INDUSTRY NEWS: ADVOCACY
RIMPA Endorses Charter of Lifelong Rights in Childhood Recordkeeping in Out-OfHomecare BY BARBARA REED & SUE MCKEMMISH
The Board of Directors have endorsed the Charter of Lifelong Rights in Childhood Recordkeeping in Outof-Home Care*. In this, RIMPA are aligned with a range of professional recordkeeping bodies and regulators, with Commissioners of Children and Young People, along with service provider organisations in the sector.
T
he Charter represents an ambitious agenda to put recordkeeping into a prominent position as one of the interventions needed to support children’s rights, with a particular focus on children in Out-of-Home Care. The lifelong role of recordkeeping as a means of empowering people who are experiencing, or who have experienced, Out-of-Home Care in Australia has been brought to professional attention again and again. While recordkeeping professionals have been responsive through advocacy, submissions and engagement with affected communities, the role of recordkeeping has, to date, failed to become a priority in how organisations respond. Yet we know through countless inquiries, investigations, and reports at both state and national level, that records are essential for an individual’s identity formation and memory validation, ability to participate and take action (agency), and to hold organisations to account.
12 | iQ June 2022
