Relationship skills protect against a 'robot revolution'

The impact of this on the lives of individuals and welfare of families could be profound, particularly in deprived areas where alternative employment opportunities may be harder to find. Experience from the early 1980s shows that when an area's employment conditions quickly deteriorate, it can blight whole communities for decades, resulting in social and economic decay.

While the "robot revolution" is an economic fact of life, machines cannot be programmed to build the strong relationships that underpin the caring professions. The relationships forged between those providing and receiving care can be instrumental in determining good outcomes.

The importance of relationships has been brought into sharp focus in recent years in children's social work (see Special Report). Professor Eileen Munro's 2011 review of child protection prompted a reassessment of what was wanted from social workers. The profession had become bogged down with bureaucracy and distant from those they were trying to help - time spent on face-to-face contact with children and families was being increasingly consumed by the burden of record keeping and form filling.