Stoke-on-Trent council explores AI to speed up EHCPs
Delyth Mathieson, assistant director of education and family support, said each young person received a range of different reports and until now, individual case workers pulled elements together.She said: "What we're looking at is a process whereby we can upload those reports, securely obviously, so that the information is collated and dropped into the format automatically and intelligently."The process still involved a case worker who knows the children, she told the children and family services overview and scrutiny committee.That case worker went through each individual report to check for any misunderstandings by the AI, she added.Ms Mathieson said the approach also freed up case workers to "focus on the quality of that report, rather than a cut-and-paste exercise".Committee member Laura Carter, welcomed the move, adding: "If we have the option of bringing in technology, then why not use it?"The council said it had cleared its backlog and provisional figures for April showed 83% of EHCPs were issued within 20 weeks.The authority has also recruited more educational psychologists, changed how applications are processed, and increased early intervention to reduce demand.
This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, which covers councils and other public service organisations.
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