Carer held health record

The Carer held health record is designed to be kept confidentially by the adults caring for a looked after child and, most importantly, to accompany a child when he or she moves on to another placement or returns home.

Looked after children often come from backgrounds where there is a high incidence of health problems and poor uptake of primary health care services. It is therefore important that systems are put into place so that significant medical information is passed on to a child’s main carers and made available to medical practitioners seeing a child on a temporary basis.

This booklet will ensure that vital information is not lost, that a continuous health profile is kept for every child and that the health outcomes for all looked after babies, children and young people can improve.

NB – This booklet is not designed to replace the Child health record (Red Book) but to complement it as it is designed specifically for those children who are being looked after by local authorities. Where the Red Book is unavailable, and especially for children over five years of age, this booklet is essential in providing a continuous health record.

Who is this book for?

Anyone who is caring for a looked after child, whether foster carers, kinship carers or private foster carers.

What you will find in this book

Space is included to record:

• Placement details including moves
• Health history
• Immunisations
• Health assessments
• Visits to GPs, dentists and opticians
• Hospital admissions and outpatient consultations

The Carer held health record also contains all of the standard growth charts for boys and girls including height, weight and head circumference.

The user-friendly file format enables information to be detached or inserted. A handy pocket on the inside cover contains an appointment card.

Authors

Elaine Greaves, Gill Appolinari and Carol Watson are looked after children nurses. They originally compiled the Carer held health record in consultation with the Scotland and UK BAAF Health Advisory Groups, looked after children’s nurses, community paediatricians, foster carers, residential carers, social workers, looked after young people and members of Who Cares? Scotland’s young people’s group.