Local Authorities

Protect every child's story.

CaringLife gives Local Authorities and children’s services a secure way to protect the memories, stories and achievements of looked-after children and young people.
Approved carers, professionals and children can contribute throughout childhood, creating a personal story that continues across placements, services and changing circumstances.
CaringLife supports children in care, children with disabilities, young people involved with youth justice and care leavers across the United Kingdom.
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Every child deserves to keep their story.

The CaringLife Approach

One continuous life story, wherever the child goes.

Across foster and kinship care, residential care, supported accommodation, disability services and youth justice, most records still capture a single moment — an assessment, a review, or a case note.

CaringLife is different: it provides one secure digital life story where photos, videos, school reports, certificates and everyday memories can be added by the approved people around a child and preserved through placement, carer and service changes.

When a young person leaves care, their account can transition with them, allowing them to retain access to the memories protected throughout childhood.

Children in care
Protect memories across placements and help children understand their experiences, relationships and personal history.
Children with disabilities
Bring together achievements, communication, relationships and everyday experiences contributed by approved people across the child’s support network.
Young people in youth justice
Preserve strengths, progress, identity and positive relationships beyond records focused on incidents, risks and interventions.
Care leavers
Help young people retain access to the memories collected throughout childhood as they move toward independence.
Why It Matters

These are the things every childhood should hold onto.

A first day at school. A carer’s handwriting on a birthday card. The video from a school play.

Most children grow up surrounded by the memories of their childhood. For children in care, those memories can become scattered or lost as their circumstances change.

When those memories are lost, children can also lose important connections to their identity, their relationships and their sense of belonging.

CaringLife helps local authorities prevent those memories from being lost and gives every child a story they can carry into adulthood.

Protect children's memories
Keep photographs, videos, documents and stories together instead of relying on personal phones, scrapbooks or USB drives.
Strengthen life story work
Make life story work an ongoing part of care planning and everyday practice, rather than something reconstructed during permanence planning or at the end of a placement.
Maintain continuity
Keep the child’s story in place when carers, placements, social workers or services change.
Improve oversight and reporting
Understand how CaringLife is being used and identify children, teams or services that may need additional support.
Give children a voice
Enable children and young people to explore their memories and contribute their own perspective.
Protect sensitive information
Use controlled access, professional oversight, secure UK hosting and safeguards designed around children’s information.
Working in partnership with Local Authorities across the UK.

A Partnership With The Fostering Network

The Fostering Network

Protecting memories and identity, together.

CaringLife and The Fostering Network have a partnership centred on digital life story work and protecting the memories and identities of children in foster care.

The partnership supports an approach in which a child's photos, documents and milestones can travel securely with them through placement transitions, helping ensure their life story is never lost.

Designed For Everyone Around The Child

A role for everyone who supports the child.

Carers & support workers
Capture everyday moments from a phone, tablet or computer while the memories are still fresh.
Social workers & professionals
Contribute important information, support continuity across placements and see how children’s accounts are being used.
Service leaders
Understand participation across teams and identify where additional support may be needed.
Children & young people
Access a personal story that grows with them and remains part of their future.
Proven Across The UK

Already protecting thousands of children's stories, right now.

Local Authorities across the UK trust CaringLife with the memories, relationships and everyday moments that make up a childhood.

5,300+

children & care leavers with an active account

1,700+

social workers & support staff connected

2,800+

carers contributing memories

The Challenge

A child's story is more than their official record.

Local Authority systems hold essential assessments, plans and safeguarding information. They do not always capture the moments that ensure a strong identity and life narrative for the child.

These memories can remain on old phones, become scattered across services or disappear when circumstances change. CaringLife keeps them together and connected to the child they belong to.

Scattered today
Photos, videos, certificates and Journal stories in different places
One secure account
Everything coming together, connected to the child it belongs to
Continuity

One secure account across the child's journey.

The people around a child change. Their story shouldn’t have to start over.
A
First placement

Account created

B
Placement changes
Everything moves with them
C
Support continues
New carer, same story
One account. Created once. Continuous for life.
The same account works across foster and kinship care, residential and disability services, youth justice, adoption and care-leaving support.
Life Story Work

Every memory. Every format.

