surgeries provide more benefits. They save valuable practitioner time and offer a different way to interact that can better suit a variety of personalities [and] in a place where the service user feels comfortable.”