In total, over 80 individuals provided
data to the project between March 2018 and June 2019. These include 21 adult
care leavers. Demographic information was not formally collected from
contributors, as the project focused on qualitative narratives of personal
experience. However, detailed biographical information could be gleaned from
their testimonies. The care leavers ranged in age from 18 to 85 years old; all
had experienced foster and/or residential care in England between the late
1940s and 2018. Approximately one third had been in the care of voluntary
organizations for all or some of their care experience, and the others
exclusively looked after by local authorities. They were in care for varying
lengths of time, in different parts of the country and for different reasons.
Each person had a unique journey, entering and leaving care at a different age,
representing the diversity of care over time and place. This diversity impacted
on the types, form and extent of care records available from their respective
childhoods, reflecting changes in recordkeeping practices over the 80-year
period (Hoyle et al., 2019). The rich data from the 21 care experienced
testimonies, although not generalizable, represent a significant and detailed
exploration of the issues they wished to raise. Sixteen care-leaver
contributors had accessed their care records; four had made a conscious
decision not to; and one was in the process of doing so.PublicationsHoyle,
V., Shepherd, E., Flinn, A. and Lomas, E (2019) "Child Social-Care
Recording and the Information Rights of Care-Experienced People: A
Recordkeeping Perspective" in The British Journal of Social Work https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcy115 (Open Access - Free to All)Shepherd,
E., Hoyle, V., Lomas, E., Flinn, A., Sexton, A. (2020). Towards a
Human-Centred Participatory Approach to Child Social Care Recordkeeping.
Archival Science. 20(4), 307-325. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10502-020-09338-9 Gold Open Access.Hoyle
V, Shepherd E, Lomas E, Flinn A (2020). Recordkeeping and the life-long
memory and identity needs of care-experienced children and young
people. Child and Family Social Work. https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.12778 Gold Open Access.PodcastMiriam
Antcliffe, Research in Practice Research and Development Officer,
speaks to John-george and Darren who share their personal stories of
accessing their care files as adults:https://www.researchinpractice.org.uk/children/content-pages/podcasts/reflections-on-accessing-care-records-and-supporting-good-recording/Project LeafletsMIRRA Research Leaflet: Description and Actions https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/mirra/files/2019/07/MIRRAUpdatedLeafletWebVersion.pdfMIRRA Poster: Findingshttps://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/mirra/files/2019/07/MIRRA-poster-A1_v03-003.pdfCase Study reportsCare Leavers Experienceshttps://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/mirra/files/2019/07/Care-Leavers-Experiences.pdfPractitioner Perspectiveshttps://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/mirra/files/2019/07/Practitioner-Perspectives.pdf