Everyday records or living archives? An analysis of record-keeping in residential children’s homes in Scotland

Abstract

This article presents research and experience gathered during a practice-based study to look at how group experience is captured and preserved in care records of children and young people. It discusses the work of the Archiving Residential Children’s Homes project (ARCH), a joint Scottish-German research project with teams at the Universities of Stirling and Osnabruck. The article focuses on the Scottish side of the project, examining the steps recently taken in Scotland towards recognizing the value and importance of care records and challenging current recording practices in the care sector. It reflects on the interdisciplinary nature of the project, examining the differing positions taken by key professionals and their approach to record keeping. The article looks beyond the individual case file examining how everyday, group life was historically captured and recorded, drawing out the parallels and differences with contemporary practice and proposing a new reframing of record keeping responsibilities to include the wider responsibility of memory keeping.