The Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration has published a ground-breaking piece of new research. The report ‘Digital Poverty and Exclusion in Scotland: Digital Lives of Care Experienced Children’ looks at digital exclusion in the Children’s Hearings System.
The study focuses on the impact of Children’s Hearings System’s move to a digital platform during the pandemic, and the wider issue of the digital divide facing care experienced young people. It also explores how digital poverty and exclusion was heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The research tackles the assumption that all children and young people are ‘digital natives’ and that there is a high level of access to digital devices and the internet. In addition, the research highlighted the rural v urban digital divide
The report ends with 10 recommendations which suggest ways in which the Children’s Hearings System could make changes to bridge the digital divide for those with lived experience of the care sector.
You can read the report here. There is also a one page summary version available.
