The Records Management Society has produced a records management toolkit to help schools achieve FOI compliance. Elizabeth Barber, one of the team involved in putting together the toolkit, outlines its purpose and the background to its development.
Purpose:
The purpose of the Records Management Toolkit for Schools is to provide all the records management which schools need to fulfil their requirements under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The toolkit contains:
- a sample records management policy
- tips and hints about records management and how to implement a records management programme
- retention guidelines based on the minimum retention periods for all the different record series which a school may create.
Background:
The Records Management Toolkit for Schools was created by a “virtual” sub group of the Record Management Society's Local Government Group. It was a triumph of technology that the group did not need to be in the same room.
The Local Government Group decided that the best way that the RMS could assist Local Education Authorities and individual schools was by creating a toolkit which could be used by these organisations. It would prevent individual schools having to re-create the same information. It was also clear that most schools were not going to be able to afford to either employ a dedicated records manager or to second another member of staff to do the necessary work involved in created a retention schedule.
How did it happen:
I collected together as many retention schedules as possible electronically from authorities who were prepared to share them from right across the country. A simple post on the JISC Listserv concerning records management was enough. I then collated the schedules and all the other information which had come in and put together one master schedule reflecting best practice from across the country.
Once this had been done it was a matter of collating all the different work which has been done on records management and putting it into a user-friendly document which could be adopted by the schools without too much additional work.
Once this had been completed the toolkit was sent out for consultation to the group who came back with various comments and then a member of the group proof read the whole toolkit before it was published.
Review:
The toolkit is about to be reviewed so that any anomalies can be dealt with and to ensure that the toolkit is a dynamic document which is kept up to date.
Where can it be found:
The Records Management Toolkit for Schools can be found on the Records Management Society’s web site here and can be downloaded in Word format free of charge.
If there are any queries about the Records Management Toolkit for Schools they should be addressed to Elizabeth Barber at Elizabeth.barber@kent.gov.uk.
Elizabeth Barber is Information Management Co-ordinator (Freedom of Information) and Records Manager/Modern Records Archivist at Kent County Council and co-ordinates the Records Management Society's Local Government Group.
