THOUGHTS ABOUT DIGITALISATION IN MY FIELD OF EXPERTISE
I have been working in the social field for a decade and I feel that digitalisation has landed properly in the sector in the last few years. Utilization of the technology lagged behind for a long time, but the coronavirus pandemic forced us to think about customer reachability and guidance in a new ways.
The social sector has strong regulations and values governing data protection and customer security. I believe that due to the prevailing strict regulations and the values of social work, the transition towards digitalization has been slow. There are fears about information security risks, which have hampered the development and indtroduction of new IT-solutions.
However, Corona pandemic was a turning point. For example, it has been gratifying to see an increase in the informative and customer-friendly use of social media in the social sector. Korona drove people to their homes and social workers had to start looking for new ways to reach them. In a last few years the use of social media and various communication and collaboration platforms became everyday tools. For example, social work and child welfare have dared to set up their own social media channels to share information and moments from everyday life. Such social media channels make social work transparent and, at best, dispel prejudices against social work.
FUTURE
The fact is that people in challenging life situations are burdened with queuing and bureaucracy for social and health services. New technologies could be used more effectively to improve the accessibility of social services. Various chats and bots have begun to find their foothold in social guidance. With bots and chats, the customer can get a quick answer to their question or guidance on finding the right service.
I have been wondering how I could take advantage of the bot-service in my own work. Next fall, I will start develop and build a compulsory education- bot targeted at students, guardians and schools . With the help of the Bot, I am trying to reduce my own workload and provide a quick way to get information on issues related to the Finnish compulsory education reform.
However, in the midst of the digital revolution, I would like to say that humanity must never be forgotten in the social field. We cannot replace everything with technology. With the help of technology, we can increase the accessibility of services and build various technological solutions to support social work. However, genuine human encounters cannot be replaced by technology. Individuals or families in challenging life situations need empathy and humanity. I believe that a genuine encounter with a customer cannot be achieved remotely or with the help of artificial intelligence.
DATA PROTECTION IMPACT ASSESSMENT (DPIA)
Surprisingly, the General European Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and in particular Article 35 of the Regulation (DPIA), have become very familiar to me over the past year. I have been developing and implementing a new case management system for the City of Kuopio in connection with compulsory education reform. The development work has been done together with Visma.
As I earlier mentioned, there are very strict regulations and laws in place in the social sector that protect the data security and privacy of the customer. In this respect, the objectives and requirements of the general data protection regulation of the European Union are an integral part of my work and approach. The starting point for the acquisition of the new case management system has also been to secure the customer’s data protection issues and the secure storage of data. The acquisition and implementation of the new system was preceded by a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) in accordance with Article 35 of the GDPR. A data protection impact assessment should be carried out whenever there is a risk to the processing of personal data. It assesses the risks associated with the processing of personal data and the controller’s means of responding to those risks.
Overall, the effects and objectives of the data protection reform are good and strengthen the protection of individual privacy. But after going through one effectiveness evaluation process, I can see the employment impact of the regulation! The process was long, cumbersome, and took tens of hours for several workers.
You can read more about this topic:
Kuopion kaupunki pilotoi Assia laajennetun oppivelvollisuuden tukena (wilma.fi)
SELF-EVALUATION
Building a blog has been extremely fun. I am a visual person and instead of texts I found myself honing the look of a blog.
Through this Digi Society-section, I realized that I had been dealing with the European Union’s general data protection regulation throughout the past year. In the darkest moments of winter, I struggled with impact assessments and wondered what the huge process was based on. I did not get a clear answer then, but now I am much wiser.
With the assignment, I stopped to consider the digitalisation of the social sector. I feel that there is still a lot to do in that area and I realized that I could still have a lot to say about it. The assignment thus strengthened my own professional identity and encouraged me to continue to develop the digitalisation of the social sector from my own work.
MY COMMENTS: