“Seen” through records: parents’ access to children’s social care records in an age of increasing datafication
“Seen” through records: parents’ access to children’s social care records in an age of increasing datafication
General Data Protection Regulations state that parents may submit a Subject Access Request (SAR) to see personal records held about them. In this article we draw on interviews with parents who have made a SAR in order to view their children’s social care records. Their experiences reveal the significant barriers of time, energy and bureaucracy that they faced in accessing their children’s records. The parents felt that they were ‘seen’ through their records, reported inaccuracies in information about them, and relayed the devastating impact that false allegations of maltreatment continued to have in their lives. Datafication becomes an integral part of the unequal power dynamic between parents and professionals, further shifting the balance towards professionals, damaging fragile trust and engagement. Crucially, there are ethical questions raised for the social work profession about the accessibility and accountability of local authority processes when parents seek justice and reparation for harm. Given the importance of records in decision-making about intervention in families lives and increasing datafication of public services working with families through electronic systems including predictive analytics, our indicative findings point to the need for further investigation.
children, data, data protection, qualitative research, social care records, subject access requests
Gorin, Sarah J
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Edwards, Rosalind
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Gillies, Val
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Vannier ducasse, Helene
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Gorin, Sarah J
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Edwards, Rosalind
e43912c0-f149-4457-81a9-9c4e00a4bb42
Gillies, Val
ca51ea17-1bdf-457a-b51d-ab0c39aaa26e
Vannier ducasse, Helene
dc8d04de-9476-4fdd-92c0-f1bbb4d88939
Gorin, Sarah J, Edwards, Rosalind, Gillies, Val and Vannier ducasse, Helene
(2023)
“Seen” through records: parents’ access to children’s social care records in an age of increasing datafication.
British Journal of Social Work.
(In Press)
Abstract
General Data Protection Regulations state that parents may submit a Subject Access Request (SAR) to see personal records held about them. In this article we draw on interviews with parents who have made a SAR in order to view their children’s social care records. Their experiences reveal the significant barriers of time, energy and bureaucracy that they faced in accessing their children’s records. The parents felt that they were ‘seen’ through their records, reported inaccuracies in information about them, and relayed the devastating impact that false allegations of maltreatment continued to have in their lives. Datafication becomes an integral part of the unequal power dynamic between parents and professionals, further shifting the balance towards professionals, damaging fragile trust and engagement. Crucially, there are ethical questions raised for the social work profession about the accessibility and accountability of local authority processes when parents seek justice and reparation for harm. Given the importance of records in decision-making about intervention in families lives and increasing datafication of public services working with families through electronic systems including predictive analytics, our indicative findings point to the need for further investigation.
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Accepted Revised-main-document 25.7.23
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Restricted to Repository staff only until 23 July 2025.
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Accepted/In Press date: 24 July 2023
Keywords:
children, data, data protection, qualitative research, social care records, subject access requests
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 480987
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/480987
ISSN: 0045-3102
PURE UUID: 05f79705-66a5-496c-8127-60ce37869ae7
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Date deposited: 14 Aug 2023 16:49
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:16
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Contributors
Author:
Sarah J Gorin
Author:
Val Gillies
Author:
Helene Vannier ducasse
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