Back to Resources
Technology

AI and Your Children's Home Records: What You Control

2026-10-254 min readACS Team

If you are a Registered Manager or Responsible Individual, a fair question about any software is: where is AI involved, and can I switch it off? This guide answers that for ACS.


What AI does in ACS today


- Olivia, the help assistant. She answers how-to questions about ACS. She does not discuss individual young people. [Read more about Olivia](/blog/olivia-help-assistant-childrens-home-software).

- Support tickets. When you contact ACS support, AI may suggest a category and draft a reply. ACS checks and approves each reply before it is sent.


What AI does not do in ACS


  • It does not write your daily records or incident reports. Your staff do.
  • It does not classify incidents or decide whether something is a Regulation 40 event. That judgement stays with you.
  • It does not write shift handovers.

  • The off switch


    Each organisation can turn AI processing off for its own account. If your governance says no AI near records of children in care, you can have that.


    What Ofsted and UK GDPR expect


    Ofsted does not ban AI. It expects you to know what your systems do with children's information, to keep records accurate, and to stay accountable for decisions. UK GDPR expects you to know where personal data goes and why. The simplest way to meet both is to choose software that tells you plainly what it does with AI, and lets you switch it off.


    Where your data is held


    ACS is hosted in the UK and EU under UK GDPR. Read more on our security and GDPR pages.


    Questions to ask any supplier


  • Which features use AI, and which do not?
  • Can we switch AI off for our organisation?
  • Does AI see records about individual children?
  • Where is our data held?

  • If you would like us to answer these for your home in person, book a 20-minute demo.

    Frequently asked questions

    Can we use ACS with AI switched off?

    Yes. Each organisation has a switch to turn AI processing off for its own account.

    Where is our data held?

    ACS is hosted in the UK and EU under UK GDPR.

    Does AI write or classify incident records in ACS?

    No. Staff write incident records. AI is not used to classify incidents or to write shift handovers in ACS.

    Share this article:

    Want to see ACS working?

    Recording and oversight software for independent children's homes, built by a former Registered Manager.

    Book a 20-minute demo