The best life story work happens in the moment — not months later, reconstructed from memory. Approved contributors capture it as it happens:
Sensory memories
Photos & videos
Everyday adventures, familiar faces, favourite places and the moments that help a child understand their life.
Proof of achievement
Certificates & awards
A school certificate. A creative achievement. Recognition for courage, progress, kindness or something they worked hard to accomplish.
The learning journey
School reports
School reports, learning milestones, qualifications, creative projects and the moments that show how a child’s confidence, skills and ambitions have grown.
Creative identity
Artwork
The drawing proudly displayed on the fridge. The painting that captured something only they could express.
Belonging, marked
Birthdays & celebrations
Blowing out candles. A first Eid, Christmas or Diwali in a new home.
Reflective storytelling
Journal entries
A carer’s note about a good day. A reflection a young person wrote for themselves.
CaringLife complements professional life story work. It does not replace direct work, therapeutic support or any required life story book or later-life letter.

Children’s Voice and Participation

Their story. Told by them, for once.

A child in care often knows their file better than their childhood — reports written about them, decisions made for them, by other people.

CaringLife gives children and young people a more active role: they can look through their memories, add their own reflections and contribute to their story within the access arrangements agreed for them.

For a younger child that might be picking a favourite photo to caption. For a teenager approaching independence, it can be the first time anyone has asked them to help tell their own story.

Support is built in — participation adapts to the child’s:
  • Age and understanding
  • Abilities and support needs
  • Agreed access arrangements
  • Communication preferences
  • Personal circumstances
"This was the best day ever. We had so much fun at my party!"
— added by Amelia, age 11
Inspection & Regulation

Supporting evidence of child-centred practice and service quality.

Inspection and regulatory arrangements differ across the United Kingdom.
In England, Ofsted’s inspection of local authority children’s services considers the experiences and progress of children in care, care leavers and children for whom permanence is being pursued. CaringLife can help demonstrate how children’s identity, relationships, memories and participation are supported in everyday practice.
England

In England, Ofsted’s inspection of local authority children’s services considers the experiences and progress of children in care, care leavers and children for whom permanence is being pursued.

CaringLife can help demonstrate how children’s identity, relationships, memories and participation are supported in everyday practice.

Wales

In Wales, local authority social services operate within a rights-based framework that places children’s wellbeing, voice, identity and individual outcomes at the centre of care and support. 

CaringLife can help preserve children’s experiences and demonstrate continuity across placements and services.

Scotland

In Scotland, local authorities work within a framework shaped by children’s rights, corporate parenting responsibilities, relationship-based practice and the commitments of The Promise.

CaringLife supports connection, belonging and the preservation of each child’s personal history.

Northern Ireland

In Northern Ireland, statutory children’s social care is delivered through Health and Social Care Trusts rather than local authorities. 

CaringLife can support Trusts in protecting children’s memories, maintaining continuity and giving children a more active role in their personal story.

Adoption & Permanence

The story shouldn't end where the placement did.

Moving into an adoptive family can mean leaving a great deal behind — the carer who packed their bag, the school friend down the road, the routines that felt normal.

CaringLife helps ensure that memories collected before adoption are not lost. Subject to the local authority’s agreed access and governance arrangements, photographs, milestones and important relationships can remain part of the child’s continuing life story.

  • Pre-adoption memories carry over instead of being left with a previous carer
  • Enables adopted young people and adults to retain appropriate access to memories from their earlier childhood
  • Gives professionals a ready source of material for life story books and later-life letters
CaringLife preserves the photographs, stories and family information that meaningful life story work draws on — it does not replace a professionally prepared life story book, later-life letter or direct work with the child.
Reporting

Management information that supports oversight and improvement.

Reporting gives authorised leaders a clear view of participation across services, helping them identify where accounts are active and where children, carers or teams may need further support.
  • The number of active child and young person accounts
  • The number of approved carers and professionals
  • Which accounts have limited or no recent activity
  • Which services, teams or cohorts are participating
  • Overall account and contribution activity
  • Progress during a staged rollout
Active accounts
Approved contributors
Accounts needing support
Rollout

Straightforward Local Authority implementation.

Define the service

Agree which children, teams and services will be included.

Complete information governance and assurance reviews

CaringLife provides the information required for DPIAs, information security assessments, procurement and technical assurance.

Create accounts securely

CaringLife helps to create the accounts through a secure process.

Prepare your teams

Local authorities receive implementation resources and communications for social workers, practitioners, foster and kinship carers, residential staff, children and young people.

Deliver training

Online training helps approved users understand the purpose of CaringLife, their responsibilities and how to contribute.

Launch and review

Accounts are activated, with reporting and ongoing support throughout the rollout.

Training, storage and ongoing support are included free of charge.

Discuss your Local Authority rollout
Commissioning

A practical commissioning model.

You don’t have to commit to everything on day one. CaringLife can begin with a defined service, locality or cohort, establish engagement and outcomes, then expand through a staged authority-wide rollout.
Pricing is based on the agreed number of actively managed child accounts. There are no minimum contract terms.
Safeguarding

Safeguarding built around the child.

