Records Management: Senior Management briefing paper
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Senior Management Briefing Paper outlining the importance of Records Management and the legal requirments for implementation.
More information available from JISC infoNet
Key issues series: Strategy and Policy
Audience Principals and Deputy Principals in FE, proVice Chancellors in HE, Governors, Registrars and other senior managers responsible for legal and regulatory compliance. Senior Managers responsible for developing strategy, such as information strategies and IT strategies.
Why Records Management?
All further and higher (FE and HE) education institutions now face mounting pressure to demonstrate legal compliance, regulatory compliance and high standards of corporate governance.
An effective Records Management programme is the foundation upon which institutions can build their response to these growing demands.
Records Management may also deliver additional benefits to an institution through the reduction of overheads, the protection of assets and the streamlining of business processes.
What is Records Management?
Records Management seeks to efficiently and systematically control the creation, use, maintenance and final disposition of the records which are routinely created as a result of an organisation’s activities and transactions.
It is based on the principles of regular review and controlled retention or destruction with the general aim of ensuring cost-effective business processes, legal and regulatory compliance and corporate accountability.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Records Management
FE and HE institutions must develop corporate recordkeeping programmes if they wish to ensure full legal and regulatory compliance and to mitigate risk in areas where there is not specific regulation.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) which comes into full force in January 2005 is one of a number of initiatives by the UK Government aimed at increasing organisational openness and accountability and encouraging good corporate governance.
The FOIA gives the public extensive rights of access to all forms of recorded information held by FE and HE institutions and lays down stringent requirements for responding to such requests.
Records Management will help to ensure that:
- Only the right information is created in the first place
- Information is kept as long as is necessary and no longer
- Information can be located and retrieved in a timely and controlled manner
- Information is secure
Other legislative and regulatory pressures
The controlled management of records is also vital for ensuring legal compliance in many other areas beyond the requirements of the FOIA. – for example, the Data Protection Act 1998 states that personal data “shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes” – a requirement which is all but impossible to meet if an institution is unable to adequately manage the retention of the records that store such data. Any organisation may be required to produce relevant information when demanded as part of a legal discovery process. Furthermore, failure to produce the required information within the limitation period stated by a particular piece of legislation, eg taxation records current year plus six years, could result in exposure to legal penalties and could jeopardise the institution’s physical and intellectual assets.
Institutions also find themselves subject to regulations that rely on the quality of the records they produce and maintain, eg maintenance of student records, teaching quality assessments, research assessments, financial auditing and risk management.
There is a clear imperative for a more systematic and organised approach to Records Management to be adopted within FE and HE institutions.
Demonstrating good corporate governance
The effective management of records ensures that sound decisions can be made based on full, accurate and up-to-date information, as well as ensuring that the rationale for and the impact of those decisions can be traced, scrutinised and justified as necessary.
In the light of recent high-profile legal cases within the private sector, an increasing emphasis is being placed on all organisations to being able to demonstrate high standards of good corporate governance through the quality of the records they keep.
Business benefits
There may be considerable business benefits by introducing an institutional Records Management programme. These include the streamlining of business processes, a reduction in both the staff time and physical space needed for managing and exploiting records and the foundation of an information-rich organisation able to maximise and exploit the knowledge it contains.
The average filing cabinet requires approximately 1 square metre of space to house the cabinet itself and allow sufficient space for its drawers to be opened and contents accessed. With office accommodation costs within urban universities estimated to be in excess of £600 per square metre per annum it is easy to see how the storage of unnecessary records can represent a significant but largely overlooked cost to the institution.
It has been estimated that staff spend as much as 10% of their time at work searching for information, a figure which could be improved upon through the timely removal of duplicate and unnecessary records, the standardisation of filing and naming conventions and the application of meaningful descriptions of information resources often referred to as metadata.
Effective Records Management may also help you to realise the maximum return on investment from your electronic assets by providing the cornerstone of your institution’s digital preservation strategy. This will ensure ongoing, controlled access to valuable and in some instances ‘business-critical’ information, whilst also protecting your interests against deliberate or accidental damage.
Institutions may also gain some competitive advantage by providing the base for better long-term asset management, improved public image, and an ability to respond quickly and appropriately to new situations and demands.
Further information and resources
Recommendations and Actions
- Assign overall responsibility for Records Management to a senior member of the management team
- Commission an audit of existing practice and business processes within the institution
- Develop a Records Management Policy for the institution
- Allocate appropriate resources to implement this policy