Supercharging Practice with Purpose: Reflections from our Children’s Services Leadership Shared Learning Session

Last week Channel 3 were pleased to host a shared learning session which brought together a community of interested Children’s Services leaders to explore the ‘art of the possible’ in digitally ‘supercharging practice’ in social care and SEND, and the pitfalls to navigate.

Three big themes were really clear:

1.      There are huge opportunities to support the delivery of leaders’ priorities and many can be realised now – with today’s technologies – paying back quickly through productivity gains and opening up the much bigger win of a more relational, preventative system

2.      Technology should enhance practice, judgement and relationships – not replace them – and leaders can ensure the compass is set by what they need, not the tech

3.      There are some risks – and these can be addressed by being mindful of them from the outset.

We were privileged to hear from Sir Stuart Carlton, Corporate Director of Children’s and Young People Services at North Yorkshire, whose input was compelling and inspiring (cue “mind blowing” comments!). Sir Stuart shared how he and his team are using AI to radically reduce administrative burdens (by 94% in some cases), surface hidden insights, and create the conditions for practitioners to spend more time with children and families, make sound professional judgements and “do quality social work”.

From boosting the range and number of family connections identified from 6 to 63, through giving social workers an extra half a day back every week to do the high value add, relational work, to supporting them to make judgements based on the right information (24 clicks reduced to 7), these innovations are real, scalable, and grounded in ethical, outstanding (capital O in North Yorkshire’s case) practice.

It was evident from the start that this wasn’t a tech showcase but a values-led conversation. Leaders shared excitement about the potential of these and other use cases to drive prevention, partnership working, permanence and personalisation – particularly as part of the Families First designs. They also raised important concerns: biases, data privacy, digital inequality, and the risk of de-personalising care.

What became clear was the collective recognition that leadership must be proactive and principled. With powerful tools now within reach, the challenge is not just to adopt them, but to do so with the end in mind – ensuring that ethical considerations, equity, and relational practice are embedded from the start.

At Channel 3, we’re committed to supporting that leadership. We’re co-producing a national blueprint for technology-enabled children’s services, shaped by the wisdom and experience of leaders, practitioners and children, young people and their families. This session was a great step on that journey.

Thank you to everyone who joined, shared, and challenged. We’ll be reconvening early autumn to continue the conversation. If you’d like to contribute to the blueprint, join future sessions or explore where to start, just get in touch.

Written by Al Thompson, Partner, Channel 3 Consulting