A study by University College London has recommended that the social care records of looked-after children and young people need to include those children’s voices. The MIRRA (Memory – Identity – Rights in Records – Access) project involved interviews and focus groups with 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. And, despite care leavers placing huge significance on their records, the research found that the importance and value of effective record keeping was not widely recognised or understood by local authorities, who act as gate-keepers for these records. To read more, go to the UCL website by clicking this link.
Study finds children’s voices omitted from care records
