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ITEM EX10

EXECUTIVE - 3 APRIL 2002

RECORDS MANAGEMENT IN OXFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

Report by the Director of Cultural Services

1. This report outlines issues relating to the management of records information in the County Council, and recommends a framework for ensuring that the Authority's responsibilities in this field are efficiently and effectively discharged in the future.

Background

2. Management of information, both physical and electronic, is vital to the operation of the Council and its continued compliance with legal stipulations and guidelines. The format of the information is irrelevant to its content and value, and the content should be managed by trained information professionals with records management qualifications.
3. Demonstrably efficient records management practices are now required of local authorities by government directives and legislation (Data Protection Act (1998); Government Policy on Archives (1999); Freedom of Information Act (2000)). These lay down standards and objectives for records management practices.
4. The County Council (OCC) has recently adopted four Key Values for its activities. Efficient records management practices underpin three of these:

• Serving the people and communities of Oxfordshire

• Honesty and integrity

• Teamwork and co-operation

5. The elements and objectives of good records management systems are summarised in Annex 1 to this Report. Information management within the Council has developed on a piecemeal basis, and is no longer efficient or cost-effective in achieving these objectives.

The Records Management Unit

6. The Records Management Unit (RMU) was created within the County Record Office in order to centralise information management, creating economies of scale and a pool of professional expertise which could operate on a cross-boundary basis. Its remit was:

• To assist departments with value judgements on the importance of areas of information, and general advice on information and its preservation, by making available professional information management input.
• To maintain cost-effective storage areas to appropriate standards for vital, non-current information.
• To drive review and disposal of non-current material.
• To create retrieval aids and operate rapid retrieval systems for material transferred to the non-current storage areas.

7. There is no overview of the information holdings of OCC: even the Data Protection survey took in only some of them. There is no overall structure to the information, nor general understanding that information should be created and structured according to a corporate policy. Individual sections and employees may sometimes perceive the information they create as their personal property rather than that of the organisation.
8. There is no overall judgement of what information is vital to the organisation crossing the boundaries of departments; while some departments have made judgements about their own informational holdings, an overview of importance to OCC as a whole is required.
9. The Records Management Unit was established within Cultural Services to carry out many of the functions in Annex 1. However . . .

• With no overview of informational holdings and judgement on vital records, RMU has no coherent basis on which to work. Information and retrieval aids cannot be organised to reflect OCC structures, and so are inadequate for many retrieval purposes.
• Use of RMU by information-creating departments is arbitrary and erratic. Some sections use it extensively, some occasionally, others ignore it and choose either to carry out their own information management or to ignore the issue. OCC information is thus not being approached on a strategic basis, with a consequent loss of efficiency. In many areas there is a danger that information vital to operational sustainability or legal compliance is being lost, or is being swamped in extensive retention of information which could be disposed of at a saving to the authority.
• Even with the limited usage being made of RMU, the service does not have sufficient resources to carry out basic functions. Current usage is by the Chief Executive, the Legal Unit, and sections of Environmental Services (Property and Waste Management, Highway Management, Transport Development). For these services, review and disposal, retrieval of material for which relevant aids have been created, and maintenance of storage areas are being carried out. Professional information and advice are being acquired but not sufficiently disseminated. Creation of retrieval aids is in serious arrears.

10. New information strategies are being put in place within OCC without adequate investigation of how they will interlock with existing ones, or whether they will meet the requirements of information management as outlined in Annex 1.

A Coherent Records Management Framework

11. The following are needed for efficient information management within OCC:

• The creation of an overview of the global information creation and holdings of OCC.
• The determination of a structure for that information and the establishment of directives to ensure that future information creation adheres to it.
• A globally-agreed definition and identification of vital information, and of information to which legal directives apply.
• The extension to all departments and sections of schedules for the transfer of non-current, vital material into cost-effective storage and for the disposal of information designated non-vital, including historically important material to Historic Archives; and of regular review of material for loss of vital status.
• The creation of retrieval aids and rapid retrieval systems appropriate to organisational requirements and to the requirements of legislation such as Data Protection and Freedom of Information for all non-current information held by OCC.
• The identification of sufficient cost-effective storage with appropriate accessibility for the above to take place.
• The provision of appropriate professional expertise to all departments and sections.

12. Efficiency would best be served by the recognition of information management as a strategic function with professional input, rather than its being left to individual departments. A coherent approach can only be achieved if the process is driven by one section charged with specific responsibility for its achievement. The Records Management Unit already has the appropriate professional skills and experience, but might be able to exercise them better from the strategic centre. In any case, it does not currently have the resources to carry out a task of this magnitude.

Creating the Framework

13. It is proposed that the following work should be undertaken jointly on behalf of the Director of Cultural Services, the Director for Strategy and the Solicitor to the Council:

• Drafting of a common set of procedures and guidelines for records management which achieve the objectives set out in Annex 1 and paragraph 11 above.
• Consultation with departments on the implications of implementing such procedures and guidelines.
• Consideration of the resource implications, the priority which should be attached to them, and options for meeting them within existing resources.
• Investigation of options for the organisational siting of records management expertise within the County Council.

14. There are clear links between records management practices and the development of information systems generally within the County Council. It is especially important that account should be taken of links to the development of Information and Communication Technology applications (such as the new Management Information System).

RECOMMENDATION

15. The Executive is RECOMMENDED to request officers to undertake the work described in paragraph 13 of the report, and draw up recommendations for consideration by the Executive in September 2002.

RICHARD MUNRO
Director of Cultural Services

Background Papers: None

Contact Officer: Carl Boardman, County Archivist, Tel: Oxford

March 2002

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