Contents
- Welcome to the Local Offer for young adults leaving care in Bexley
- What the children and social work act 2017 says about the care leaver offer
- Your local offer in summary
- Your home
- Education, employment and training
- Health and wellbeing
- Money
- Preparing to leave care
- Participation in society
- Help to understand your history
- What to do if things go wrong
- Our commitments in Bexley
- Your commitments to us
- Key contacts
- UK benefits that you could be entitled to
Help to understand your history
Children’s Services have to keep written case records of your care history. These records must be kept for 75 years. You can request your records any time after you become 18 years old.
You do not have to read through the information on your own. It can be upsetting or confusing to do this alone. Your PA can support you or you can bring a friend.
We would strongly suggest that you do not do this on your own. You need to request to see your records in writing including proof of photo ID (i.e. driving licence, passport, government ID card) and proof of address, dated within the last three months. Children’s Services must then respond to you in writing giving the timescale. Your files should be made available to you within a calendar month.
However, if the files need to be retrieved from the archive and are very large, the deadline can be extended by up to 60 days. You may find that some of the information is not available for you to read. This is because some of the information in your records may identify other people known as third parties. Unless their consent has been provided, this information will be redacted (blacked out). Additionally, if there is information that may seriously harm your physical or mental health it may not be given to you.