果冻影院

The MIRRA (Memory 鈥� Identity 鈥� Rights in Records 鈥� Access) project, led by Professor Elizabeth Shepherd (果冻影院 Information Studies), collected interview and focus group data from more than 80 care leavers, social work practitioners and information professionals.

Researchers found that the voices of the children and young people who lived in social care were often entirely missing from their own records, causing significant distress and upset.

Care leaver John-george said: 鈥淥ne of the most profound things for me about the file, and it screams the loudest, is my lack of voice. And I just appear, my scrawled out writing, on like page 52.

鈥淢y voice is totally stolen and words are put in your mouth, saying this is how you feel about certain occasions and certain people, and at times there鈥檚 conflict with what I believe.鈥�

Furthermore, despite care leavers placing huge significance on their records, the research found that the importance and value of effective recordkeeping was not widely recognised or understood by local authorities, who act as gate-keepers for these records.

Professor Shepherd said: 鈥淪ocial care records are a vital resource for memory-making and identity for adults who were in care as children.

鈥淔or many they contain the answers to critical questions about what happened to them and why.

鈥淕aps in someone鈥檚 personal narrative can be deeply traumatic, leaving them with feelings of blame and a lack of self-worth.鈥� 听

To address the findings the project has set out a number of recommendations for local authorities, information and data professionals, and social workers:

• Records should be co-created by all those involved in a child鈥檚 care. They should include the voices of children themselves, taking into account their life-long needs for memory, identity and justice.
• Best practice guidance for records creation and management should be established for all organisations with safeguarding responsibilities and guardianship of children鈥檚 memories.
• New standards for access to records for all care-experienced persons should be developed. New standards should address the rights of care-experienced people and the responsibilities of institutions.

Professor Shepherd said: 鈥淲e must ensure care records put the experiences of the child at the heart of them, from what is written down in the first place, to how records are kept and stored, to how decisions are made about access.鈥�

As part of the project a number of care leavers gave testimony to the experience of accessing care records later in life.

For many care leavers, assessing their records is a rite of passage.

Gina, who was in foster care in the 1970s and 1980s鈥檚, explains: 鈥淭here came a point where I wanted to know where I鈥檇 been, I wanted to know who鈥檇 fostered me, because there was little chunks of my life missing, like where I鈥檇 gone to school? Did I have any friends? How long was I there?鈥�

Darren, a care leaver and project manager at The Care Leavers鈥� Association said: 鈥淚 think we have organisations that just don鈥檛 understand why older care leavers come back to access their files, because there鈥檚 no culture of recognition of the life experiences of someone in the care system. There鈥檚 a cultural deficit.鈥�

The research team also found that when people do receive their records they have often been heavily redacted, or censored, to remove any 鈥榯hird party information鈥�.

Care leaver Jackie explained that this can be deeply troubling, making people feel powerless, rejected and dehumanised.

鈥淭here鈥檚 other pieces of paper that are just blacked out,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd there鈥檚 absolutely nothing on them and you just look and think 鈥榳hy have you given me that piece of paper?鈥� What鈥檚 it actually telling me?

鈥淎nd then there鈥檚 other pieces of paper where there鈥檚 just a sentence in there. And I鈥檓 looking at it 鈥� and all it鈥檚 showing me is I鈥檝e been rejected again.鈥�

Family Action will be launching a new website with resources to help care leavers access their records, and signpost support groups and counselling services.

David Holmes CBE, Chief Executive, Family Action said: 鈥淔amily Action welcomes this important research and it鈥檚 equally important recommendations. A good care record, co-created with the child, can help to tell the story of a child鈥檚 life.听 These records are so precious and can make such a difference in later life.听 Facilitating access by care leavers to these records and ensuring high standards of recordkeeping needs to be viewed as a national priority.听 Later this year, Family Action will be launching a free new website, Family Connect, which will provide information and resources for Care Leavers, as well as people who are adopted, on how to go about accessing their records and what that journey might involve.鈥�

听罢丑别 MIRRA research was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

Links

• 果冻影院 Department of Information Studies
• Professor Elizabeth Shepherd's academic profile

Image

• Credit: 果冻影院 MIRRA project

Media contact

Natasha Downes

tel: +44 20 3108 3844

E: n.downes [at] ucl.ac.uk