Mary Daly addresses AI and Care Summit

Emerita Fellow Professor Mary Daly gave the keynote address at a major event in Oxford on Thursday 26 March on ‘What do we mean by social care?’

She explained the system of social care in England with provision in both institutional settings and home care, and encompassing both formal and informal care.

Professor Daly explored both structural issues and those relating to a reconsideration of the vision, value and understanding of care – to explain why it is hard to ‘get it right’ and how progress can be made. She also discussed the ethical basis that should inform care policy,

‘At present the ethics come from general principles of the system and often reflect the priorities of elites and the most powerful, including professionals.

‘An alternative ethics would draw its principles from what is involved in tending to needs and well-being and recognise that as humans we are all inter-related and interdependent rather than independent.’

Professor Daly concluded by arguing that a series of steps are needed to change the vision and practice, including:

• Time and space to discuss and work out values around care through a series of national conversations
• Consensus building, including consultative exercises such as the Summit itself is show the way
• Resources and work to build alliances and mobilise public opinion for change

The AI and Social Care Summit: AI that works for social care was co-hosted by the Institute for Ethics in AI at Oxford University and the Alliance for AI in Social Care. The day was designed to be an opportunity to reflect on the current state of AI in adult social care and to define gaps, needs and good practice together.

Professor Mary Daly is an Emerita Fellow, Green Templeton College and Professor Emerita of Sociology and Social Policy, Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford. She pioneered the Care Initiative at college.

Green Templeton College is developing a first-ever academic centre for long-term care in Oxford. The centre aims to become a major agenda-setter in the reform of long-term care in the UK, responding to what experts describe as one of the most urgent and complex social challenges facing the country. Find out more about the college’s plans for work on care