Protecting Children’s Identity After Adoption: Important Guidance for Schools

Schools play an important role in protecting children's privacy, identity and safety. Errors in pupil records following adoption can inadvertently reveal or link a child's pre and post-adoption identity, creating safeguarding and confidentiality risks.

Oxfordshire Virtual School has produced new guidance, Schools Guide: Managing School Records Before and After Adoption (pdf, 4mb), to support schools in managing pupil records correctly before and after an Adoption Order is granted.

The guidance covers:

• The use of legal names before and after adoption
• Creating new pupil records and Unique Pupil Numbers (UPNs)
• Managing historical records
• Secure transfer of information between schools
• Current Department for Education advice on transferring and copying records following adoption

The guidance also highlights the importance of discussing record transfers with adoptive parents and considering whether historic reports can be anonymised to reduce the risk of identification.

Schools are encouraged to review the guidance and share it with colleagues involved in admissions, safeguarding, data management, SEND, attendance, assessment and pupil record transfers. Raising awareness across schools will help ensure confidentiality is maintained, children and families are protected, and statutory requirements are met.