The Challenge of Actualising Research in Practice: Implementing the Charter of Lifelong Rights in Childhood Recordkeeping in Out of Home Care

Frank Golding; Sue McKemmish; Barbara Reed

doi:10.37683/asa.v52.11021

Frank Golding Care Leavers Australasia Network (CLAN) and Federation University, Melbourne, Australia
Sue McKemmish Monash University, Melbourne, Australia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4771-349X
Barbara Reed Monash University, Melbourne, Australia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7974-2861

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37683/asa.v52.11021

Keywords: Child-centred recordkeeping, Charter of Lifelong Rights in Recordkeeping, Recordkeeping systems, Strategic intervention

Abstract

This paper addresses the challenges encountered when actualising research in practice, using the implementation of the Charter of Lifelong Rights in Childhood Recordkeeping in Out of Home Care as an illustrative example. We begin with overviews of the recordkeeping failures of the past and present, and the development of the Charter to address them. We imagine transformed recordkeeping and archiving systems engaging children, young people and Care leavers as creators and decision-makers about their records. We identify challenges and barriers to implementation and discuss the strategies designed to engage major stakeholders in implementing the Charter. The paper concludes by challenging recordkeeping regulators, recordkeeping and archival institutions, current records creators and holders, and the recordkeeping and archival profession to play their essential role in enabling the realisation of this goal and identify the broader relevance of reconceptualising person-centric recordkeeping.

Author Biographies

Frank Golding, Care Leavers Australasia Network (CLAN) and Federation University, Melbourne, Australia

Frank Golding is an Honorary Research Fellow at Federation University Australia, where he completed a PhD entitled Care Leavers Recovering Voice and Agency through Counter-Narrative, and a Life Member of Care Leavers Australasia Network (CLAN), the national Care leaver advocacy body. A social historian, Frank has contributed to formal inquiries dealing with the institutionalisation of children and to projects with the National Museum, the National Library of Australia and the National Summit on Rights in Records. He has written more than a dozen books, as well as book chapters and refereed journal articles and has presented papers on child welfare in the UK and several European countries.

Sue McKemmish, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

Sue McKemmish Joining Monash in 1990, Sue McKemmish’s research focussed on Records Continuum theory and conceptual modelling, and recordkeeping metadata. Her Records Continuum theory-building and modelling work has continued throughout her career. More recently, she has focussed on community-centred, participatory recordkeeping and archiving research relating to rights in records, complemented by ethics of care, in response to advocacy by those with lived experience of Out-of-Home Care, and First Nations peoples in Australia. Developing inclusive, reflexive research design and practice in partnership with communities has been a critical part of this research.

Barbara Reed, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

Barbara Reed is currently working as a part-time Research Fellow on the Rights in Records projects of Monash University. As an independent archives and records consultant she has worked with a range of government, non-government, private and non-profit organisations, in Australia and internationally. Much of her work has been focussed on developing recordkeeping practices and competencies, transforming recordkeeping into digital practice, and working with a range of stakeholders to create strategic interventions through standards and best practice guidelines. She has taught archives and records subjects at a number of Australian Universities.