Starting in April 2025 with a £1.8 million grant the SCALE Centre for Social Care and AI Learning will seek to build an evidence base for the use of AI in social care.

Stuart Allen, Professor of Informatics and Director of SCALE says:

“I am really excited to be able to apply the expertise of the School of Computer Science to improving social care for adults and children. Our initial Welsh Summit on the topic generated many ideas for projects that could make a positive difference and I can’t wait to get started.”

Donald Forrester, Deputy Director of SCALE and Professor of Child and Family Social Work adds:

“AI is changing the world in new and unexpected ways and its influence can be seen in social work in all sorts of ways. We have heard examples of exciting ways to support practice or provide services, or uses that sound unethical or even dangerous. The aim of SCALE is to delivery research centred on those who use services and based on strong ethical principles to make sure that AI can help social workers and others do their job better.”

SCALE will be based in Cardiff University’s SPARK Social Science Park and is a collaboration between the School of Computer Science, CASCADE Centre for Children’s Social Care and the CARE Centre for Adult Social Care Research.

If you would like to know more or become involved SCALE please contact scale@cardiff.ac.uk