How to access your records
Your records are held under the Data Protection Act and a request to access them is called a subject access request (SAR).
You can speak to your personal advisor (PA) or the Care Leavers service duty line to get support and advice. They can also support you after you have received your records.
What records to ask for
It may help you to think through what records you would like to access and when may be the best time for you to do this.
For example, it may be that you can remember your teenage years and therefore might only want to access records from when you were first taken into care.
Giving a period of time you want your records for can massively reduce the amount of information we need to look at for you, which can run into thousands of pages. This means we can process your request more quickly.
Providing information
It is vital that we have all the information that you know so that we can search for the relevant records.
For example, records are often filed by family name so if you have been known by another name or your parents have a different surname to yours, let us know in your application.
About the application form
There is a question on the application form asking if there is anyone that you don't want us to contact. This question is not relevant to you as a care leaver, so you can ignore it.
We are normally required to seek permission from people named in someone's records before we include their data in details we provide to applicants. For care leavers, it is often not appropriate to contact those people. We understand that this question might cause you anxiety. Be assured that we balance the legal data rights of family members in the records with your right to understand your history and background.
We will disclose any information about family members that is directly relevant to why you came into care without the need to contact those people for permission.
Making a request
Making a request for your records is called a subject access request (SAR).
The easiest way to make an application is by using the online form. It allows you to:
- say which records you want to access
- provide the identification necessary for processing the request
To make an application, see the Accessing your personal data page.
Adoption records
Requests for adoption records are handled by Adoption South East (ASE) as different rules apply to disclosing these documents.
To find out more, see the Adoption records page.