Title: Records Management and Information Lifecycle Policy
Date: 9th November 2010
Version: 2.A
Reference: CDM_n1862703_v2A_Records_management_and_information_lifecycle_policy_-_Draft.doc
Classification: Public
Author/Owner: Zoë Rowland, Corporate Information and Knowledge Manager
Helen Kerr, Information Management Officer (Corporate Records Management)
Version / Date / Comments1.0 / 8th November 2005 / Final Version
2.0 / 28th September 2010 / Initial draft
2.A / 11th October 2010 / Structural changes and additions after meeting with ZC
Review date: Annual
Approval:
Name / Date / CommentsInformation Governance Group / 16th November 2010 / Subject to minor amendments made in January 2011
Contents:
1 Scope 3
2 Purpose 3
3. What is a Record? 3
4. Records Management 5
5. Outline of Responsibilities 7
6 Corporate and Individual Responsibilities 7
6.1. Records creation 7
6.2. Records Capture 7
6.3 Metadata 8
6.4. Version Control 9
6.5. Storage and Maintenance 10
6.6. Records Use 11
6.7 Records Disposal 11
7 Training and Awareness 12
Appendix A: Related Policies 13
1 Purpose
1.1 The purpose of this document is to clearly define the London Borough of Hackney’s policy relating to the management of electronic and physical records throughout their lifetime, regardless of media and format
1.2 This document sets out a high level framework within which the staff responsible for managing the Council's records can ensure that records are managed and controlled effectively, and commensurate with legal, operational and information needs throughout the organisation.
1.3 This policy will be annually reviewed and approved by the Information Governance Group, which itself will subsequently be used as a forum for discussing corporate Records Management issues.
1.4 Further information is available from the Information Management Team.
2 Scope
2.1 This policy relates to the management of records in Hackney Borough Council, and should be read alongside the Council’s Information Governance Policy, as well as other Information Management policies as detailed in the appendix.
2.2 This policy applies to all records created in the course of the London Borough of Hackney’s service and business operation, regardless of media and format.
2.3 It is written for all groups, including directorates, services and individual members of staff, and should be followed accordingly to ensure that the Council’s management and use of information enables efficiency and accountability.
2.4 The Council has adopted this records management policy and is committed to ongoing improvement of its records management functions.
3 What is a Record?
3.1 A record is information created, received and maintained as evidence of an activity or decision made by an organisation or a person
3.2 Records are independent of media, and can encompass electronic and ‘hard copy’, tangible documents, and can potentially include formats such as data sets, web pages and other online material, emails and audio visual material.
3.3 Although records give information, not all information is a record. A record is created or received as a product of an important organisational activity which must give evidence of a business activity.
3.4 Nonetheless, all documents and information must still be managed within the Council Records Management Program as they are often vital to work process, and remain subject to legal regulations such as the Freedom of Information Act, Data Protection Act and Environmental Information Regulations.
Fig.1 Relationship between documents and records
3.5 Information can become records when
3.5.1 A document reaches a final state
3.5.2 A document reaches a significant pre final stage, or if work is distributed for comment or revision
3.5.3 Information is received by the London Borough of Hackney
3.5.4 Information is transmitted, communicated or sent outside the London Borough of Hackney or to associated agencies or trusts.
3.6 Records need to correctly reflect the business transactions, and must have specific characteristics to enable them to prove to be an asset to the organisation
3.6.1 Records must have appropriate content, and reflect the facts about the activity so that the record remains useable after its creation.
3.6.2 Records must have context, and be supported by information in which the record was created and used. This can often be provided by the file plan
3.6.3 Records must have structure in order to reflect the relationships with other organisational activities.
3.7 As well as structural and contextual coherence, records must have specific qualities
3.7.1 Records must be authentic, in order that the record can be proven to be what it purports to be. This is also important in order to provide evidence of when and who created the record.
3.7.2 Records must be reliable, so that the record is a complete and accurate representation of the transaction.
3.7.3 Records must have integrity, and records should be protected from unauthorised alteration, and preferably be complete and unaltered.
3.7.4 Records should also be useable, and be easily located, retrieved, presented and interpreted
3.8 Records support decision making and give support for external and internal accountability, and ultimately protect the interests of the Council as well as the rights of staff, service users and members of the public.
3.9 Records also are a vital asset in supporting the daily functions and operations of the London Borough of Hackney. They support consistency, continuity, efficiency and productivity and help to deliver services in consistent and equitable ways.
3.10 The London Borough of Hackney’s records are also its corporate memory, providing evidence of important actions and decisions that shape the local area and some records will be preserved permanently as historical assets of the collective memory of the local area.
4 Records Management
4.1 Records Management is the process by which an organisation manages all the aspects of records, whether they were created by an individual or received from an external party.
4.2 Records Management concerns itself with maintaining the record whilst it has continuing value. This process is known as the Records Lifecycle.
Fig.2: The Records Lifecycle
4.3 The records lifecycle is made up of several processes:
4.3.1 Records are firstly created by the individual or received as part of the organisations activities.
4.3.2 Records are then captured through the record keeping Systems, in order to establish a relationship between the record, the creator and the context which it originated in.
4.3.3 Records are stored and maintained in the record keeping systems, and their movements are tracked in order to maintain their integrity.
4.3.4 Records are retained according to a retention and disposal schedule, and this is primarily in order to prevent the premature destruction of records that need to be retained for a specified period in order to satisfy legal, financial and business requirements.
4.3.5 Records then continue to be used, and access to records is enabled through appropriate record keeping systems. Records often go through a phase of active use, semi active use and non-active use.
