Looking After Records

All Council employees are personally responsible for maintaining and keeping good records of their work-related activities.

To fulfil your responsibilities, you should:

• Be familiar with the Council's records policies
• Create records to support what you do
• Register and file your records within the departmental filing system
• Keep records as long as, and no longer than, is required
  dispose of records only after proper authorisation.

You must not:

• Destroy, delete or alter records without the proper authority
• Remove records from the office without permission
• Lose records in your care.

Creating records

Records do not just happen, but are deliberately created to record an activity. You should make a record to show:

• What happened
• What was decided or recommended
• What advice or instruction was given
• When it happened
• Who was involved
• The order of events and/or decisions.

It is not always appropriate to make a record, or to regard every piece of paper that you deal with as a record. Very short term or unimportant material, such as phone messages, should not be treated as records.

Filing records

Once created, your records will form part of a filing system. A filing system allows records to be classified and stored in an organised manner that makes it easy to retrieve information when it is required. The filing system you use will probably have been determined by your department or service. When filing your records, it is important to:

• Understand how your departmental filing system works
• Always file your records within your departmental filing system
• Not create new files within the system without the proper authority
• Keep your filing system in good order.

The success of a filing system depends initially on how it is designed. However, a well designed filing system will fail if it is not used properly. The Council Archivist/Records Officer can offer advice and help in designing suitable systems.

Storing non-current records

When your records no longer continue to be current but need to be retained for evidential or legal purposes they should continue to be stored and cared for appropriately. Many Services in the Council have cupboards, storerooms and basements full of records that are rarely used. Under Freedom of Information, the information contained within these records could be requested. Could you easily find and retrieve that information?

Some things to think about when storing records:

• Store records carefully and in a secure location
• Ensure that the records are safe from water and fire damage and unauthorised access
• Do not over-fill boxes or stack boxes too high keep a list of what records you put into storage (a file list). Record the file names, any reference numbers, covering dates and location on a form and keep these in the office. This will help you to locate records quickly and easily should you need them
• For security reasons, do not label the outside of boxes with file lists. Number the box and keep a record of the box number on your file list.

Store similar series of records together on the same shelf or in the same box. This means that finding related records and the eventual destruction/disposition of records will be much more efficient.