Methodology

Having carried out a survey to understand the challenges facing care-experienced people attempting to access their own information, we wanted to speak to people handling these requests within organisations. Our approach combined focus groups and one-to-one interviews. This gave us a broad and detailed view of current practice.

We held five focus groups in August 2024, bringing together professionals from across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. These sessions gave us an insight into the day-to-day realities of handling requests and the challenges teams face.

In addition to the focus groups, we conducted 12 one-to-one interviews with organisations that:

• couldn’t attend a group session;
• don’t directly handle care experienced records but had relevant expertise; or
• were working on related projects and had valuable insights to share.

Most participants were from local authorities, but we also heard from Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland, charities, and a combined authority. These conversations helped us explore the topic in more depth and hear from a wider range of voices.

Throughout the research, we focused on three key questions:

• What process do organisations follow when responding to requests?
• What barriers get in the way of organisations delivering a better service?
• What resources do organisations use, need, or want to do the job well?