A Paper Childhood: The Social Services Care Files of Former Looked After Children in the UK

This chapter considers the significance of accessing written information on
one’s childhood. A written history of one’s childhood is a rare event for most
children, but it is routine for those who grew up in care. Between 6,000 and
7,000 young people leave care each year in England. This suggests a
conservative estimate of 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
local authority or voluntary sector file which detailed various aspects of their
care. After leaving care, many of these adults attempt to gain access to these
files in order to answer questions about their past. This process can be
important for a variety of reasons, such as the formation of a coherent adult
identity and addressing issues of self-esteem (Stein and Carey, 1986: 142-143;
Biehal, Clayden, Stein and Wade, 1995: 108-109; Pugh, 1999; Wheal, 2002).
However, research and services in this field lag far behind those in relation to
adults who were adopted as children (Kirton et al., 2001; Howe, Feast with
Coster, 2000). The Data Protection Act 1998 now provides local authorities
with new guidance for the maintenance and accessibility of such records (DoH,
2000), thus making research on this subject particularly timely. This article
outlines a British Academy funded research project that represents the first
stage in trying to fill the knowledge gap in this field. It reports the early results
of the first national survey of all local authorities (and some voluntary
providers) in the UK on their access to records practice and procedures with
respect to former care adults.