Jim Goddard

A Childhood on Paper: managing access to child care files by post-care adults

Although the potential importance of care-file information for those formerly in care has long been recognised, little is known about requests for access to such records, whether in terms of scale or how requests are dealt with. The survey reported here by Jim Goddard, Julia Feast and Derek Kirton was carried out to address this gap. It was conducted in two stages during 2004 and 2005. The first stage comprised a postal questionnaire to local authorities in the UK (with 81 responses received) and a small number of voluntary organisations. This was followed by 40 telephone interviews with key local authority and voluntary sector personnel dealing with access to records requests. Areas of interest within the study included: policy and practice in relation to the retention, storage and retrieval of files; the handling of requests, including by whom; the provision of services (eg counselling and intermediary help); and the impact of the Data Protection Act 1998 on the handling of access requests. Two related themes emerged. First, policy, practice and service provision vary enormously between agencies, creating a ‘post-code lottery’ for post-care adults. Second, such provision is often poor in comparison with that offered to adopted adults, thereby raising the question of whether the current legal and policy framework for access to care records is adequate.

A Childhood on Paper: Accessing Care Records under the Data Protection Act 1998

Background Over the years, we have learned how crucial it is for adopted people to be able to access information about their origins and family background and this has been reflected in the development of a legislative framework, established services and practice. However, little attention has been given to the information needs and rights of people who have been brought up in care, for whom accessing information can be equally important for a variety of reasons. These include the formation of a coherent adult identity (Stein and Carey, 1986; Biehal et al, 1995). Both research and services in this field lag far behind those in relation to adults who were adopted as children (Kirton et al, 2001). Every year, between 6,000 and 7,000 young people leave care in England and many others leave at earlier ages. Extrapolating from such figures, a conservative estimate would suggest that there are approximately 350,000 adults in the UK as a whole who spent part or all of their childhood in care. Each of them will have had a care file during that time. Later in life, some of these adults request access to such files, held by local authorities or voluntary agencies, in attempts to answer questions about their past. Since the passage of the Data Protection Act (DPA)1998, local authorities have been provided with new and clear guidance for the maintenance and accessibility of records (Department of Health, 2000). At present, little is known about the quality and extent of the information that enquirers are able to receive under the Act. In 2004, the British Academy agreed to fund a research project that represents the first attempt to try to fill that knowledge gap through a national survey of local authorities (and some voluntary providers) on their ‘access to records’ procedures for adults who have formerly been in care. This brief paper reports the interim results from that project. Legislation and research The DPA allows access by former care adults (subject to some restrictions, which will be discussed below) to all such care files. Earlier legislation, notably the Access to Records Act 1987 and the Access to Personal Files (Social Services) Regulations 1989, allowed individuals to know what was recorded about them in local authority manual files, but was not retrospective and did not apply to the voluntary sector. However, the situation changed significantly following the European Court of Human Rights decision in the case of Gaskin v UK [12 ECHR 36; 7 July 1989]. The Court ruled that Graham Gaskin’s rights under Article 8 (to respect for one’s private and family life) of the European Convention had been breached by Liverpool City Council’s refusal to grant him access to his care records. Gaskin, who had suffered a history of abuse in care (MacVeigh, 1982), successfully argued that such information was necessary in order to understand his identity and childhood experiences. While many agencies in the voluntary and state sector were sympathetic to those requesting access, practice was highly variable. Record storage was equally variable and our research has confirmed that, prior to 1988, records were often destroyed, as a matter of policy, after a certain period. Research has shown that the number of adults formerly in care who seek access to their records is small in comparison with adopted adults (Howe and Feast, 2000; Kirton et al, 2001). The reasons for this remain unknown. Is it a lack of curiosity or simply that they do not know that such information exists? The huge upsurge in demand for files access following the BBC’s screening of Barnardo’s Children in 1995 clearly suggests that the latter is a major factor (Pugh, 1999).

Guidance, policy and practice and the health needs of young people leaving care

During the past ten years, there has been growing interest in the health needs of young people leaving care in England and Wales. Most such young people leave care between the ages of 16 and 18 and many experience significant problems adjusting to independent living. This article fulfils two objectives. First, it examines the legislative and policy context within which practice towards such young people is now conducted. Second, it deepens our understanding of this policy context by reporting the results of a project on this subject that was undertaken in one local authority district in the north of England in 2005. The project surveyed all young care leavers within the district, analysing their health concerns and experiences. Using postal questionnaires (70 responses), face‐to‐face interviews (30) and focus groups (two), it sought to provide a clear picture of current needs and to inform future policy action by local health and social care professionals.

