Care leavers’ access to childhood records: Leveraging grassroots initiatives to impact national policy
By Audrey Tan, Elizabeth Lomas, Darren Coyne, Luke Geoghegan, Matthew Brazier and Isabel Bennett.
In the Up Close & Policy seminar, Care leavers’ rights to records, Dr Elizabeth Lomas (Department of Information Studies, UCL), Darren Coyne (The Care Leavers’ Association), Luke Geoghegan (British Association of Social Workers) and Matthew Brazier (Ofsted), discussed how their work with care leavers (i.e. any adult who spent time in care, such as foster care, residential care, or other arrangements outside the immediate or extended family, as a child) and their rights to their personal records has led to change in policy in the area of children’s social care policy. With their work often aligning, they have collaborated on numerous projects, blog pieces, training and initiatives throughout the years. Here, we’ve brought together the key points made during the discussion by each of our speakers, as well as the audience Q&A.
Dr Elizabeth Lomas (UCL)
The Memory — Identity — Rights in Records — Access (MIRRA) project consists of a team of academics working with seven care leavers to co-produce research on care leavers’ rights to access their care records, which are often the only route to understanding their childhood and accessing childhood memories. The power of the MIRRA campaign is that the experiences and perspective of care-experienced people are at the centre of their work, which has given the campaign real meaning. The research is evidence-based, but it also wins hearts and minds, and encourages people to become champions for the cause. The impact may be gradual, but it certainly has been impactful in lots of different ways across all different parts of practice. Successes achieved throughout the project have been facilitated by having a dedicated policy lead who could think strategically about which stakeholders to engage with and at what stage.
The MIRRA project has shown that research structures are not established to support participatory research approaches as much as they should. For example, co-researchers are unfunded and cannot access academic support networks such as counsellors. MIRRA are keen to work with UCL and the research councils so that they offer better support for participatory forms of research. This participatory research process has been a hugely valuable journey where the care leavers have been on an equal footing with the researchers and the results and outputs are all the richer from their participation and co-production.
Darren Coyne (Care Leavers’ Association)
The Care Leavers’ Association (CLA) recognises that care leavers having access to their records enables care leavers to engage with their histories and their time in the care system. However, while the Data Protection Act allows care leavers to apply for access to their care files, it does not recognise that care leavers may need emotional, social or psychological support throughout this process. In addition, it sometimes needlessly withholds information. Therefore, the CLA is working with the legislature to try to ensure the rights of care leavers to not only have access to their care records, but to also be supported throughout the process of accessing these. The CLA is leveraging the collective voices of other organisations, such as Ofsted and Local Government Associations, as well as the MIRRA project to push for policy change.
Luke Geoghegan (British Association of Social Workers)
There are two key elements to consider when looking at how research is translated into practice. Firstly, legislation comes at the interface of party-political structures, public opinion and the media, which means that the legislative process is often not linear and sequential. Researchers must find the right opportunities and strategic points in the legislative process with which to engage policy professionals. Secondly, the Government is not the only maker of policy. The concept of ‘civil society’ (i.e. charities, professional associations, unions, non-governmental organisations) is a crucial channel by which a lot of policy change happens — policies are implemented on the ground then subsequently endorsed by the Government. For example, the 1989 Children’s Act was a culmination of 20 years of good practice that was then enacted into national legislation and guidance. It is just as effective — or even more effective — for researchers to try and influence practitioners on the ground directly.
Matthew Brazier (Ofstead)
Developing and maintaining positive relationships with key people across the children social care sector, such as local authorities, the third sector, and government departments ensures that Ofsted understands what matters most for care leavers. This in turn ensures that their inspections, regulations and advice are timely and relevant. Collaboration with the CLA and MIRRA project has also contextualised their policy work and highlighted that the underlying objective should always be to ensure that the voices of care-experienced people are heard and can influence individual case planning, as well as wider service planning. The positive relationships that Ofsted has developed have enabled them to debate the issues, manage expectations and create a space for respectful challenge.
Questions
What tips do you have for early career researchers who are just starting to think about how to achieve policy impact with their research?
While peer reviewed journal articles are vital to career progression, platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc. allow researchers to share their findings with a much wider audience. Being able to write concisely and in plain English for audiences who may not be as familiar with technical terms is crucial. It is also important to understand who your stakeholders are and start talking to them in the different spaces, so dig around to see what networks are available to you within and beyond your institution.
The MIRRA project showed how stories of individuals’ experiences were particularly powerful in affecting change. What is the importance of voices as opposed to just data when looking to create change?
As a user-led charity, the CLA uses the voices of care leavers to frame their arguments. Collaboration is crucial, especially for a small charity or research group. The qualitative data in the form of case studies and stories are massively powerful for persuading decision-makers and those with the power to change policy and legislation.
What does best practice for policy engagement look like in this space?
Guideline documents may sometimes miss some of the nuance and in-depth details sought by practitioners, so complementing official guidance with other communication tools can help to outline and illustrate frameworks of what good practice looks like. Not being overly scripted and being willing to consciously focus on experiences in the progress of the children and young people is really important, as more rudimentary data can only tell one part of the story. It is crucial to have open and honest discussion, as opposed to having a compliance tick box approach. The MIRRA project has excelled at showing what a positive impact it has on children’s lives when you do things well and you do things properly in terms of providing access to a record that contains a complete record of childhood with the child’s voice at the heart.
How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your activities, especially where it is currently dominating a lot of the public policy agendas?
The COVID-19 pandemic has complicated the MIRRA project where planned in-person engagement is no longer possible. They have had to rethink how to deliver some elements of the project as online spaces are not always as conducive for the sometimes traumatic and difficult topics. Conversely, moving to digital ways of working has made it more accessible for people, especially service users (people with lived experience with social work services) to participate in activities and attend events.
Has any work been done to raise awareness for council data protection staff, as they are often the first point of contact?
The CLA and MIRRA project collaborated to develop a training video that has been shown at several training events with Councils to help data protection officers become more aware of care leavers’ perspectives. This work with councils is an ongoing journey and guidance is in development. As part of MIRRA work, they convened a series of workshops in which they invited social care professionals and data protection professionals to engage in working on ways that the two arms could work better together. This work has fostered greater understanding between data protection officers and social workers as they have been able to see the nuances in the barriers that may prevent protection officers from easily implementing recommendations.
What challenges did you face working with so many different stakeholders at local and national levels?
Having a champion who can help with knowledge transfer is really valuable when working across different organisations and sectors. For example, the CLA was able to work with Baroness Lola Young, who is also a care leaver. She presented the issue to Parliament and advocated the CLA’s recommendations to the Department for Education’s guidance.
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About the Authors
Audrey Tan is a Public Policy Engagement Facilitator (SLMS) for UCL Public Policy.
Dr Elizabeth Lomas is an Associate Professor in Information Governance in UCL’s Department of Information Studies.
Darren Coyne is a Project Manager at The Care Leavers’ Association (CLA).
Luke Geoghegan is the Head of Policy and Research at the British Association of Social Workers.
Matthew Brazier is a Specialist Adviser for Looked After Children at Ofsted.
Dr Isabel Bennett is a Public Policy Engagement Facilitator (BEAMS) for UCL Public Policy.
This seminar and blog are part of the Up Close and Policy series hosted by UCL Public Policy. This series features UCL researchers in open conversation with policy professionals drawn from a wide range of organisations and subject disciplines.
