Evaluation of the University of Kent’s Consortium Project to Explore How Technology Can Support Young People in Care

The overall aim of the project was to find out how young people in care, who might have experienced traumatic events in their lives, linked their context and experiences with their emotional state and behaviour. It also looked to discover whether the young people could co-design behavioural and support technologies and then integrate them into a service to help improve their lives.

The project included four waves of co-design workshops held with young people, their carers and social workers, to scope out a new digital service for vulnerable young people. The co-design strand of the project employed design studio Snook’s citizen engagement and co-design methodology, which is drawn from the Design Council’s “Double Diamond” methodology – in this, two diamonds represent a process of exploring an issue more widely or deeply (divergent thinking) and then taking focused action (convergent thinking).