(Last updated 23/09/2025)
Fostering Services (England) Regulations 2011, Regulation 22
National Minimum Standards (NMS) 26, 26.5, 26.6, 30–32
Introduction
Everyone who works with children and young people who are looked after shares a responsibility to create a safe, respectful and empowering environment through careful, accurate record-keeping. High-quality records:
• Support a child’s sense of identity and life-story by enabling them, now or in the future, to review what happened, why decisions were made and how adults — including you — supported them.
• Provide foster carers and professionals with opportunities for reflection and analysis, helping to identify patterns, triggers and strengths so that support remains responsive and consistent.
• Offer reliable information for plans, assessments and court proceedings.
• Protect both the child and foster carer if an allegation is made and demonstrate accountability to the standards of the fostering role.
• Fulfil The PA Group’s duty, under Schedules 6 & 7 of the Fostering Regulations, to record all significant events and incidents.
All recordings must be relevant, accurate, up-to-date and stored securely in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and associated data-protection legislation.
Confidentiality
Personal information about children, young people and staff is held under a legal duty of confidence. It should only be shared on a need-to-know basis and, wherever possible, with the informed consent of the person concerned. Exceptions apply where information must be disclosed to:
- safeguard a child or young person;
- investigate a criminal offence; or
- comply with a statutory right of access.
Even in these circumstances, share only what is necessary and explain, in a developmentally appropriate way, why confidentiality cannot be maintained.
During the assessment process, foster families will be asked to give consent to share pertinent information with colleagues, professionals and agencies involved in service delivery or safeguarding.
When transmitting recordings electronically:
- Anonymise or password-protect documents; and
- Use system checks to confirm the email is addressed to the intended recipient.
Recordings about Children and Young People
Records must be:
- Clear, legible and written in plain, jargon-free language.
- Accessible and respectful, so that the child or young person can comfortably read them now or in the future.
- Balanced, including achievements, strengths and joys alongside challenges.
- Free from labels or language that could shame or stigmatise.
- Authored clearly — each entry must state who wrote it.
- Completed separately for each child in the household.
Foster Carer Recordings
The main foster carer will receive a weekly email with a link to an online form. This form must be completed and submitted every week. Entries should cover:
- Improvements and achievements of the child.
- All medical appointments.
- Medication (prescribed and non-prescribed) administered, including errors.
- Injuries or illnesses (how acquired, witnesses, emergency actions) and the accompanying body-map/incident report.
- Direct quotes or comments from the child or young person.
- Whether decisions were made under delegated authority.
- Significant changes in behaviour, identified triggers and supportive responses.
- Contact with agencies and professionals within the child’s network.
- Times the child is away from the foster home with friends or birth family.
• If the child is missing, follow the Missing from Care Procedure (see Quick Reference Guide). - Family time (previously “contact”) visits, including the child’s response and reasons for any failed visits.
- Disagreements or complaints and how these were resolved.
- Visits by the child’s social worker, including missed meetings and agreed actions.
- Theft or damage involving the child and any restorative actions taken.
- Events or changes within the foster carer household that may affect the child.
- Education-related information — progress, exams, trips, meetings, absences (sickness, appointments, school closure) and exclusions.
• Report all exclusions — internal, external or longer-term — immediately to your SSW and the Local Authority Social Worker (LA SW).
All foster carers are encouraged and supported to attend “Writing Quality, Meaningful Recordings” training and complete the online “Foster Carer Recordings” course.
PA Staff Recordings
Purposeful case recording:
- Structures work, ensuring clarity of purpose.
- Allows staff to evidence interventions and incorporate carers’ input, factual information and professional analysis.
Supervising Social Workers (SSWs) must:
- Keep recordings current.
- Upload to the Base system within seven days of the contact, correspondence or meeting.
- Use plain, jargon-free English and avoid slang.
- State the purpose of visits, contact or meetings.
- Include only information essential to that purpose.
- Check spelling and consistency of names.
- Keep entries concise and relevant to the current intervention.
- For supervision records, provide a clear analysis and action plan, listing previous actions and their completion status to prevent drift or delay.
- Maintain at least one call or face-to-face meeting every week with each foster carer.
