Apps the way to help kids to stay in control of lives

Children using social services provided by Central Beds Council are to be given access to an app, Mind of My Own (MOMO), which helps them to talk about and influence the care they receive and share concerns and worries about their lives.

Central Bedfordshire is the latest council to invest in the technology which has been co-designed with children and young people. The app uses child-focused language and design to encourage young service users to share their thoughts using a tablet or phone screen.

Central Bedfordshire’s Executive Member for Social Care and Housing Councillor Carole Hegley said: “The MOMO app means young people who use our services can give us feedback immediately and in a way that they are comfortable with. The feedback we’ve had from young people who have already used MOMO is that it’s really easy to use and they like using it.

“We hope that more and more young people will use the app to give us more feedback so we can continually improve our services and respond quickly to any problems raised.”