CareSpace forum to close at the end of December

CareSpace screen grab

After much deliberation, we have made the difficult decision to permanently close the CareSpace forum from 31 December 2013.

CareSpace members have been telling us for some time that the forums are out of date and increasingly difficult to use and are not offering the kind of service we would want to provide.

Our licence with the platform provider expires at the end of the year and we have decided that we are not in a position to renew the licence and develop the forum in the manner we would like over the coming years.

The internet landscape has changed significantly since CareSpace was launched in 2008. There are many other opportunities to get involved in online discussion and debate with peers, most notably Twitter and Facebook.  Community Care has a dedicated presence on both platforms and strong social work communities have also flourished on both. We have recently introduced the functionality for comments under our articles, which is fostering lively debate,  and regularly hold live internet chats based around particular practice topics. You can find details about how to get involved with all these initiatives here

We will be exploring whether we can develop a forum on a new platform in 2014 and we will let you know as soon as we have more information.

The CareSpace forums will close for new comments on Friday 20 December but will remain open for private messages until 31 December.  From January 1, 2014, the forums will be locked for a period of two months before being removed.

Your Community Care accounts will remain active following the closure of CareSpace to allow you to manage your email newsletters and account details. You can find more details about managing your accounts here

We would like to thank everyone who has contributed to CareSpace over the years and has helped to make it such a valuable resource for many social workers, students and care professionals.

Simeon Brody

Managing web editor, Community Care

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