Hands on the wheel? Managing automation processes in social work

The public sector is automating. In 2019, 13 major Swedish government agencies made some 148 million decisions concerning individuals and companies. Of these, 137 million were part of automated decision-making processes with 121 million fully automated. Automation, machines taking over humans’ judgement, is everywhere.

For example, self-driving cars are today able to take over many decisions from a human driver.

When humans learn that machines can do a good job, we tend to “take our hands off the wheel”.Automation within social work is controversial and meets both professional and legal resistance.

International research further notes risks regarding decision quality,  transparency, accountability, client relations, and changed role of the professionals.The yet sparse Swedish research is often focusing on effects, “how automation changes…” something. But automation is not a foreign attack by technology that causes sudden change, it is a social change process.

Both technology and the use of it change over time, and this process can be managed.

Automation is an ongoing development requiring change management – how is decision quality maintained when robots take over an increasing share of the work? How can clients be involved in shared decision making?

How does the robot inform the humans about the limits, or uncertainties, of their decision, like when the car tells us to put our hands back on the wheel?We investigate a selection of social service authorities regarding their understanding and managing of the ongoing automation process.

What measures do they take to achieve improvement and avoid negative effects on the core values that, by law, policies and professional standards, guide the social services? How is the automation process monitored and adjusted?

The contribution to the participating authorities is direct assistance, to other agencies guidelines and suggestions for leading and managing automation.