People often start searching for their records, hoping to find detailed and accurate information.
Unfortunately, this does not always happen.
People tell us they found that records may have been:
If an organisation cannot provide you with copies of your records, they need to tell you. Under the Privacy Act you have the right to know why.
In the past, organisations focused on recording what they needed for day-to-day business purposes.
People who have received their records have found that some organisations did not focus on keeping a full and accurate record of everything that happened during their time in the guardianship or care of others.
Under the Privacy Act, some information may need to be redacted from your records. Redaction means that information has been removed or hidden before you can access it.
Learn more about redactions.
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This Easy Read is about why information might be missing from records about the time you were in the care or guardianship of others.
Here records means the information an organisation has kept / made about a person.
Here in the care or guardianship of others means when an organisation is put in charge of a person and decides things like:
A guardian is an adult put in charge of the care of a person.
A guardian should:
When you start looking for your records you think you will get:
This does not always happen.
You may not be sent much information about your time in care.
The reasons you might not get much information can be things like the records:
Here destroyed means:
and
Redact means hiding / taking out some information in a document.
This could be because there is information about other people in your records.
This is often done with a thick black line.
Click here to learn more about redactions.
The organisation should give you the records you have asked for.
If an organisation cannot give you the records you have asked for they need to tell you why.
These reasons are set out in the Privacy Act.
The Privacy Act is about what organisations should do when they:
Here past means the time that has already been.
In the past organisations did not always make good records about people in their care.
Some people told us when they got their records there was not much information about their:
The information an organisation might give you is about:
Information may be redacted from your records to protect the privacy of someone else.
Getting your records about when you were in care can make you feel lots of things.
It can be good to have someone to talk to about it.
You can talk to your:
Click here to find out what support you can get.
This information is not in Easy Read.
Click here to download the information on this page as a PDF.
More Easy Read information is available.
Click here to visit our Easy Read library webpage.
Click here to learn about who made this Easy Read.