Registration

• The registration form can be found by clicking on the tab at the top of this page labelled 'register'. Make sure you fill in all the fields marked with a red star.
• You can choose multiple regions / trusts by selecting one and then holding down the control key on windows or holding down the apple button on macs, whilst selecting additional regions / trusts.
• To receive updates on new content relevant to you, and the monthly Commissioning Support Programme newsletter, make sure you tick the boxes at the bottom and fill in your areas of interest.

Using your profile

• Make sure you enter a biography and upload a picture so that potential network contacts can see who you are and whether they share your interests. It also give your profile more of a personal touch and makes it easier to relate to. Here is one good example.
• Use the people finder (you need to be signed in to view this) to connect with people of a similar or interesting backgrounds to you.
• Share good practice, resources and knowledge to help improve commissioning in Children's Services by uploading documents, presentations and materials using the information exchange. You can also start discussions and create a group.

Groups

• Go to the groups section and under shortcuts click on ‘create a new group’
• Enter a title and description for your group and choose its privacy settings – it is best to make your group public and open so that everyone in the community can benefit from the material it generates. If however you want a group where you can share and discuss sensitive materials such as meeting minutes, setting it as private and unlisted will ensure noone outside the group will see its contents.
• To invite members, go to the group’s homepage, click on the ‘members’ button on the right and scroll down. ‘Add a member’ allows you to add existing members of the site to join your group. ‘Invite a member by email’ allows you to send an email to non-members, inviting them to join the group.
• It is important to remember that a person will need to register as a member of the site before they can join a group.

Starting a discussion

• You can start a group discussion from the main web page for each group by going to the right hand 'discussion forums' button, or from your profile by going to the left hand 'discussion forums' button. Then just click on 'write a new post'.
• Fill in the title and the body of the post and put some keywords related to your post in the 'tags' field so that it will come up in search. You can also choose whether you would like your post to be a discussion piece or a question to the community. Click on the tab 'preview' to see what it will look like before you publish it.
• Press 'post' to publish your piece then use the grey 'more' button to the right of your published post to send your discussion to select network contacts, and to edit or delete your post. It is good to send your discussion to your network as this ensures it will receive a response.
• Please contact us for further help.

Finding and sharing information

• You can upload any information you would like to share with the community under Information Exchange. Users will be able to access, view and download your files as well as give them a rating from 1 to 5 stars.
• Use the search box to type in any keywords for what you are looking for. The results will be presented in 'tabs" by the type of content e.g. a tab for Resource Bank, a tab for Information exchange, discussions etc. Results will also be sortable by relevance or by user's star ratings, which will help you find the most relevant and useful information by the type of content.

How to create a journal

• First of all, contact us so that we can enable you to create a journal.
• Once we have let you know that you can create a journal, go to the community section of the website and click on the left-hand tab labelled 'Journals'. Then on the right-hand side of the page, under shortcuts, click on 'Create new journal'. Fill in your journal details and click on save.
• To create a new journal post, access your journal via your profile, then on the right hand side of the page, click on 'Write a new post'.

Using peer review content

• You can create a peer-review wiki page either through your profile or through a group. This function enables you to create a page on the site that others can collaborate with by editing and commenting on it.
• In the community section of the website, click on the left-hand tab labelled 'Peer review content.' On the next page, choose a category under which you would like to create your page then choose 'Add page'. Fill in the contents details and click on save.
• Under groups, go to a group where you would like to create your peer-review page and click on the group homepage. On the right hand box, click on the tab labelled 'Peer review content', then click 'Add page'. Fill in the contents details and click on save.

TIP: You need to type text directly into peer review content pages. Copying and pasting into peer review from word or other documents will result in errors.

For help or queries please complete the form below or call us on 0207 960 6562

Thank you