Red flags! Parents’ perspectives on data led policy and practice in family intervention
Red flags! Parents’ perspectives on data led policy and practice in family intervention
Family services in the UK are becoming increasingly reliant on technologies which merge and analyse personal data trails to inform policy and practice. Complex AI enabled tools are now regularly used to monitor and profile households, allocate resources, risk assess and target family interventions. This paper explores the impact of this technological transformation on parents by centring their views and experiences. Drawing on a mixed methods study we demonstrate how digital infrastructures are re-ordering family state boundaries, bypassing the knowledge and consent of those impacted. The punitive, inflexible and in some cases deeply harmful consequences of data led practice for children and families are highlighted. We show how such negative encounters are cultivating mistrust and leading parents to actively avoid services seen as likely to link and profile personal data
Parents, Child Welfare, Data analytics, AI, family-state relations
Gillies, Val
bbde045c-01ca-4e48-b626-af54cc82fb57
Edwards, Rosalind
e43912c0-f149-4457-81a9-9c4e00a4bb42
Gorin, Sarah
def3b1f4-32b4-4493-b30c-878a2e68834f
Gillies, Val
bbde045c-01ca-4e48-b626-af54cc82fb57
Edwards, Rosalind
e43912c0-f149-4457-81a9-9c4e00a4bb42
Gorin, Sarah
def3b1f4-32b4-4493-b30c-878a2e68834f
Gillies, Val, Edwards, Rosalind and Gorin, Sarah
(2026)
Red flags! Parents’ perspectives on data led policy and practice in family intervention.
Critical Social Policy.
(doi:10.1002/oby.70045).
Abstract
Family services in the UK are becoming increasingly reliant on technologies which merge and analyse personal data trails to inform policy and practice. Complex AI enabled tools are now regularly used to monitor and profile households, allocate resources, risk assess and target family interventions. This paper explores the impact of this technological transformation on parents by centring their views and experiences. Drawing on a mixed methods study we demonstrate how digital infrastructures are re-ordering family state boundaries, bypassing the knowledge and consent of those impacted. The punitive, inflexible and in some cases deeply harmful consequences of data led practice for children and families are highlighted. We show how such negative encounters are cultivating mistrust and leading parents to actively avoid services seen as likely to link and profile personal data
Text
Red flags CSP ACCEPTED VERSION
- Accepted Manuscript
Text
gillies-et-al-2026-red-flags-parents-perspectives-on-data-led-policy-and-practice-in-family-intervention
- Version of Record
More information
e-pub ahead of print date: 9 January 2026
Keywords:
Parents, Child Welfare, Data analytics, AI, family-state relations
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 508139
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/508139
ISSN: 0261-0183
PURE UUID: a937e00a-1094-4356-8c42-e6538bcad19d
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 13 Jan 2026 18:05
Last modified: 14 Jan 2026 02:44
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
Val Gillies
Author:
Sarah Gorin
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics
