Unresolved issues: recordkeeping recommendations arising from Australian commissions of inquiry into the welfare of children in out-of-home care, 1997–2012
Since the late 1990s, a significant number of commissions of inquiry have been conducted by the Commonwealth Government of Australia, individual states and territories in Australia, and internationally, into the treatment of children in out-of-home care. This paper traces the most significant of these inquiries and the recommendations arising regarding records, with the purpose of highlighting some of the recurring themes identified by each inquiry. An overview is also given of some of the positive changes to aspects of recordkeeping as a direct consequence of the landmark inquiries. Lastly, this overview hopes to raise some questions surrounding the role of the profession in promoting awareness of recordkeeping issues that have emerged through these inquiries.
“Problems with records and recordkeeping practices are not confined to the past”: a challenge from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
This paper describes and analyses the campaign by the Care Leaver community and other stakeholders to bring about a royal commission into child abuse in Australia. Care Leavers did not get the royal commission they wanted and expected—other more powerful forces were at play—but the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Royal Commission) was highly effective in exposing the complex nature and extent of the problem of child sexual abuse, “the core transgression of childhood innocence”. This paper aims to show that, although the Royal Commission disappointed many Care Leavers with its narrow focus on sexual abuse, when it eventually reported on records and recordkeeping, the Commission surprised many by moving beyond its narrow remit. Issues relating to records and recordkeeping were not originally a prominent part of the Commission’s mandate, but they emerged as one of the crucial issues that influence the quality of the out-of-home Care experience and child protection. This finding has created a fresh context in which Care Leaver advocates, academics and other professionals can work together to further a new agenda for recordkeeping in out-of-home Care.
‘Putting the Heart Back into the Record’: Personal Records to Support Young People in Care
The records of children and young people growing up in care have multiple purposes and audiences. Cathy Humphreys and Margaret Kertesz discuss the ways in which the characteristics of the documentation determine the record's usefulness to care leavers as a resource for identity at some point in later life. The Who Am I? action research project, based in Victoria, Australia, explores the extent to which records and current record-keeping practices facilitate this. Two approaches were found to be especially useful: the Knowledge Diamond framework, which harnesses the different knowledge brought by diverse groups to the task of developing principles for record-keeping; and the records continuum (constructing, storing and accessing the record), which provided a concept through which to understand the significance of the archive as a dimension of good practice. It was found that workers' accountability to the children now and in the future risks being overshadowed by the requirements of other stakeholders unless the principles that underpin effective record-keeping are articulated and implemented.