What is it for? Where to find it How to use the forum 19 April 2012: Item 7b ESSP Forum What is it for? Where to find it How to use the forum What’s it for? As a result of feedback and the communications questionnaire last summer, we identified that developing an ‘ESSP forum’ would be a focus of the Communications and engagement priority area as it would be a useful tool for facilitating internal communications and engagement. It is an informal setting which is: Available to ESSP Members/ delegates/ official observers only Is moderated (each forum has a relevant moderator - someone who sits on that thematic working group and can therefore use the forum to share relevant information and also are informed to answer any questions that members post on in that particular forum) It allows for: Discussion outside of meetings Sharing information – reports/updates (can be draft versions as it is a ‘closed’ forum) Themes can promote work e.g: By sharing updates such as the monthly Families with Multiple Problems newsletter; or Sharing draft strategies- we may see that the Cultural and/or Health and Wellbeing Strategy ask for comments in the coming year A space for questions from members (which can be answered by the moderators of each forum) A space for suggestions from members

Where to find it: Go to the ESSP website (www.essp.org.uk) Click to ‘Forum’ tab on the top navigation bar

How to use it: As mentioned, the forum is only available to ESSP members, delegates, official observers and the ‘moderator’ allocated to each them, so users need to log in. Login by entering your username and password (you were emailed this information in March). If you would like us to resend your details, email the ESSP inbox (essp@eastsussex.gov.uk). If you click ‘remember me’ then you will only need to enter your details the once. If you would like to nominate another member of your organisation to have login details, email the ESSP inbox (essp@eastsussex.gov.uk).

This will be the first page you will see after logging in- the list of our forums. There is a forum for each of the ESSP’s thematic group, and one for each of the ESSP’s 3 priority areas.

If you scroll down the page, the most recent posts and active discussions are highlighted, so you can easily find any new ‘posts’ This means that you don’t have to go in and check every forum individually

If there is a particular forum that interests you, you can also select to ‘Watch Forum’ which means you will receive an email notification when there are new posts on the forum Even if you are ‘watching’ the forums that interest you the most, log in regularly to see what else may have been updated.

From the list of forums you can select one to look at.

Under each of our forums there may be a number of discussion topics. On the Families with Multiple Problems update for example, there is a ‘background’ topic, a ‘February update’ and a ‘March update’ topic Any of you can start a new topic if there is something you would like to share/ discuss which doesn’t already have a topic. Click ‘New topic’ …

You will get this screen. Creating the text is very much like a Word doc- bold/ bullets etc You can add: Documents Images Hyperlinks You can ‘preview’ before you ‘post’ to check it looks how you want it to.

Here is an example of the first post on a discussion topic.

This post includes a link Useful- for example: Draft strategies Reports ‘for information’ Newsletters Updates

If you would like to comment on an existing topic, click either ‘Post a reply’ or ‘Quick reply’… You could do this if you want to ask or answer a question about to original post, or keep the discussion going.

You will get this screen You will get this screen. As you will see it works in the same way as starting a new topic. You can preview before you ‘post’ and add links when posting a reply.

If you find something really useful or would like to praise a bit of work, then you can ‘thank’ the person who posted the item

If you would like to look at details about your ‘account’, click on ‘My Profile’ which is always in the top left corner of the screen This takes you to the ‘control panel’

As you can see it displays your key details, and gives you a list of options on the Left hand side so that you can personalise your account. For example you can: Add an ‘Avatar’- a profile picture- this could be a photo of you or your organisation’s logo Add a ‘signature’- just like an email auto signature Change your password- recommended as the ones you have currently, we allocated

And finally, make sure you log out to stop anyone else accessing your account. If you have any questions or require any support, get in touch via essp@eastsussex.gov.uk.