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Aipedia: Social workers
AI can help sort and summarise safeguarding referrals, but a missed concern in a summary can mean a child or adult at risk goes unprotected. Social workers must read beyond the summary and share identified risks.
Part of: AI in social work
In short
Front doors and multi-agency safeguarding hubs (MASH) handle high volumes of referrals, and AI tools that summarise, categorise or prioritise them are attractive. The danger is a summary that leaves out the detail that mattered, or a priority rating that buries an urgent case. Social Work England standard 3.9 requires social workers to make sure colleagues and agencies know about identified risks, and 3.11 requires records that show how decisions were reached. If something goes wrong, the use of AI in triage is likely to be examined in any later safeguarding review.
Referrals arrive from schools, police, health services and the public in many formats. AI tools can extract key facts, suggest a category or priority, summarise previous involvement and draft the initial record. In a MASH, summaries may be shared with partner agencies. SWE's research found AI use across social work is uneven and that employer policies vary.
The time saved can be real, and in a busy hub it may be the difference between a referral being read today or tomorrow. But the same summary may become the version of the referral that most people read, and any decision about threshold, strategy discussion or early help can follow from it.
Several existing duties apply to this work:
Where a tool's output leads directly to a significant decision without meaningful human review, UK GDPR Articles 22A to 22D, inserted by section 80 of the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, may also apply.
Summaries compress. A referral that mentions a disclosure in passing, a pattern of minor incidents, or a professional's unease may come out of a summary looking routine. Categorisation tools may file a referral under the most obvious heading and miss a second concern. Priority scores may reflect the wording of the referral rather than the risk.
SWE's executive director warned in a GOV.UK blog that biased data can wrongly label people "low priority". In safeguarding that is the error that matters most.
Illustrative scenario: a school referral describes low attendance and, in the final paragraph, a comment the child made about an adult at home. The AI summary records the attendance issue and suggests early help. The MASH worker reads the summary, not the full referral, and the comment is not shared with police or health partners. A later incident leads to a safeguarding review, which asks why the disclosure was not acted on and finds that the full referral was never read.
Safeguarding reviews after serious incidents look at how agencies and practitioners handled information. Where AI was involved, a review is likely to ask what the tool did, what the practitioner read and whether risks were shared. The council's decisions and tools are its responsibility and claims are usually handled through its arrangements. Individual practice can still be referred to SWE; see AI errors and fitness to practise.
Independent social workers or consultants working in or advising a MASH should check their PI and contract terms; see does PI cover AI mistakes?.
Put these controls in place:
Related: predictive risk tools and AI in supervision and caseload management.
Apex arranges PI for independent social workers and safeguarding consultants. A broker can check how your cover treats advice and triage work involving AI tools; see PI for social workers and children's services and the AI in social work hub.
Use it as an aid, not a substitute. Read the full referral before making a decision, check that every concern raised appears in the summary, and record that you did so. Standard 3.9 requires identified risks to be shared, which depends on spotting them.
Yes. Standard 3.9 is about making sure colleagues and agencies know about identified risks. If a summary shared with partners omits a risk, the duty may not be met, so check summaries before they go out.
Agree this with partners and your employer. A summary is quicker to read, but if it is the only version a partner sees, any omission travels with it. Many services will want key partners to have access to the original where risk is involved.
It is likely, if AI played a part in how information was handled. Reviews look at what was known, by whom and what was done. A clear record of what you read and how you decided is the best protection.
Tell us about your firm and the work you do. A broker will review how your current PI treats AI-assisted work, or arrange new cover. No fee for a quote. Or call 0117 325 0027.
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