A childhood on paper: managing access to child care files by post-care adults.
Adoption & Fostering › Vol. 32 Nbr. 2, June 2008
Linked as:
Extract
A childhood on paper: managing access to child care files by post-care adults.
Introduction
For people who have spent part or all of their childhoods in care, access to information about family history and events that have happened during their childhood can offer significant benefits. It can provide a chronological history, explain the reasons for coming into care and help to build a fuller sense of the enquirer's current identity. While the principle of providing such information has long been recognised, those formerly in care have faced numerous challenges in gaining access to their records. Post-care adults occupy a marginalised position in the domains of policy and practice. On the one hand, the figure of the 'care leaver' has been discursively constructed as a young adult. While this is understandable in terms of the well-known risks for young adults in relation to such areas as education, employment and housing (Social Exclusion Unit, 1998a, 1998b, 1999; Fawcett et al, 2004, Chapter 5), it serves to render post-care adults 'invisible' once they move beyond their early to mid-twenties. They can also be seen as marginalised when compared with adopted adults, for whom there is a stronger legal framework and service infrastructure supporting their access to information. In this article, we report the findings from a survey of local authorities and major voluntary agencies in the UK, designed to examine their handling of requests for information from adults formerly in their care (Goddard et al, 2005). The survey contributes to what is currently a limited knowledge base in this area and to the development of future policy and practice. A further reason for the survey was to assess the impact of the Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998. This legislation has brought new rights for those seeking to access care records but has also given rise to new tensions surrounding the ownership of this information (Information Commissioner's Office, 2001). Background Since the 1970s, there has been much greater awareness among policy makers and professionals of the need for children in care to have information about their family background and past history. Reflecting Jolowicz's (1973) concept of the 'hidden parent', it was increasingly accepted that--for reasons of self-esteem and to meet identity needs--children ...See the full content of this document
Sponsored links
