Care records hold memories, experiences, and insights into people’s lives. They can explain the circumstances around decisions that were taken about people, that may have had life-changing significance. 

Our research found that people with care experience had a poor or partial understanding of the information within their records. 

You can help prevent this from being the case for future generations by creating records that children and young people have a greater ownership and understanding about.  

Access by design

You should explore ways to create records that are partly or wholly accessible by secure electronic means. This can prevent people needing to make a subject access request (SAR) in the future, saving you time and effort.  

You could explore innovative ways to create records or life story books that are co-created by the child or young person and contain their voice, perspectives and memories. Greater involvement in the creation of care records can support understanding and mean that less of the information in the records will be a surprise when people later access them. 

You should use respectful, clear, and understandable language in care records. Avoid using jargon or acronyms or explain their meaning. You could consider what training to put in place to support social workers to create clear and accessible records. 

When you start creating the record, you could clearly identify what information is known to the child or young person. For example, you could use statements such as “this section was written with or by [insert name of young person] and they are aware of its contents” or “[insert name of young person]’s views or understanding of this situation are...”  or “this information was not disclosed to [name] at this time because…”. You should clearly label documents, such as formal court applications, police reports, or sensitive third-party information where an exemption may apply. This will help you avoid the need for lengthy or inconsistent redactions when you respond to records requests in the future. 

Empowering children and young people currently in care  

You must provide age-appropriate plain language information in a concise, transparent and accessible form. This is to ensure that young people in your care understand:

• how you will use their information;
• their data protection rights; and
• how to exercise their data protection rights.   

You could test out the tailored information with people in care to check it’s understandable and clear.   

You should ensure colleagues working directly with those in care or with care experience are trained to understand the full range of rights people have under data protection laws and can explain how to access those rights.  

Be aware of the power imbalance that exists for children and young people currently in care and you as the care provider. You should consider what support they might need to understand and exercise their data protection rights. For example, you could signpost children to an advocacy service who may be able to assist them or you could explain that a trusted adult could help.  

To help with a future request, before a child or young person leaves care, you could have a discussion about their right to access their records. This will allow you to check: 

• their understanding of the process;  
• their views around their records and receiving those records;  
• what support they might need; or 
• what information they might need about making a request.