New research published today, Monday 3rd February, outlines a tool called ‘Magic Notes’ is cutting the amount of time social workers spend on paperwork in half.
Professor Rob Procter, a fellow at the Alan Turing Institute for Data Science and AI, conducted the research by analysing meta-data from more than 900 recordings made by the tool, and conducted interviews with social workers.
Magic Notes is a software that was created by Beam – a social enterprise founded in 2017 that provides AI to welfare services. The tool assists by creating the paperwork needed – using generative AI – after social workers have recorded a meeting on their smartphone or computer.
And assist it does. The research from Professor Procter, who also works in the Department of Computer Science at Warwick University, discovered social workers at one third of UK councils are spending 50% less time on paperwork. What’s more, if the findings were replicated across all local authorities in England and Wales, social workers could save a quarter of a million hours of admin ever year.
Arguably this research couldn’t have come at a better time. Not only have the Department for Education declared social care as ‘critically understaffed’, it follows government plans to leverage technology and AI tools into the public service sector. Ministers have claimed tech will be able to help eliminate delays, reduce costs and improve data sharing.
‘The government’s ambitions of improving public services rest heavily on AI being able to deliver significant increases in public sector productivity,’ Professor Procter said. ‘My research into Magic Notes provides evidence that this is attainable providing a genuine effort is made to involve the people who will be using AI: and demonstrates the potential benefits that can be achieved when investment in technology is grounded in an understanding of the work it is intended to assist.
‘For social workers, the AI tool is having a clear impact on the number of people they can support, but also on the quality of services delivered to clients and the wellbeing of frontline staff.’
Seb Barker, co-founder and chief operating officer at Beam, added that you don’t just have to take Procter’s word for how beneficial AI technology could be for social care.
He remarked: ‘Social workers will tell you themselves: they are spending too much time typing and not enough time talking to people face-to-face. This report confirms what our partners have told us, and what a lot of officials have hoped: generative AI has the power to fix huge problems with the social care sector and can radically reshape the nature of public sector work.
‘At Ealing Council, Magic Notes has been rolled out to more than 100 Social Workers across adult care teams, with a pilot beginning in the children’s team.’
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