The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has launched a new video aimed at helping care-experienced people understand their rights when accessing personal care records.
The three-minute video, My right to better records, explains how people with care experience can make a Subject Access Request (SAR) to obtain a copy of their personal information. It outlines what a SAR is, how to submit a request and what people can expect once it has been made.
The resource forms part of the ICO’s Better Records Together campaign and is designed to support conversations between social care professionals and care-experienced people navigating the records access process.
The launch follows research by the regulator which found significant problems with how people access their care records. Nearly nine in 10 people (89%) who accessed their records said they were left with questions or concerns, while 71% experienced poor communication from their local authority. More than two thirds (69%) said the process took longer than expected, with some people reportedly waiting as long as 16 years.
Jenny Brotchie, Principal, Scottish Affairs at the ICO, said that knowing people have a legal right to access their records is “just the beginning”, with the process potentially feeling complex or overwhelming for those who have had difficult experiences with the institutions holding their information.
“Social workers and practitioners play a vital role in helping people understand and exercise these rights,” she said, adding that the ICO hoped the video would help inform conversations between professionals and care-experienced people.
The initiative builds on a briefing held last month with more than 50 social care leaders across the UK. Local authorities and health and social care trusts were asked to publicly commit to improving how care records are created, managed and accessed by implementing the Better Records Together care records standards.
The campaign, launched in December, aims to improve the handling of care records throughout their lifecycle, from creation through to access and disclosure. The ICO has also been running a UK-wide supervision pilot during 2025 and 2026, monitoring 19 organisations to identify and drive improvements.
The regulator said it would prioritise enforcement action where organisations persistently delay responses to SARs or fail to put measures in place to reduce harm caused by delays.
The ICO has already taken enforcement action against several organisations. In February 2025, it issued reprimands to Glasgow City Council and City of Edinburgh Council, while Bristol City Council received an enforcement notice in September 2025 over delays involving child social care data. In July 2025, Scottish charity Birthlink was fined £18,000 after approximately 4,800 personal records were destroyed.
The ICO is encouraging local authorities and social care providers that have not yet engaged with Better Records Together to access the campaign’s free resources and pledge their support.
Leave a Reply