Frequently asked questions for Children's Services Online accounts

What records should I have access to?

Foster carers should have access to their own record and those of any children currently in their care.

When a placement ends, your worker should remove your access to that child's record after a grace period of 7 days. Within that time you can complete any outstanding recordings or forms relating to the child.

The child's worker will offer parents, guardians or other members of a child's network a Children's Services Online account where appropriate. We will give you access to that child's record.

How do I gain access to a child's Portal record?

You're not able to request access to new records via the Portal yourself. This is for security purposes.

If you need access to a new record, then you need to inform your worker so they can arrange this for you.

What's the difference between a My Norfolk account and a Children's Services Online (Portal) account?

You may already have a My Norfolk account if you have previously created an account via the Norfolk County Council website. For example, you may have done this to apply for a scaffolding license or register a birth online.

You'll only have a Children's Services Online (Portal) account if we invited you, via an email, to hold an account.

You must have a My Norfolk account to have a Children's Services Online account. But you do not need to have a Children's Services Online account to hold a My Norfolk account.

The phone number I use to login to my account has changed. How do I change this on the Portal?

To do this you need to contact your worker. They'll let the Portals team know so that they can delete the number currently associated with your account from the system.

Once we've deleted the old number, when you next attempt to login you'll get the option to input the new phone number. You cannot change the phone number associated with your Portal account yourself.

How do I change my account password?

You can change your Children's Services Online password by using the 'Forgot your password?' option from the login screen.

Please note, when you change your Children's Services Online password you are also changing your My Norfolk password.

I'm trying to setup an account, but the system says there's already someone with my details registered

This means your email was previously used to create a 'MyNorfolk' account. You do not need to select "Sign up now", but instead need to log in using the credentials provided before.

If you've forgotten your password, you can request a change of password at the login screen.

I was completing a message but had to leave my device for a while and now it's disappeared

The system will automatically timeout if you're inactive for 15 minutes. After 10 minutes of inactivity, a 5-minute countdown will display at the top of the screen to remind you. To stop this, select or type in a field to keep the session active.

If you lose a message due to a timeout, you cannot recover it. If you want to send a message but think you might need to stop for 15 minutes or more, you can type the message into a document (without saving it) and then copy and paste the text into the message.

My message/Foster Carer Recording is jumping to the top of the page when I type

This is due to the message being very large. If you want to send a long message, you can type it into a document (without saving it) then copy and paste the text into the message.