Introduction

In Chapter One, key concepts in ICT were defined and its growth across society was explored in a number of welfare, leisure and commercial settings. In this chapter, the focus is on introducing the key issues and applications of ICT to the social welfare professional and practitioner. The essential context for the delivery of – and citizen experience of – social welfare services will be provided in a broad outline of seven major concepts of social policy and an introduction to their relationship with ICT.

The concepts of social rights and citizenship, and their interrelationship, will be examined first. This will lead to a discussion of how social needs can be met, in particular moving on to the principles of addressing access to services by marginalised groups. The contribution of advocacy and self-help will be introduced here. This will provide a basis for exploring several dimensions of community and capitalism – the thesis of commodification and how it underpins notions of consumerism, citizenship and empowerment. Finally, we shall look at the role of community development and the current emphasis on the cultivation of social capital.

Subsequent chapters will refer to these core social policy concepts. Indeed, a central, recurring theme will be that ICT is irrevocably part of the social welfare equation. ICT both helps professionals to work within and across their disciplines and agency boundaries and can directly enhance citizens’ accessibility, convenience and needs satisfaction in receiving social welfare services. This central thesis will be analysed at ‘micro’ levels of professional and organisational practices in Chapters Four to Seven, at a ‘macro’ level of e-government policies in Chapter Eight, and through the individual as ‘citizen’ versus ‘consumer’ debate, which we return to in Chapter Nine.

The second part of the chapter will consider central aspects of the safeguards for ensuring confidentiality of data and privacy of information. This will include the importance of Internet safety for a particularly vulnerable group of users: children and young people.

Key concepts of social policy

Social rights

It was only in the modern period that (social) rights came to be seen as “rights to resources (to welfare, health, education, income and social security)”. Previously, rights were conceptualised as civil (freedom from coercion) and political (right to vote), and relief from poverty or ill-health was not conceived in terms of rights and citizenship (Plant, 1992, p 15).