Defining ‘proper research’: privileged access, local authority archives and the academic researcher

ABSTRACT

This article sets out a case study of proposed access to approved school records, undertaken as part of doctoral research at the University of Essex, and outlines issues encountered in the process of negotiating privileged access to closed material. It will demonstrate the approaches taken by local authority archive services in dealing with such access requests and make proposals to standardize this route of access for record professionals in the field, and academic researchers. Approved schools operated in England and Wales between 1933 and 1973, with responsibility for around half a million children during this period. Single-sex institutions, the children committed to these schools comprised nine boys to every one girl. Operating outside of the welfare and education systems, and approved by the Home Office, these schools present a complicated institution to define in terms of the management of their surviving records. No two archive services operate like-for-like schemes for privileged access to closed material, and the variety of processes in place across the sector is considerable. This article considers existing requirements, based on experiences during this research, and proposes possible standardization, aspiring to a more consistent approach in terms of required documentation, facilitating further understanding between archivists and academic researchers.

KEYWORDS:

• Archives
• privileged access
• care records
• approved schools
• girls

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Ministry of Justice, Secure Schools, 3.

2. ADSS Briefing Paper, 2.2.

3. ADSS Briefing Paper, 2.3.

4. TNA Disposal of records of children in care BN 29/596.

5. TNA, Guide to Archiving Personal Data, 21c.

6. TNA, Closure Periods, 3.

7. Ibid., 7.

8. Evans et. al., Critical Archiving & Recordkeeping, 17.

9. Goldson, Excavating Youth Justice Reform, 317.

10. Carter, Of Things Said and Unsaid 215.

11. Evans et. al., Critical Archiving & Recordkeeping, 17.

12. Ibid., 11.

13. Emails about the author, released to the author after an FOI request concerning process. 2018.

14. TNA, Guide to Archiving Personal Data, 31.

15. Ibid., 78.

16. The Children’s Commissioner, Voices from the Inside, 1.

17. Jimerson, Archives & Memory, 253.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jessamy Carlson

Dr. Jessamy Carlson is an archivist and historian, who lives and works in West London. She has recently completed her PhD in Sociology, drawing upon extensive archival research across a number of collections. She teaches at the Centre for Archive & Information Studies at the University of Dundee.