What's happening?

It was announced this week (Mon 9 March 2026) that a new resource will be launched later this year to provide information about where records like case files of care-experienced and adopted people are held.

This will help people find records relating to their past more easily.

Why is this resource needed?

Adopted and care experienced people have consistently highlighted the importance of having access to coherent, comprehensive information about their history and life events. The records held by organisations in loco parentis during their childhood are vital to people’s sense of identity, belonging and wellbeing.

This project will make it much easier for people to find where their records are held and to begin their search with clarity and confidence.

Who is producing this resource?

‍CoramBAAF and the Archives and Records Association (ARA) are working together to produce a freely accessible online resource detailing the location of adoption and care records, combining data held by both organisations to create the UK’s most comprehensive and searchable database for the location of adoption and care records.

What's the background to this project?

This builds on work commissioned by the Chief Archivists in Local Government Group (part of ARA) from Kevin Bolton (Kazky) and me. We started with a records survey to gather as much information as possible about the current situation of these important records.

Together with care-experienced and adopted people, as well as information governance practitioners, records managers and archivists we created guidance for recordkeepers on preserving and making these records available.

More recently I undertook further work to recommend increased retention periods for these records, and to consider options for the care and adoption records survey information we had collected for CALGG, along with information made available since 2005 through the Adoption Search Reunion resource currently hosted by CoramBAAF and approaching obsolescence.

I am currently working on the information we collected about the location, content and dates of these important records from a large number of services across the archive sector, and from many statutory and non-statutory providers. I helped CoramBAAF and ARA to scope and plan this project. I'll be using my expert information management skills to prepare the data and advise them during the project.

We really appreciate everything you’ve done for the project– often going above and beyond the brief and the careful and sensitive way you have led the research and collation of the findings….We’ve got an excellent result in the Guidance and we’ll all be working to try and ensure that the recommendations are adopted in as many places as possible. Steering group member

I am most grateful to you for all of your hard work, and for the empathic, inclusive and collaborative way in which you have approached this project. Lived experience advisory group member

Now that the plan to create the locating records resource has been announced, perhaps those who did not respond to the survey and to multiple follow-up requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 will be able to contribute information too?

Throughout our work Kevin and I were able to draw on an evidence base built over many years from a huge range of organisations, and have taken care throughout to centre lived experiences and to credit those working and advocating for better practice in this area before us. It's good to see the Information Commissioners Office (UK data protection regulator) having now created their own guidance for subject access requests, which also highlights the importance of effective and proactive records management. Its work does not exist in a vacuum, so it's encouraging to see increased engagement with these issues which may carry increased weight with more risk-averse organisations in future to make at least some of the changes many care-experienced and adopted people are desperate for.

What else might change as a result?

In the light of the report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (2022) and the Inquiry into Grooming Gangs announced in Dec 2025 I also hope that organisations which have taken a heavily risk-based approach to the retention of records for the minimum period required by law will now consider choosing a longer period which will better acknowledge the lived experiences and wishes of many care-experienced and adopted people covered by my retention research for CALGG.

Perhaps the UK Government will consider additional resources and a formal apology which might redress some of the harms caused by past practices and perpetuated by the lack of support for people making sense of their experiences.

Where can I find out more about looking after records of care-experienced and adopted people?

More information about the retention guidance and recordkeeping guidance.