4.3.6 Once records no longer have any value to the organisation for legalistic or evidential reasons, records are disposed of either through secure disposal, or if of continuing cultural importance, they will selected for permanent preservation.
4.4 The Records Management Lifecycle sits within the Information Life cycle, which illustrates the process in which information is managed in order to secure our information obligations as a Local Authority
Fig. 3: The Information Lifecycle
4.5 Records Management is a key part of the Information Management programme, and can bring numerous benefits to the organisation, including:
· Streamlining work processes, resulting in a more efficient use of staff time through providing easier access to information, resulting in improved service delivery
· Support decision making by improved access to information
· Better use of physical and server space, resulting in reduced costs
· Improved control of valuable information resources
· Corporate adherence to legislation and recognised British and International Standards as underpinned in the Information Governance Groups terms of reference
· Provide continuity through information in the event of a disaster
4.6 Failing to identify records through a Records Management programme or wilful destruction of information can hinder litigation and corporate responsibilities under the Freedom of Information Act or Data Protection Act.
5 Outline of Responsibilities
5.1 While the Chief Executive is ultimately accountable for the protection of information and records within the Council, the responsibility for implementing the Records Management Programme has been delegated to the Information Management Team.
5.2 As records can potentially be created or received by any individual member of staff, and therefore in order to be an effective operation, Records Management must be the responsibility of everyone in the Council, and it is vital that individuals understand their obligations regarding Records Keeping
6 Corporate and Individual Responsibilities
6.1. Records creation
6.1.1. The Council is committed to developing and supporting systems that enable all information created by staff in the London Borough of Hackney to be created electronically, or if received from an external party, converted at point of entry into the organisation.
6.1.2. Process analysis and workflow tools will be developed in order to help individuals and teams to identify what documents and eventual records will be created during routine activities, and anticipate what records could potentially be created through non-routine activities.
6.1.3. Where workflow tools are used, audit trail information should give details of the progress in work and also give details if the workflow has been altered.
6.1.4. Record creators (including external owners) should be identified through the metadata profile in CDM in order to ensure that the provenance of a record can be clearly identified.
6.1.5. Where possible, corporate templates should be used in order to provide maximum contextual and structural information about a document or record.
6.1.6. Where preferable and cost effective, records will be scanned in bulk and imported into CDM, or scanned on demand in order to enable an efficient electronic working environment.
6.1.7. All scanned documents will be created in compliance with the procedures outlined in the Code of Practice for Legal Admissibility and Evidential Weight of Information Stored Electronically (BIP0008), in order for them to be legally admissible.
6.2. Records Capture
6.2.1. Individual members of staff (including temporary staff and contractors) have responsibility for ensuring that all information is captured in CDM or an approved case management system, and that all records are declared through CDM.
6.2.2. Users will not be able to save information locally or on shared drives except where requests are made to and approved by the Information Management team.
6.2.3. These exceptions will be reviewed and agreed by the Information Management Team.
6.2.4. All information (including documents, data, emails and other working material) must be captured in the appropriate area in the CDM functional file plan or an approved case management system.
6.2.5. The Council file plan will be developed using the Local Government Classification scheme as a basis, although requests for alterations from users will be considered by the Information Management team.
6.2.6. Records and information should remain in a single place in the file plan, and if needed elsewhere a reference should be created to the master copy rather than a duplicate made.
6.2.7. Digital objects that contain data that changes periodically must be frequently captured in order to provide a representative record.
6.2.8. Individuals are responsible for ensuring that all records that are declared are complete, and include relevant contextual information in order to prove reliable and prevent reliance on tacit knowledge.
6.2.9. All compound documents should have related information extracted and linked with the captured data in CDM, for example, saving attachments alongside emails.
6.2.10. Users should only alter the file format of a document or record if it is a file type that is not recognised by CDM.
6.3 Metadata
6.3.1. Metadata is data that enables users to provide additional information about an item.
6.3.2. Metadata improves methods of information retrieval as well as enabling us to identify, authenticate and contextualise records in the future.
6.3.3. Metadata must be captured through the use of the profile entry form in CDM.
6.3.4. Users must use the correct profile entry as led by their work in order to ensure that maximum contextual information is captured.
6.3.5. The Information Management Team will ensure that automatic metadata is generated where possible and the Information Management Team will enable systems to allow metadata to be created according to the e-Government Metadata Standard.
6.3.6. Where metadata cannot be automatically generated, users must complete all mandatory fields in the profile form, and complete all non-mandatory fields as much as possible.
6.3.7. Compulsory elements in the profile form include :
· Title
· Type
· Internal owner
6.3.8. Where possible, users should attempt to complete non-compulsory elements in the profile entry form, such as:
· Description
· External owner
· Date received
· Resource/Doc reference
6.3.9. Some metadata will be automatically generated, such as:
· Unique identifier
· Application
· Date created
· Last edited
6.3.2. All items will inherit security rights from the parent folder, and users are responsible for ensuring all items have the appropriate security rights applied if different from the parent electronic part.
6.3.10. Users must further follow the determined naming convention procedures for documents in CDM, in order to create a consistent corporate approach to naming documents and records. This will result in ease of access and ensure that necessary security is applied effectively.
6.3.11. All property records should include a UPRN (Unique Property Reference Number) number where possible.
6.3.12. All people records should include a LARN (Local Authority Reference Number) number where possible.
6.4. Version Control
6.4.1. The Council is committed to holding one definitive version of any document or record, in order to reduce duplication in information systems and enable an accurate, single representation of corporate activities.
6.4.2. Where documents have been revised as part of the work process, they should be clearly identifiable as new versions through the use of the version control tool in CDM.