Finding traces of everyday life in unusual places: looking beyond case files in German and Scottish residential child care

Abstract

Case records hold life-long significance for those who spent their childhoods in looked after care. Across Europe, public inquiries into the care and treatment of children in care have examined the content of records and have highlighted their limitations. This paper presents data from phase one of a wider study; ‘Archiving Residential Children’s Homes in Scotland and Germany (ARCH)’, which undertook content analysis of the archives of two residential settings, Aberlour and Freistatt. Findings highlight that records were kept and maintained not only by the institution but also for the institution. Despite this, children’s everyday lives were noticed and captured, albeit it often accidentally and incidentally. The ways in which these every day encounters were narrated and constructed suggest the power of the overarching ethos in place in the two settings and the adults’ orientations towards their role and purpose. Although different in tone and remit, both archives capture traces of daily life and tell us something about what a childhood in Freistatt or Aberlour might have been like. By examining the case recording practices in the past, we raise questions about what this means for contemporary social work and its responsibilities in relation to archiving children’s everyday childhoods.