lookedafter
Foster carers write a daily record for every child in their care, often late at night after a hard day. Those records follow the child for life, and young people can read them as adults. I designed a writing tool that helps carers record clearly and fairly as they type.
The project is shaped by my own experience of the care system.
Outcome
A working service where suggestions appear as carers type, and no child's text is ever sent to a third party.
Read more about lookedafter
- The interaction
- Suggestions are based on foster care recording guidance. The checker flags 5 things:
- labels and jargon, such as "attention seeking" or "meltdown"
- opinion written as fact
- missing times
- interpretation without evidence
- places where the child's own words should be quoted
- Each suggestion explains why, so carers learn instead of just clicking. Suggestions are optional: the carer always has the final word.
- Privacy and safeguarding
- Records about children are some of the most sensitive data there is. The writing checker runs inside the service itself, so text never goes to an outside grammar or AI service. I designed access around the real roles in fostering: carers see only the children currently placed with them, social workers see their caseload, managers can pause access while an allegation is looked into, and young people can read their own records from their 18th birthday.
What I would do next
I'm continuing to test this with family and friends who are involved in foster care. We aim to build a tool that works for them, then expand to providing it as software for local authorities. The idea comes from my own experience working with Lancashire County Council, where I noticed pitfalls in their systems.
Try it: a working recreation of the checker's core interaction, not the production tool.
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