Earlier this month, a national summit was held in Melbourne about current and historic records and recordkeeping about children and young people’s contact with statutory child protection systems. The issue is important “because recordkeeping and archiving systems are failing to meet the lifelong identity, memory and accountability needs of children who get caught up in child welfare and protection systems”. It matters because issues such as poor records and inadequate archiving, redacting in accessed records, and the lack of children’s participation in developing the records that are kept about them, contribute to the vulnerabilities, disadvantage and poorer life outcomes of those who spend time as a child in out-of-home care. The Setting the Record Straight for the Rights of the Child initiative’s goal is to transform the way records are created, captured, managed, archived and accessed. A former state ward has shared her own experience as a researcher involved in improving this process. Click here for how you can get involved.
