Information watchdog to survey care-experienced people on problems faced with accessing care records

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has launched a survey of people with experience of the care system in the UK asking them to share the challenges they have faced when accessing their care records from organisations.

The ICO said it was committing to improving the support it provides to both people who grew up in the care system in the UK and the organisations that hold their information.  

It said: “The ICO recognises that records of personal information are especially important to people who have care experience, often revealing elements of their childhood history which they cannot recall. Under data protection law, everyone has rights over their own personal information. This includes the right to ask for this information using a subject access request (SAR) but for people with care experience, this can be a lengthy and stressful process.”

Last year, the ICO ran workshops with organisations who support people with experience in the care system. These workshops identified that accessing care records is a significant issue with long delays, heavily redacted records and challenges accessing support, the watchdog said.

“The insight revealed that organisations can struggle to understand what information they can release from complex records and often fail to treat these requests with the sensitivity they require,” the ICO said.

“It also highlighted that the regulator could do more to help people with care experience obtain their personal information and exercise other information rights, as well as support organisations to provide timely responses.”

The ICO said the information gathered by the survey about the impact of delays, redactions and other concerns would help it identify areas where it can focus its support.  

Catherine Evans O’Brien, Head of Communities at the ICO, said: “Accessing care records can be an emotive and personal subject, as the information can play a huge role in helping someone to understand their identity. As the UK data protection regulator, we want to empower people to exercise their rights over their own personal information and we want to improve the support and resources we provide to help people understand these rights.   

“This survey is a major step towards improving the experience of accessing personal information for people who have been in the care system. As well as experiences trying to access records, we want to hear about any concerns people have about how their personal information has been used, so we can understand where we can make the most difference with our support.”  

Jackie McCartney, Ambassador for the Rees Foundation and care experienced campaigner, said of her experience of accessing her records: “Someone I do not know, someone who I do not have a relationship with, gets to decide what I can or cannot see. A total stranger knows more about me than I do, or ever will. This is my history and the whole process should be dealt with compassion and care.” 

The ICO said it has also been engaging directly with local authorities in Scotland to improve response times where it has identified poor performance handling requests for care records.

In Scotland, many local authorities have seen an increase in SARs, especially since the Redress Scheme requires people to submit supporting documents when applying for redress for abuse suffered while in care, the ICO said.

Jenny Brotchie, Regional Manager for Scotland at the ICO, said: “We have heard how undue delays and other challenges accessing care records can cause further trauma for people in Scotland. Organisations must get this right which is why we are closely monitoring local authorities until we are satisfied that their compliance has significantly improved.”   

The ICO said it will produce updated resources for all UK organisations, “providing clarity on how they can improve their processes when handling requests for care records and protect the personal information of people with care experience”.