The records of adopted and care-experienced people – developing guidance for record-keepers and care professionals

A project by the Chief Archivists In Local Government Group (CALGG) of the Archives and Records Association

The guidance document arising from this project is available here: Guidance document - published February 2024

The Summary Research Report - published February 2024 and full Research Report - published February 2024 can be downloaded from these links.

The guidance document was launched at an event in Westminster on 5th March 2024.

Background and rationale

Many care-experienced or adopted people reconstruct their personal histories by turning to the records created about them by social workers and care providers. Thousands of requests to view records for this purpose are made each year in England and Wales. The records – a “paper self” - have significant impacts on a care-experienced person throughout their life. However, accessing social care records is often difficult, both practically and emotionally, and can be traumatic and dehumanizing. Managing the records is inconsistent across the public, private, and voluntary care sectors, affecting outcomes for care-experienced individuals. Across England and Wales the records of adopted and care-experienced people who are formally classified as ‘looked-after people’ should be kept for 100 and 75 years respectively, but there are no permanent preservation protections for records in law. Moreover, some care-experienced people are omitted from the requirement for records to be retained. In addition, there are now many records sitting in digital systems which do not have a proper data migration/preservation strategy.

A key motivation for this project was the upcoming centenary of the 1926 Adoption Act. Other factors include the growing pressure to develop digital preservation solutions for born-digital records, the final report of IICSA and the example set in Scotland where care records have official protection following legislative change in 2011. Several recent research projects, including but not limited to the MIRRA project, have identified the critical need for better recordkeeping. The project will examine these issues and cast a spotlight upon records that have both huge personal significance but are reflective of changing societal attitudes and practices.

Methodology

A project board made up of CALGG members and other sector professionals was formed in 2021.  Funding was acquired from The National Archives, the Welsh Government and via contributions from 22 CALGG-member services.  The ambitions were two-fold:

  1. To identify where these records are held in England and Wales – in independent agencies and local authorities. Gather information about the quantities and formats of the records, and retention information and solicit the views of those who create, manage and preserve these (hard copy and digital) records, not least from care-experienced and adopted people.

  2. Generate robust guidance on the creation, preservation and provision of access to these records founded upon the empirical evidence base collected.

 The project board contracted Kevinboltonltd to take on the brief and research was undertaken during 2022-23. 

Outcomes

The resulting Guidance was generated in late 2023 and was published in March 2024.  With a foreword from Baroness Young of Hornsey, herself care-experienced, the Guidance offers a ‘best practice’ approach to the creation, management and access provisions to the records of adoption and care-experienced people.  Its two key findings are that:

  •  The overriding view of those consulted was that records required much greater protection and should ideally be preserved indefinitely.

  •  Records relating to adoption and care respectively should be given equal weight and protection.

The Guidance recommends that the retention periods for both classes of records should be extended with ‘good practice’ suggesting 125 years and ‘exemplary practice’ 150 years.  In reality, the strong opinion of those consulted was that the records should be permanently preserved, but in the absence of statutory protections, the Guidance offers a pragmatic, and it is hoped achievable interim solution.  It is hoped that the Guidance will gain wide currency amongst record-keepers, social care and other professional groups – both practitioners and strategic leadership.

Documents:

The records of adopted and care-experienced people – good practice guidance for record-keepers and care professionals (England and Wales) Guidance document - published February 2024

The records of adopted and care-experienced people – developing guidance for record-keepers and care professionals - Summary Research Report - published February 2024

The records of adopted and care-experienced people – developing guidance for record-keepers and care professionals - Research Report - published February 2024

You can view the slides from the launch presentation as a powerpoint deck here and as a pdf here.

Next steps

Beyond the production of the Guidance, there are aspirations to pursue additional, related objectives subject to the availability of further funding. This would involve analysis and alignment of retention schedules, the creation of a database which would identify the location of record sets that would be generated as a result of this project. A similar database already exists for Australian care-experienced people (findandconnect.gov.au).  There is also a pressing need to undertake work on digital case management systems, building in record-keeping protocols and ensuring export functionality for digital preservation.

 Contact

For further information or if you have any questions, please email project board chair Sam Johnston: sam.johnston@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk