Records & plans
What is a daily log?
A daily log is the running record of a child's day in a children's home — what happened, how they were, what staff did. It is the evidence base for reviews, plans and any later account of their care.
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<img src="https://careoptix.co.uk/glossary/daily-log/diagram.svg" alt="daily log — diagram from CareOptix" width="880" height="620" loading="lazy">
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<a href="https://careoptix.co.uk/glossary/daily-log">What is a daily log?</a> — diagram by
<a href="https://careoptix.co.uk">CareOptix</a>
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</figure>It is written for the child as much as for the home. Children who have been looked after can request their records as adults, and what they find is often the only detailed account of their childhood that exists.
That fact should shape how it is written. Factual, respectful, recording achievements and ordinary good days as well as incidents, and distinguishing what was observed from what was concluded.
It is also the raw material of everything else. Reviews, plans and notifications all draw on it, and a log written at the end of a week from memory produces a thinner picture than one written as the day went.
What goes wrong in practice
- Written retrospectively at the end of a shift or later, losing the detail that mattered.
- Only incidents recorded, producing a record of a childhood that reads as a list of problems.
- Judgemental or clinical language that a child reading it later would find painful.
- Opinions recorded as facts, which undermines the record's value in any later process.