Abstract
In 2004, the Scottish Parliament commissioned an independent review of abuse in children’s residential establishments between 1950 and 1995. In 2007, the review’s findings were published in a report entitled Historical Abuse Systemic Review: Residential Schools and Children’s Homes in Scotland 1950 to 1995, also known as the Shaw Report. In this article, the Shaw Report provides the jumping off point for a case study of the social justice impact of records. Drawing on secondary literature, interviews, and care-related records, the study identifies narratives that speak to the social justice impact of care records on care-leavers seeking access to them; it also assesses the potential of the surviving administrative records to serve as a foundation on which to construct historical narratives that speak more generally to the experience of children in residential care.
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Funding was provided by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (497106).
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Appendix: Interviewees
Appendix: Interviewees
An academic from the social work field.
An archivist from a previous children’s residential care facility.
A representative from Who Cares? Scotland.
Bob Balfour—A consultant on the Time to be Heard review.
Anne Black—A retired social work manager and volunteer archivist.
Jennifer Davidson—Executive Director of the Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland (CELCIS).
Hugh Hagan—Senior Public Records Officer, National Records of Scotland (NRS).
Moyra Hawthorn—A researcher at the Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland (CELCIS).
Andrew Kendrick—A scholar at the Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland (CELCIS).
Bruno Longmore—Head of Government Records, National Records of Scotland (NRS).
George MacKenzie—Keeper of the Records of Scotland (2001–2012); Registrar General for Scotland and chief executive of National Records of Scotland (NRS) (2011–2012).
Irene O’Brien—City Archivist of Glasgow.
Angus Skinner—Former child care inspector.
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MacNeil, H., Duff, W., Dotiwalla, A. et al. “If there are no records, there is no narrative”: the social justice impact of records of Scottish care-leavers. Arch Sci 18, 1–28 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-017-9283-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-017-9283-2