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This is a story, which like all good stories, is based in real life. It all started when I met Pepper the robot, making his official debut at the National Children and Adult Services Conference (NCASC) in Bournemouth in 2017.Hats off, or rather digits off, to the then Southend-on-Sea BC social services team who brought Pepper, a four-foot-tall humanoid machine designed by SoftBank Robotics, to the conference.I was attending in my new semi-retired capacity, working for a predictive analytics company. I immediately became fascinated with the tiny child-sized robot as they put him through his paces.He had been programmed to ask and answer simple questions and was learning how to help lonely older people how to reminisce. He also had an unusual feature which was apparently much enjoyed by older people. If you tickled his front screen he laughed – well, cackled is probably a better description, but more on that later.Not everyone in the social care audience approved but I went away and researched the role of care robots internationally. According to the Nuffield Trust, Japan seemed to be the most ahead, so I spent some time trying to arrange a visit. Then Covid struck.I wrote The Laughing Robot during Covid, having nothing better to do and because in my local government world of social work and social care there was clearly a crisis brewing. Perhaps, unusually, for a social worker and former director of social services at Barking and Dagenham LBC, I was also interested in exploring the new field of predictive analytics. My starting point was a determination that health and social care could and should make much better use of our shared data. I knew this data could be integrated into joint care pathways, creating shared learning, options and possible savings.Safeguarding gets a strong focus as much of my research showed that one of the fastest growing areas was financial abuse. This comes in all sorts of shapes of course, but I chose to explore the ways in which adult children can relatively easily, through power of attorney and other means, take advantage of their sometimes vulnerable parents.The story of The Laughing Robot twists and turns throughout an unprecedented social care crisis. Inevitably Anna, the protagonist, falls in love, not with her robot, but with one of the supposedly evil venture capitalists, James Hillingdon. But not before she signs up to a new regime in the social care world, the Robot Network Programme.Anna names her robot, gifted to her by the programme, ‘Henry2', after the happy smiling face of the vacuum cleaner she has just purchased.We all know in social care and social work that inter-generational family networks are key to how social care functions, so I built in regular conversations between Anna's two grown up children, Stanley and Evelyn, both of whom had an eye on her inheritance.Safeguarding gets a strong focus as much of my research showed that one of the fastest growing areas was financial abuse. This comes in all sorts of shapes of course, but I chose to explore the ways in which adult children can relatively easily, through power of attorney and other means, take advantage of their sometimes vulnerable parents.It would be nice to report that the state, in the guise of Safeguarding Adults Boards manage these situations effectively, but I fear they require a complex understanding of all the issues involved which can sometimes be daunting.Research into robots as carers was topical and I made a visit to various Japanese academics. This coincided with the country's cherry blossom season. After Covid intervened, I since learned that the introduction of care robots to Japan may have been somewhat overplayed.Those of you who have been watching the six-part BBC comedy series Ann Droid about a woman who is given a second-hand robot called Linda will understand the complex and often tragicomic world of growing old, being lonely and wanting more out of life – a topical and ongoing subject.Baroness Louise Casey is now being urged by our new Prime Minister to bring on her independent inquiry earlier than anticipated. I have sent her a copy of The Laughing Robot in the hope that it may assist, or at the very least be enjoyable, as she deals with what may prove to be an intractable issue.Sadly, Pepper no longer exists. He was closed down as a product by SoftBank a couple of years ago, although I like to think of him still roaming the beaches and pier at Southend talking to lonely old people and, possibly, seagulls.Julia Ross CBE is a former practitioner in health and social care and director of social services at Barking and Dagenham LBC. She has worked in nursing, social work and predictive analytics for many years. The Laughing Robot (Arena October 2024) is her first novel. Until recently chair of BASW UK, Julia draws on her professional experiences. The views here are personal and do not reflect the official position of BASW UK.

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ADULT SOCIAL CARE

Pepper, me and the UK care crisis

By Julia Ross | 04 September 2026

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