Children, Young People and Mental Health

More and more children are experiencing mental ill health according to a range of statistics (Meltzer et al., 2000). Social Trends (2002), for example, reports that one in 10 children under the age of 11 has been diagnosed as suffering from a mental health condition. The World Health Organisation and the United Nations Children’s Fund have stated that up to one in five of the world’s children are suffering from mental health or behavioural problems (BBC News, 2002). The reasons for this are far from clear cut. Undoubtedly, the pressures which children and young people now have to face are considerable, with image, achievement (or non-achievement), parental poverty and peer group pressure featuring significantly. The various ways in which differences relating to class, gender, disability, sexuality and ethnicity intersect and impact on some children and young people will also make a difference (Coleman and Schofield, 2001). However, incidence statistics alone only give a partial picture and the various ways in which mental health problems can be socially constructed also requires interrogation.

Youth justice policy in the united kingdom

This paper begins by outlining the historical development of UK policy on youth justice. It then analyses the main developments in youth justice policy with respect to young offenders between the ages of 10 and 17 in England and Wales since the election of the 1997 Labour government.

Looked After Children

This chapter is concerned with recent policy and practice developments with respect to those children whose lives are most intimately bound to the actions of the state - those who live directly under its care. The chapter focuses primarily on policy towards looked after children in England. Scotland has different and distinctive practices and legislation in this field and Wales itself is now increasingly deserving of separate attention as the Welsh Assembly forges different approaches in social care. For example, Wales decided to appoint a Children’s Commissioner for all children in 2000, whereas England did not do so until 2003. Wales also has a separate strategy for social services for children, ‘Children First’.

Children as Carers

The 2001 Census revealed that there are approximately 5.2 million people who carry out significant ‘caring’ responsibilities in England and Wales. Of these, 21 per cent provide ‘care’ for more than 50 hours per week, 11 per cent for between 20 and 49 hours and 68 per cent for up to 19 hours per week (Census, 2001). With regard to those under 18 who perform caring duties for a family member, conservative estimates place the numbers at over 50,000 (DoH website, 2003). In recent decades, successive governments have been keen to support informal carers, since the provision of informal as opposed to formal ‘care’ represents considerable savings to local and central government budgets. As a result, over the past 20 years there has been a shift in the position of ‘carers’. They have moved from being an unacknowledged diverse grouping of people providing ‘care’ in the home to an influential group with whom successive governments have been keen to develop informal partnerships.

Thinking About Children Today

Many features of the lives of children are shaped by social policy and their futures are central to its concerns. However, in much social policy and sociological literature they have remained relatively silent and invisible as subjects whilst also being the objects of considerable concern (for an overview, see Brannen, 1999). In recent years, this has begun to change. Researchers from a range of disciplines show an increased interest in rendering children visible and in exploring the contours of contemporary childhood(s). Developments in academic disciplines such as sociology and socio-legal studies, encompassed in the substantial ESRC Children 5–16 Programme, have opened up new fields of conceptual endeavour and applied inquiry in relation to childhood. These developments build upon and interlink with a decade of academic interest in — and pressure groups campaigning for — children’s rights.

Disabled Children and Young People

In studies of the history of disability, there is evidence of disabled children being perceived in various ways. These include perceptions of such children as expendable, as a defective and weakening social element and as personifications of evil. On the other hand, this diverse grouping of children and young people has also been seen as gifts from God and, as such, in need of compassion and protection (Oswin, 1984). In the UK, disabled children have to compete for resources in a society where fast-developing research in the field of genetics tempts prospective parents with visions of a perfect or ‘designer’ child and where the abortion of a damaged foetus is regarded by large numbers of people as a responsible and justifiable course of action.

Child Abuse and Child Welfare

Child abuse is a term which has occasioned considerable debate at a range of levels, particularly since the 1970s. Definitional questions have been very important as they have keyed into fundamental questions about causation, which link to wider debates about child welfare, the role of the state and the rights and responsibilities of parents and children. In this chapter, we provide a brief overview of such debates since the establishment of the post-war welfare state and explore how child abuse has been conceptualised, particularly in terms of its interrelationship with children’s welfare.