Digital Communities of Practice
A free webinar series, autumn 2026 – winter 2027
Monthly webinars and quarterly AI surgeries
SCIE is running free monthly webinars and quarterly AI surgeries to discuss how AI is affecting practice in adult social care. These Zoom sessions last 90 minutes, and take place on a Wednesday. With all of our communities of practice, there will opportunities for discussion.
The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) is delivering this work for Partners in Care and Health (PCH) as part of the PCH grant, funded by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), which is a programme of sector led improvement support for adult social care in England.
Monthly webinars
Our communities of practice Wednesday webinar series is designed to share information and stimulate discussion on a number of AI focused topics. They are aimed at leaders, managers, and practitioners from councils/local authorities working in Adult Social Care.
Dates for your diary:
- 21 October 2026
- 18 November 2026
- 16 December 2026
- 13 January 2027
- 10 February 2027
AI surgeries – quarterly.
As part of a DHSC funded programme, we are facilitating a series of quarterly AI practice surgeries to discuss:
- emerging risks and issues councils are facing through adopting and using AI in adult social care practice
- mitigations and ways of addressing these
- what support would be available going forward
Dates for your diary:
- 20 January 2027
21 October: Decision support and human oversight
10am-11:30am
This webinar will explore how AI is being used for decision support, the importance of having robust governance and having human oversight.
Speakers
Ben Cosh, Founder and CEO – Syvla
Jane Hancer, Programme Director – CC2i Ltd
Register now18 November: AI drift, functionality creep and overuse
10am-11:30am
This webinar will explore how AI functionality in adult social care practice can systematically and incrementally overused, the signs of functionality drift/creep, and what can be done about it.
Speaker
Gurnam Singh, Professor of Sociology – Warwickshire University
Register now16 December: Digital inclusion and accessibility
10-11:30am
This webinar will explore the issues people drawing on care and support, practitioners, and organsiations face regarding accessibility and discrimination.
Speaker:
Jane Hancer, Programme Director – CC2i Ltd
Penny Syddall, Programme Manager – Dorset Council
13 January 2027: Co-production in digital pathways
1:30pm-3pm
This webinar will reflect on how co-production can be embedded to shape digital pathways and the benefits of doing so.
Speaker:
Annie Radcliffe, Cyber & Digital Adviser – Local Government Association
Register now10 February 2027: Data standards in practice
10am-11:30am
This webinar will feature a collaboration with Digital Care Hub to reflect on the data standards across the sector.
Speakers:
Katie Thorn, Director of Innovation – Digital Care Hub
Tarsem Cooner, Professor of Social Work and Digital Media – University of BirminghamCaroline Webb, Assistant Professor (University of Birmingham)
Previous workshops
23 September: Ambient Voice Transcription
This webinar featured an update and presentation on the pending release for the national guidance for Ambient Voice Technology. We will also had a presentation from the Ada Lovelace Institute.
Download session slides5 August 2026: AI Practice Surgery 1
Facilitator: Dan Lacey
Audience: Leaders, managers and senior practitioners from councils across England
This event was the first AI Practice Surgery in the series.
Prior to the event SCIE engaged with technology suppliers and sector partners to ensure a holistic perspective.
This insight report combines the one-to-one stakeholder discussions with the facilitated discussions of the surgery. It is designed to share learning of the emerging issues councils are facing through embedding AI into adult social care, and escalate to the DHSC to inform further guidance.
About Communities of Practice
Communities of Practice (CoP) are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.
Communities of Practice (CoP) is a concept defined by Wenger in 1991 within the Social Learning Theory framework. According to this theory, learning is a transformative social process that empowers learners to take action. Wenger’s CoP structure is centred around three fundamental principles: the community, the domain, and the practice.
Audience:
Leaders, managers, and practitioners from councils/local authorities working in Adult Social Care.