Responsible use of AI in social work with children and families

A recent UK survey by Bright et al and the Alan Turing Institute looked at AI use in five public sector areas – the NHS, emergency services, social work, schools and universities – drawing their findings from responses from 938 participants. They found that generative AI (GenAI) use is already widespread in the public sector. What was particularly interesting about this finding is that while GenAI is relatively new, they found it was more widespread than other forms of AI such as decision-making tools.

They highlight the bottom-up impact of AI in that anybody in the workforce can use access GenAI tools as they aren't reliant on the organisations investing in specific AI technologies. They also noted that a key driver of GenAI use was productivity; more than 80% of social care respondents felt GenAI could enhance productivity and help reduce bureaucracy. The NHS respondents felt AI had the potential to save them one day of their working week. Many thought AI could help to improve public services but felt the UK was missing out on opportunities [to deliver this] and noted a lack of employer guidance. Despite the high usage of AI tools, half of respondents felt there was a lack of clear guidance from employers on how to use GenAI systems and nearly half were unsure who was accountable for any GenAI outputs that they used in their work.