Robin Harritt
2005-12-15 18:19:03 UTC
BAAF PRESS RELEASE
Landmark report reveals people who have been in care are denied information
about their past
Issued: 12 December 2005
This press release applies to UK
* Results of the first UK-wide survey on the subject reveal a 'postcode
lottery' in access to care files
* Report calls for new laws and national standards for agencies
providing information and support to people who have spent time in care
* BAAF calls for all people who have been in care to have a right to
information about their birth families
A report to be launched on Monday, December 12 will call for the information
rights of the 350,000 people who have spent time in care in the UK to be
brought into line with those of adopted people.
The report, co-authored by BAAF, the University of Bradford and the
University of Kent, is based on the survey responses of 85 social services
departments and voluntary organisations across the UK. It reveals that more
than 4,000 people who spent time in care as children request access to files
held by social services departments every year and that this number is
rising.
These files may contain formal documents and administrative information,
details of birth relatives and informal notes made by social workers.
Currently they come under the Data Protection Act, which says people have a
right to access personal data held by social services within 40 days of a
request. However, they do not have the right to third party information, so
much of the contents of files - about birth relatives, for example - may be
blanked out.
Agencies reported frustration at the lack of guidance on how to interpret
the act. Other problems included difficulties associated with previous
policies to destroy records, a lack of resources and a lack of training.
Information held in these files can be sensitive and evoke strong emotions,
yet only 21 Access to Records Officers had received training for this work,
while 47 had not.
A Childhood on Paper: Accessing the Child-care Files of Former Looked After
Children in the UK, was co-authored by Jim Goddard, Senior Lecturer in
Social Policy at the University of Bradford, Julia Feast, Policy, Research
and Development Consultant for BAAF and Derek Kirton, Lecturer in Social
Policy and Social Work at the University of Kent.
Jim Goddard says: "Over a number of years, I had come across many adults who
had accessed their care files, or tried to access them. I had also accessed
my own care file, so I know how important this information is.
"Many care leavers have no photographs from that time, few or no relatives
who remember their childhoods and no mementoes or keepsakes. Often, their
files are their only way of reaching back and of reclaiming a sense of who
they are. These care files are much more than a paper record for social
workers and other professionals."
He adds: "Our aim has been not merely to provide a window into current
services but also to promote improvements, so that care leavers throughout
the UK get the service and support they need as they attempt to reclaim and
rediscover the childhoods that have shaped their adult lives"
Julia Feast says: "We believe all people who have spent time in care and
request their files should be offered counselling and intermediary services
to help them search for birth relatives. Files should be exempt from data
protection legislation, as they are for adopted people.
She adds: "The average age of people requesting their files in this study
was 35 - and many people were much older than that. The life-long needs of
adopted adults have long been recognised, but until now the needs of people
brought up in care have been largely neglected."
Derek Kirton says: "At present, former care leavers face a postcode lottery
when they attempt to access their care records, whether in terms of the
priority their local authority or voluntary organisation gives to this work
or the interpretations put on the data protection legislation. This can mean
vast differences in waiting times, the services and expertise available and
perhaps most importantly, the information that is disclosed."
Felicity Collier, BAAF Chief Executive, says: "It is absolutely unacceptable
that adults who have been in care are denied the opportunity to make sense
of their past. BAAF fully supports the recommendations in this important new
report and calls on Government to take action now."
The report makes wide-ranging recommendations, including exempting personal
child-care files from data protection legislation and the introduction of
legislation and national standards for agencies providing information and
support to former care leavers.
END OF BAAF PRESS RELEASE.
_______________________________________________________
I'm still a little bemused as to why anyone should think that adopted people
have easy access to their case files. Either adopted people were placed for
adoption soon after birth, in which case they will have very little in the
way of a care file or they were in care prior to adoption in which case they
are quite likely in reality to get the same or less access to their care
file than someone who grew up in care.
Barnardo's have in the past combined care files in to adoption files in
order to be able to refuse access to them. Will it now be the other way
around, if you were adopted will details of your adoption be shifted in to
your care file in order for Barnardos and all the other self aggrandising so
called children charities that for all the good work they may or may not do
now, utterly destroyed many families in the middle and latter of the last
century. They are solely interested in protecting their individually and
corporate backsides. I don't think I've ever encountered an organisation
that has cared less about protecting my personal privacy and confidentiality
than Barnardo's. I've had records sent to me in almost tissue paper
envelopes by Barnardos so that they had to be repacked by Royal Mail in see
through plastic bags, people I know who I see every day who drink at the pub
with were able to read the first and most interesting page. Maybe it was
even them who had to repack the whole thing my they could have read all the
bits that I had to fight for years to see. I've never had anything that in
the slightest resembles an apology from Banardos. Barnados have tried to
insisted for many years that if wanted to see my medical records from care
and have copies then they would have to be sent to my GP, where in a small
village several people working at the surgery were friends of my adoptive
family. I have only recently received some parts of those medical directly
after over ten years of fighting.
Parts of my file simply disappeared from Banados for over five years then
suddenly reappeared without explanation. Other parts have supposedly been
lost by Hays DX but no one from Barnardos or Campbell Hooper its solicitors
seemed to think it of any importance to investigate why. I've still not
seen many parts of my file. Now they are saying perhaps I can see the
remainder if I sign a secrecy agreement or an agreement not publish any
aspect of these things that happened 50 years ago.
So, Felicity Collier, BAAF Chief Executive and her friends from all the old
children charities that were operating in the post-war years of the 20th
century anxious to see that anyone adopted or raised in care has proper
access to their record. That's got to be the biggest joke I'm going to hear
this Christmas Holliday, I'm not going to find anything that funny in my
cracker.
