n practitioners write about them · Practitioners identified certain elements and tools on forms as particularly useful, such as observation boxes on visit forms · The data items together make up a child’s record and can be used to piece together history to understand an individual’s past and current context One of the main research goals of the project was to understand whether practitioners do or do not consider the data items collected helpful to record in their work with children, young people, and families. The research shows that data items are considered helpful by practitioners. They help to understand the child/young person’s story, help build a holistic view of children’s lives and build good relationships, plan interventions, provide the right care and support and engage in evaluation of practice and the service. Practitioners across the four LAs selected different forms which they found specifically helpful to them. As these were personal choices of the participants, the forms chosen varied. The themes from these discussions are discussed below. Understanding the child/young person and their family There was agreement between practitioners that the recording of information and data is an important element of social work. User research revealed that the most important reason for collecting data and information is to be able to understand the child or young person’s family situation, the child or young person’s history, where they come from, why they are in care, their needs, likes, dislikes, wishes and their life experiences: “We collect information to help us understand the family situation or the children's situation, to be able to complete an analysis of what the next steps should be.... that's all part of our corporate parenting responsibility to make sure