A Guide to Good Recording: recording training for social careSomeone is going to read this.

Story. Bethany, 24, asks for her care file. When it arrives, the note about the day she was moved says “placement ended due to Bethany’s behaviour”. There is nothing about what happened that week or what she said.

Theory. UCL’s MIRRA project (2017 to 2019) worked with care-experienced adults on their records. It found that files shape how people understand their own childhood, and that gaps and poor recording make that harder. Adults have a legal right to ask for their records under data protection law, so every note should be written expecting to be read.

Action. Everyone reviews a real, anonymised case note on their own, marking what is good, poor or missing. They read it again as the child would at 24, then agree at their table what a good record must always include. Tables then swap notes and compare what each one missed.

By the end of this part people can review a case note against a checklist and explain why records matter to care-experienced adults who later read them.

You leave with A shared checklist for a good record, agreed by your team.

Story. A home visit note says: “Mum presented as hostile. House chaotic. Ethan, 7, seemed fine.” Three readers at the same table picture three different homes and three different Ethans.

Theory. Eileen Munro’s research on errors of reasoning in child protection (1999) found that workers often form a view early and then notice what fits it. Keeping what you saw, what you were told and what you think apart makes your reasoning visible, so a manager or the next worker can test it.

Action. People sort the note into three columns: seen, told and think. They then rewrite it with evidence for every opinion and answer three questions: what do I think, why, and what should I do? Partners swap rewrites and check that every opinion has its evidence.

By the end of this part people can separate fact, what was said and opinion in a note, and record the reasoning behind a decision.

You leave with A three-question prompt for analysis, to use in every case note.

Story. Lily, 12, has had five social workers in four years. Each one recorded the missed school days, the bruise, the move to her nan’s. Nobody saw the pattern, because it was spread across hundreds of case notes.

Theory. Research on cumulative harm (Bromfield, Gillingham and Higgins, 2007) shows that many smaller events building up over time can harm a child as much as one serious incident. A chronology is how a worker sees that build-up, but only if it records the impact on the child, not just the event.

Action. People turn the home visit story from the last activity into chronology entries: date, what happened, the impact on the child and the action taken. They decide together what goes in and what stays out, then check whether a pattern shows. Each person then builds a short chronology from their own anonymised notes.

By the end of this part people can write chronology entries that record event, impact and action, and spot a pattern across entries.

You leave with A chronology template, and a worked example built in the session.

Story. Kieran, 10, reads his review report with his foster carer. It says he “continues to display challenging behaviour”. He asks what “display” means, and why it doesn’t say he got star of the week.

Theory. Writing to the Child means writing case notes and reports to the child, as “you”. Brighton and Hove’s 2020 evaluation of its Me and My World approach found practitioners wrote more plainly and focused more on strengths, and children were more likely to attend their reviews. TACT’s Language that Cares (2019), written with children in care, shows which words label children and what to say instead.

Action. Language that Cares and Writing to the Child. Everyone rewrites one of their own records to the child, swapping labels for descriptions of what happened. A partner then reads it back as the child would and says what landed, and everyone rewrites a second record using what they heard.

By the end of this part people can write a case note addressed to the child and replace labelling language with a plain description of what happened and what the child said.

You leave with One record rewritten to the child, with before and after versions to share with your team.