In a scathing report, the UK’s Information Commissioner has sounded the alarm over the “lengthy, traumatic and often demoralizing process” that people who grew up in the care system face when trying to access their care records. The data protection regulator has vowed to take legal action against local authorities that fail to comply with guidance on handling such requests.
The commissioner, John Edwards, revealed that some individuals have had to wait up to 16 years to obtain their records, and in some cases, found that their files had been destroyed, lost or heavily redacted. He described the situation as a “lack of compassion,” where local authorities, stretched thin, have allowed the “humanity to disappear” from the process.
“For people in care, these files are an important part of understanding their personhood and their development. It’s restoring to them the insights into how they have become who they are,” Edwards said. “But there’s a lack of compassion. Local authorities are stretched and the humanity can disappear. But this is a product of really bad record-keeping systems that have not been upgraded over generations.”
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has recently taken enforcement action against Bristol City Council for delays involving child social care data and fined the Scottish charity Birthlink £18,000 after it destroyed 4,800 personal records, including handwritten letters and photographs.
John-George Nicholson, 48, who grew up in the care system, first applied for his care records almost 25 years ago. He received a bundle of 126 pages, which became one of his most important possessions. However, he later discovered that hundreds of pages had been omitted, and he now has a set of almost 800 pages that he never knew existed.
“I don’t understand how it’s possible to get such different files. How are the records kept? Why is it that suddenly, later on, there were more records? That’s a really big chunk of my life,” Nicholson said. “They are tough and often traumatic to read, but they are also a kind of treasure chest.”
Nicholson has also struggled with the extensive redaction in his files, which included the name of his brother, who recently died unexpectedly. “There’s something about him being redacted in that way that is really difficult to see. It just seems farcical to me. When you’ve grown up in the care system, you’re often last in the queue of what matters to people. The first thing in the queue is they want to protect themselves,” he said.
The commissioner’s office is spearheading a “Better Records Together” campaign, with new standards on how to handle requests and a UK-wide pilot monitoring the performance of 19 organizations.
Jackie McCartney, a care-experienced campaigner and ambassador for the Rees Foundation, recounted her own experience of receiving her care records, saying, “I can remember the social worker arriving with my care records – she carried one old battered brown box. That was all I was worth. That box was my life story of residential care, with 16 years of my life inside.”
She added, “The whole process must have more compassion and care.”