Emerging Insights Series: AI and Children’s Social Care
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now ever-present in our daily lives and the option to apply AI tools to our needs, and our work, is leading to some universal, fundamental questions: What opportunities does AI offer? What are the possible challenges? As data-driven technologies, what ethical considerations are there?
In this new Emerging Insights Series of live webinars from CELCIS, we’ll be exploring what AI might mean for children’s social care, the services developed and practices used to respond to the care and protection needs of children, and what we all might need to learn about the impact AI is having in the lives of children, young people and their families.
These webinars will look at number of themes relevant to children’s social care, providing an opportunity to share and hear about different perspectives, new research, and practice experience, in discussion with contributing speakers from across the UK and further afield.
This free, online series, is open to anyone with a professional or personal interest and responsibility to support children and families.
The next three webinars in the series are now open to book.
What could AI mean for children’s social care?
15 January 2026
To mark the beginning of the series, this webinar considered what AI might mean for children’s social care in particular, by
- exploring some of the fundamental questions and potential opportunities and challenges of how AI is being used in practice,
and, in responding to the care and protection needs of children and young people, and supporting their families,
- looking at what is beginning to be understood about the influences and impacts of AI in children’s and young people’s lives.
Watch the webinar recording
Can AI improve decision-making and outcomes when it comes to children's care and protection?
10 February 2026
This webinar examined examples of where systems utilising AI have been built to be used to assist decision-making in responding to children’s care and protection needs. We looked at international case studies from the US, UK, and Canada, how these have been working, and exploring the safeguards considered, impacts, and what can be learned from these experiences.
The webinar recording will be available here soon.
What are the impacts of using AI transcription tools in social care?
When: Thursday 12 February 2026, 10.30am - 12.00pm
Where: Online - Microsoft Teams
This webinar will explore the experiences and attitudes towards using AI tools in note taking, meeting transcription and summarising actions in social work practice, as well as the wider impacts these technologies have on care. We’ll hear from frontline experiences and new research into how social workers and local authorities are deciding when and how to use these tools.
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Is AI your new critical friend in social work practice?
When: Wednesday 18 March 2026, 10.30am - 12.00pm
Where: Online - Microsoft Teams
In this webinar we will explore what the use of AI means for work that is founded on responding to human need, where ethical practice is essential. Can the use of AI co-exist with ways of working in social care that require critical thinking? How does relationship-based practice remain the central tenet of a practice where AI is used? What are the implications, challenges and opportunities for improving both the quality of social work practice and the quality of social work supervision?
Sign up for the webinarAI information resources
Find out more about Artificial Intelligence on our information resources page, which includes existing published guidelines, explainers and research relevant to practitioners with a responsibility for children’s care and protection, here.