Robin Harritt
http://harritt.net
Landmark report reveals people who have been in care are denied information
about their past
Issued: 12 December 2005
This press release applies to UK
* Results of the first UK-wide survey on the subject reveal a 'postcode
lottery' in access to care files
* Report calls for new laws and national standards for agencies
providing information and support to people who have spent time in care
* BAAF calls for all people who have been in care to have a right to
information about their birth families
A report to be launched on Monday, December 12 will call for the information
rights of the 350,000 people who have spent time in care in the UK to be
brought into line with those of adopted people.
The report, co-authored by BAAF, the University of Bradford and the
University of Kent, is based on the survey responses of 85 social services
departments and voluntary organisations across the UK. It reveals that more
than 4,000 people who spent time in care as children request access to files
held by social services departments every year and that this number is
rising.
These files may contain formal documents and administrative information,
details of birth relatives and informal notes made by social workers.
Currently they come under the Data Protection Act, which says people have a
right to access personal data held by social services within 40 days of a
request. However, they do not have the right to third party information, so
much of the contents of files - about birth relatives, for example - may be
blanked out.
Agencies reported frustration at the lack of guidance on how to interpret
the act. Other problems included difficulties associated with previous
policies to destroy records, a lack of resources and a lack of training.
Information held in these files can be sensitive and evoke strong emotions,
yet only 21 Access to Records Officers had received training for this work,
while 47 had not.
A Childhood on Paper: Accessing the Child-care Files of Former Looked After
Children in the UK, was co-authored by Jim Goddard, Senior Lecturer in
Social Policy at the University of Bradford, Julia Feast, Policy, Research
and Development Consultant for BAAF and Derek Kirton, Lecturer in Social
Policy and Social Work at the University of Kent.
Jim Goddard says: "Over a number of years, I had come across many adults who
had accessed their care files, or tried to access them. I had also accessed
my own care file, so I know how important this information is.
"Many care leavers have no photographs from that time, few or no relatives
who remember their childhoods and no mementoes or keepsakes. Often, their
files are their only way of reaching back and of reclaiming a sense of who
they are. These care files are much more than a paper record for social
workers and other professionals."
He adds: "Our aim has been not merely to provide a window into current
services but also to promote improvements, so that care leavers throughout
the UK get the service and support they need as they attempt to reclaim and
rediscover the childhoods that have shaped their adult lives"
Julia Feast says: "We believe all people who have spent time in care and
request their files should be offered counselling and intermediary services
to help them search for birth relatives. Files should be exempt from data
protection legislation, as they are for adopted people.
She adds: "The average age of people requesting their files in this study
was 35 - and many people were much older than that. The life-long needs of
adopted adults have long been recognised, but until now the needs of people
brought up in care have been largely neglected."
Derek Kirton says: "At present, former care leavers face a postcode lottery
when they attempt to access their care records, whether in terms of the
priority their local authority or voluntary organisation gives to this work
or the interpretations put on the data protection legislation. This can mean
vast differences in waiting times, the services and expertise available and
perhaps most importantly, the information that is disclosed."
Felicity Collier, BAAF Chief Executive, says: "It is absolutely unacceptable
that adults who have been in care are denied the opportunity to make sense
of their past. BAAF fully supports the recommendations in this important new
report and calls on Government to take action now."
The report makes wide-ranging recommendations, including exempting personal
child-care files from data protection legislation and the introduction of
legislation and national standards for agencies providing information and
support to former care leavers.
END OF BAAF PRESS RELEASE.
_______________________________________________________
I'm still a little bemused as to why anyone should think that adopted people
have easy access to their case files. Either adopted people were placed for
adoption soon after birth, in which case they will have very little in the
way of a care file or they were in care prior to adoption in which case they
are quite likely in reality to get the same or less access to their care
file than someone who grew up in care.
Barnardo's have in the past combined care files in to adoption files in
order to be able to refuse access to them. Will it now be the other way
around, if you were adopted will details of your adoption be shifted in to
your care file in order for Barnardos and all the other self aggrandising so
called children charities that for all the good work they may or may not do
now, utterly destroyed many families in the middle and latter of the last
century. They are solely interested in protecting their individually and
corporate backsides. I don't think I've ever encountered an organisation
that has cared less about protecting my personal privacy and confidentiality
than Barnardo's. I've had records sent to me in almost tissue paper
envelopes by Barnardos so that they had to be repacked by Royal Mail in see
through plastic bags, people I know who I see every day who drink at the pub
with were able to read the first and most interesting page. Maybe it was
even them who had to repack the whole thing my they could have read all the
bits that I had to fight for years to see. I've never had anything that in
the slightest resembles an apology from Banardos. Barnados have tried to
insisted for many years that if wanted to see my medical records from care
and have copies then they would have to be sent to my GP, where in a small
village several people working at the surgery were friends of my adoptive
family. I have only recently received some parts of those medical directly
after over ten years of fighting.
Parts of my file simply disappeared from Banados for over five years then
suddenly reappeared without explanation. Other parts have supposedly been
lost by Hays DX but no one from Barnardos or Campbell Hooper its solicitors
seemed to think it of any importance to investigate why. I've still not
seen many parts of my file. Now they are saying perhaps I can see the
remainder if I sign a secrecy agreement or an agreement not publish any
aspect of these things that happened 50 years ago.
So, Felicity Collier, BAAF Chief Executive and her friends from all the old
children charities that were operating in the post-war years of the 20th
century anxious to see that anyone adopted or raised in care has proper
access to their record. That's got to be the biggest joke I'm going to hear
this Christmas Holliday, I'm not going to find anything that funny in my
cracker.
Robin Harritt
http://harritt.net