This fantastic short film introduces the MIRRA research project, a partnership between the Department of Information Studies and The Care Leavers' Association, a care-leaver led charity. The acronym stands for Memory – Identity – Rights in Records – Access. You can find out more about the project at the MIRRA website: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/mirra/ .
The aim of the research is to develop a better understanding of information rights in child social care contexts in England, with a particular emphasis on rights to privacy, confidentiality and access to records and data. The study approaches these issues from a ‘recordkeeping perspective’, meaning that it focuses on how records are created, conceptualised and mobilised by the people who use them. This includes social work practitioners, information professionals (such as data protection officers and records managers), academic researchers and, most importantly, the children, young people and care leavers who the records are about.
The project is oriented towards the experiences and needs of care-experienced people and is delivered in partnership with the Care Leavers’ Association and with the support of other care and care leaver advocacy organisations including Become and the Rees: The Care Leavers Foundation.
The project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, with further support from UCL Innovation and Enterprise and UCL Impact and Engagement.
#CareExpConf team member Jackie spoke alongside other #CareExperienced participant researchers about their experiences of accessing their records at the MIRRA symposium on 18th July 2019. In this great blog Victoria Hoyle, a member of the #CareExpConf research team reflects on the symposium and learning from the project so far: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/mirra/