is also exploring the benefit and impact of creating a letter or document which describes ‘what happened on the day you came into care’. The project team will continue to work collaboratively within Essex to ensure the findings from this Missing Chapters research influences ongoing developments in this area of work. 4. Collaboration The project team have collaborated with the University College London which has undertaken extensive research through the MIRRA (Memory, Identity, Rights in Records, Action) project, exploring how child social care records have been created, kept and used in public and voluntary organisations in England from 1970 to the current day. Interviews with care-experienced adults explore how childhood records can affect individuals throughout all their lives. The research findings from MIRRA helped our project team shape its own research questions and the team continues to share learning with colleagues at UCL. The project team were introduced to professionals from the University of Copenhagen who have been on a similar journey researching the experiences of children in care and care leavers and exploring the practice of how social workers write and record. The project team will continue to work with the University of Copenhagen to share learning, particularly in relation to developing writing principles for social workers. Discussions continue to explore how opportunities can be provided for care leavers from Essex to share their experiences with care leavers from Denmark. In scoping the project brief, care-experienced project workers sought the expertise and direction from managers and directors in Essex County Council. Direction for the research included the following: • This is the child’s story and journey, and records are ‘crucial’ in telling 