Children’s memories can contain deeply personal information, so CaringLife uses an organisation-led model — accounts are created and managed through the responsible Local Authority.
Approved access only
People can only access a child’s account when they have been authorised by the responsible organisation.
Role-based permissions
Users only see the children and functions relevant to their approved responsibilities.
Professional oversight
Authorised social workers and designated staff can oversee contributions, manage access and support safe, appropriate use in line with local safeguarding arrangements.
Access can be removed
When a placement, professional relationship or role changes, access can be withdrawn without removing the child’s memories.
CaringLife supports safeguarding practice. It does not replace Local Authority safeguarding policies, professional supervision or statutory reporting responsibilities.
Built Around Children’s Privacy

Clear UK GDPR and data protection responsibilities.

CaringLife is designed for the requirements of the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, recognising that children’s information requires particular protection.
The Local Authority remains in control
The Local Authority remains the data controller; CaringLife acts as the data processor, under agreed instructions.
Data protection by design
Privacy and security are considered throughout account creation, access and service delivery.
Data minimisation
CaringLife only processes the information required to provide the service.
Support for information rights
CaringLife supports the local authority in responding to requests relating to access, rectification, restriction or erasure, where applicable
Clear privacy information
Children and other users understand what information is collected and how it is managed.
Support for DPIAs
CaringLife provides the information needed for a Data Protection Impact Assessment.
Read about privacy and data protection
Security Local Authorities Can Trust

Secure UK hosting and recognised standards.

Information for UK customers is hosted through AWS infrastructure in the United Kingdom.

ISO/IEC 27001

Information Security

ISO 9001

Quality Management

Cyber Essentials

NCSC Certified

CaringLife applies security measures including:
Encryption in transit & at rest
Multi-factor authentication
Role-based access controls
Audit logging
Regular penetration testing
Resilient backup processes
Visit the Security Centre
Complements Your Systems

A child’s life story, not another case-management system.

CaringLife does not replace a Local Authority’s case management system — it has a different purpose.
Remains in your Case-Management Systems
  • Assessments & care plans
  • Statutory decisions
  • Case notes
  • Safeguarding & risk records
Preserved by CaringLife
  • Photographs & videos
  • Personal stories & achievements
  • Relationships & connections
  • Everyday memories
Frequently Asked Questions

Questions Local Authorities ask.

Who can see a child's memories?
Only people authorised by the responsible Local Authority or children’s service can access the account. Access is determined by roles and permissions around the individual child.
When a placement or caring relationship ends, the Local Authority can remove access or, where it is safe and appropriate, keep a previous carer connected to the child. The Local Authority retains full control over who can access and contribute to the child’s account.
No. Accounts are private and are not publicly searchable.
No. CaringLife protects personal memories and life stories. Statutory records remain within the Local Authority’s existing systems.
The Local Authority or responsible statutory body remains the data controller. CaringLife acts as the data processor.
UK information is hosted through AWS infrastructure in London.
Yes. CaringLife is designed to support UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 requirements within a defined controller and processor relationship. Each Local Authority remains responsible for its lawful basis, transparency obligations and controller decisions.
Yes. CaringLife can provide information about data flows, hosting, processing, permissions and security controls.
Authorised Local Authority managers can access reporting on active accounts, approved users, monthly uploads, the number of memories held for each child and who is contributing.

This provides a clear view of engagement across the service and helps identify children, accounts or teams that may need additional support.
Authorised professionals can oversee account activity and contributions, and can choose to pre-moderate content prior to the child seeing it.  Social workers can also choose to delay content that may not be appropriate for the child to see now.

Local Authorities retain responsibility for applying their safeguarding policies and determining how concerns should be managed.
The child’s memories remain securely in place. When a placement changes, the Local Authority can remove previous access or, where it is safe and appropriate, keep a former carer connected. Newly approved carers and professionals can then be added to continue contributing to the child’s life story.
Yes. Participation can be supported according to each child’s communication preferences, abilities and individual circumstances.
Yes. It can preserve positive relationships, achievements, reflections and progress. It does not replace youth justice case records, assessments or risk-management processes.
Their account can transition through the agreed process so they can retain access to the memories protected throughout childhood.
Yes. Local Authorities can begin with a selected service or cohort before expanding implementation.

Give every child a story they can keep.

No child should reach adulthood with important parts of their childhood missing.

CaringLife helps local authorities preserve memories as they are created, maintain continuity through change and give children a personal story they can carry into the future.

Book a demonstration