Time to scrap the requirement of foster carers to keep diaries

For children in care, they are measured, monitored and recorded to an unfathomable degree. Once something is recorded, there is a danger that the children are stuck with it for the rest of their lives. I didn’t grow up in care and am relieved that some of the dumb stuff I did as a child wasn’t written down!

I have a deep unease with the regular recording of children who are in foster care, by foster parents in the form of daily or weekly diaries. I would describe it as a form of voyeurism and often completely unnecessary.

I’ve also seen stories of adults with care experience requesting their files when they leave care and being presented with wheelbarrows full of papers to sift through with no support nor explanation. At best, they are presented with piles of mundane commentary and at worst, there is the potential for causing long-term hurt to the person with care experience when reading a diary entry which has been written insensitively and without regard for who will read it in the future.