New guidance on the records of Adopted and Care-experienced people published
New guidance on the records of Adopted and Care-experienced people has been published
The guidance is available to download here.
The guidance, created by the Chief Archivists in Local Government Group (CALGG) of the Archives and Records Association (ARA), calls for greater access to these vital records for care experienced and adopted people. The guidance also recommends that records be preserved for at least 125 years and ideally permanently. A recommendation which would require a change in current legislation.
A project to examine the status and distribution of records relating to adopted and care-experienced people is about to conclude. Two key documents in English and Welsh have been published on the ARA website. Firstly, Guidance which recommends a new and nuanced approach to the preservation and management of these records has been created. Secondly, a counterpart Research Report providing full details of the project’s rationale, methodology, and findings is published. The records of adopted and care-experienced people – good practice guidance for record-keepers and care professionals (England and Wales) recommends a new and consistent approach to preservation and access provision for records.
Few record types are more meaningful to affected individuals and their families than those of adoption or care- experienced people – they are often the only record of childhood available to large numbers of people and are often not sought by individuals until much later in life. They provide detail and context on personal histories where no other source may exist. Within England and Wales the records of adopted people have a retention of between 75 and 100 years and for care-experienced people it is 75 years but do not have any permanent preservation protections in law[1].
The key findings of this project 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 origins of this project lie in discussions within the Chief Archivists in Local Government Group (CALGG – a part of ARA) about the potential vulnerability of adoption records, specifically, as well as the often differing approaches taken to their preservation across individual council areas. 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 the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) and the example set in Scotland where care records have official protection following legislative change in 2011. The project learned much from the work undertaken by University College London’s MIRRA (Memory-Identity-Rights in Records-Access) project which ran between 2017-2021 and focussed on the generation of and access to care records.
A project board was formed, made up of four CALGG members (Sam Johnston, Heather Forbes, Wendy Walker and Laura Cotton). They were fortunate to be joined by Dr Julia Feast, an expert in adoption policy and practice and Dr Elizabeth Lomas, one of the leads of the MIRRA project at UCL.
Financial support was provided through The UK National Archive’s Networks for Change and the Welsh Government. Alongside this 21 CALGG member services each contributed funding, providing a positive example of the archive sector collaborating to good effect. Consultants (Kevin Bolton Ltd working with Sarah Wickham) were recruited and they took on the brief.
The project embarked with three key aims:
Firstly, to identify where these records sets are held – primarily in local authorities, but also in independent agencies. The ambition was to determine the quantities and formats of the records, gather retention information and solicit the views of those who create, manage and preserve these (hard copy and digital) records including archivists, records managers, data protection and social care professionals.
Secondly, a key, related part of this was to engage with adopted and care-experienced people to gather their views and opinions on the records – their value to them personally, their wider families and more broadly to society. Individual interviews were undertaken along with the input of a focus group.
Thirdly, using the empirical evidence base generated, the project then seeks to generate robust guidance on the management of these records so as to encourage a consistency of approach across organisational and geographical boundaries.
The guidance provides a ‘best practice’ model for managing the records of adoption and care-experienced people so encouraging a uniform approach to this area of record-keeping and providing clear, evidenced guidance for care and record-keeping professionals and the organisations for which they work.
The ultimate aim is to ensure that critical decisions about the preservation of these records are taken only after a careful and measured review process, so avoiding arbitrary loss or destruction. The Guidance with a foreword from Baroness Lola Young consists of three principal sections:
Creating records
Managing and preserving records
Providing access to records
A key recommendation is that records are retained for at least 125 years. It was felt that this was a pragmatic mid-point between the current 100-year rule and a ‘permanent’ designation and one that allows for responsible bodies to take stock of the records within their custody, their formats and preservation needs and to consider their future accessibility by individuals, families and approved third parties. However, the evidence garnered through the project suggests that the provision of permanent legal protection would be an obvious next step.
Beyond this project, there are aspirations to pursue additional, related objectives subject to the availability of further funding. This would include the creation of a database which would identify the location of record sets that would be generated as a result of this project. Such a resource would be invaluable for care experienced people and professionals alike as it may help them locate where care records are held. There is, in addition, more work to do on retention schedules and the question of digital records, the safe transfer of those digital records into a preservation environment that provides long-term access remains, perhaps, the biggest challenge of all.
The project board wishes to thank all those who have contributed to the development and delivery of its work. Particular thanks go to funders, to the excellent Kevin Bolton and Sarah Wickham and to all those who gave their time and opinions in helping to shape the outcomes detailed in the Research Report and Guidance.
The records of adopted and care-experienced people – good practice guidance for record-keepers and care professionals (England and Wales) will be launched on 5th March at the Local Government Association’s headquarters in Smith Square, London. It is hoped that the Guidance will be disseminated across a wide range of organisations and professions. Local government, whilst being the largest custodian of records, is by no means the only one, so it is important that the Guidance reaches as many people as possible at as many levels as possible from practitioners to senior management and policy makers. It is hoped that this work will usher in a new, more strategic approach to the creation, management and care of these vital records and that we can look forward to a point in time where there is no risk to the casual or careless loss of such important material.
John Simmonds OBE, Director of Policy, Research and Development at CoramBAAF (and adoptive parent) received a preview copy of the guidance and says:
“The publication of this guidance is timely and to be welcomed. As much as being placed with new carers (whatever the legal Order) is focussed on creating a new family for life, we know that it is not the end of the story for many individuals. Often their history and the detail of the relationships throughout their history is a core matter in their wellbeing and a sense of who they are – their identity.
“While there have been various arrangements to ensure and offer information and support to those young people into adulthood for the rest of their lives, there have continued to be many barriers that do not facilitate this. The absence of information held in the files of the individual, the lack of opportunity to explore the significance of that information and the possibility of re-building relationships should be available as of right where this is an adoption or a care arrangement.
“The work of archivists’ and other experts has produced guidance that sets out a real agenda for change. It is a major opportunity for individuals to more firmly establish their identity in their relational world.”
[1] Adoption records pre-commencement (before 30th December 2005) still have a retention of 75 years, only post commencement adoption records (those on or after the 30th December 2005) have a retention period of 100 years.