Restoring the heart of Social Care with AI
Articles
- 27 Feb, 2025
- 130 Views
- 0 Comment
This week, I had a conversation with a friend about whether I thought our new AI tool for drafting EHC Plans would mean job losses at Local Authorities. This is a concern that many people have about the use of AI. However, I am genuinely passionate about our AI tool, EHCP Plus because it’s about making the input of caseworkers more impactful, and no less essential to the process. The Caseworkers can have confidence in the AI-generated drafts while the ‘human in the loop’ approach ensures that their expertise is still important and that they remain in the driver’s seat.
This strikes the perfect balance: AI handles the heavy lifting of drafting (piecing the plan together from the professional reports), while the Caseworker’s oversight and edits ensure that the final plan is accurate, personalised, and fully reflects the child’s needs. It’s not about replacing caseworkers but enabling them to focus on high-value, skilled tasks. As a result, this tool saves precious time for caseworkers, which is crucial in a sector that is already stretched thin. The human in the loop approach allows for a quicker turnaround of EHC plans without sacrificing quality, so that caseworkers can maintain the vital, nuanced judgement needed.
Local authorities are then able to meet their statutory deadlines every time, as well as clear backlogs faster and generally deliver better outcomes for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). I can see the huge benefits that EHCP Plus will bring to Local Authorities and am thrilled to see the councils already onboarding with us using the tool and reporting completing plans in 1 – 2 hours ( a time saving of 50 – 60%). Exciting times!
