Records Management Policy

1. What is this policy about?
   1. This policy supports the Education and Training Directorate’s (the Directorate) legislative requirements under the Territory Records Act 2002 (the Act).
2. Policy Statement
   1. The Directorate has requirements under the Act to make, manage and keep records to support its business needs, legal and regulatory obligations and to meet broader community expectations.
   2. Records created, received or discovered which contain information that may allow people to establish links with their Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander heritage will be protected and made accessible.
   3. All staff, consultants and contractors must make and keep full and accurate records of their activities to ensure that such records are incorporated into the Directorate’s corporate records systems and to comply with all records management procedures.
   4. All records made or received by the Directorate are the corporate property of the Directorate.
   5. All records that staff, consultants and contractors make, receive and maintain as part of their duties belong to the Directorate and no records belong to individual employees.
   6. The Directorate retains control of all records required for service delivery in accordance with Territory Records Standard - Number 5: Recordkeeping and Outsourced Government Business, and ownership of records and/or the intellectual property they contain are clearly specified in every outsourcing contract.
3. Who does this policy apply to?
   1. This policy applies to all Directorate staff, including consultants and contractors.
4. Context
   1. The Act requires ACT agencies to have and to comply with a Records Management Program. This policy is Section 2 of the Directorate’s Program.
   2. The Act obliges the Directorate to manage the creation, keeping, protection, preservation, storage and disposal of its records and ensure that the records are usable and accessible for as long as they are required for official and public purposes.
   3. Directorate officers, including consultants and contractors must be made aware of their responsibilities to establish, maintain and provide access to records, irrespective of format, in accordance with legislative requirements, the Territory Records Office Standards and the Australian Standard on Records Management AS ISO 15489 (the Standards).
5. Responsibilities
   1. The Deputy Director-General, Organisational Integrity: is the Directorate’s Executive in charge of records management. The Executive is responsible for ensuring:
      • compliance with all parts of the Directorate’s Records Management Program
      • all parts of the Directorate’s Records Management Program are kept updated to reflect all records management requirements that the Directorate must meet (including the administrative directions of government, in Section 1 of the Records Management Program).
   2. Managers and supervisors: at all levels are responsible for ensuring that staff under their direction, including consultants and contractors, meet all the requirements of this policy and the associated procedures. Records management is an equally important part of supervisory and management functions as any other part of managers and supervisors’ functional responsibilities.
   3. Certain staff, consultants and contractors: have specific records management responsibilities mandated in their position duty statements. These staff, consultants and contractors have a responsibility to know the Records Management Procedures in detail, model good records management behaviour and to assist other staff, consultants and contractors in applying the requirements of the policy and procedures.
   4. All staff, consultants and contractors: have responsibilities in relation to the records of the function they perform. Staff, consultants and contractors should keep full and accurate records in accordance with this Policy.
   5. Policy Owner: The Deputy Director-General, Organisational Integrity is responsible for this policy.
6. Monitoring and Review
   1. The Policy Owner monitors the policy. This includes an annual scan of operation and review. A full review of the policy will be conducted within a three year period.
7. Contact
   1. For support contact Records Management Section on (02) 6205 0597 or email ED-RecordsManagement@act.gov.au.
8. Complaints
   1. Any concerns about the application of this policy or the policy itself, should be raised with:
      • the school principal in the first instance;
      • contact the Directorate’s Liaison Unit on (02) 6205 5429.
      • online at https://www.education.act.gov.au/about-us/contact_us.
      • see also the Complaints Policy on the Directorate’s website.
9. References
   1. Definitions
      • Records: are information created, received, and maintained as evidence and information by an organisation or person, in pursuance of legal obligations or in the transaction of business (AS ISO 15489).
      • Records Management: is the field of management responsible for the efficient and systematic control of the creation, receipt, maintenance, use and disposition of records, including processes for capturing and maintaining evidence of and information about business activities and transactions in the form of records (AS ISO 15489).
      • Records System: is an information system that captures, manages and provides access to records through time (AS ISO 15489).
      • Records Management Program: is a document which complies with section 16 of the Act by setting out the means by which an agency will manage its records, and is approved by the agency’s Principal Officer (Territory Records Standard for Records Management Number 1: Records Management Programs, Approval 2009, No 1, NI2009-11).
   2. Legislation
      • Territory Records Act 2002 aims to ensure Territory records are made, managed and, if appropriate, preserved in an accessible form.
      • Information Privacy Act 2014 and Health Records (Privacy and Access) Act 1997 contain principles governing the collection, safeguarding, access to, use and disclosure of personal information and personal health information. These acts protect members of the public from the misuse of information about themselves and give people a right to see records about themselves (subject to any legal requirements on decision makers).
      • Public Sector Management Act 1994 which establishes “accountability to the government for the ways in which functions are performed” as a key value of the ACT Public Service.
      • Freedom of Information Act 1989 provides a right for individuals to seek access to Territory records including records about themselves and sets out a number of exemption provisions.
      • Evidence Act 2011 which provides that a court may need to examine records as evidence of an agency’s decisions and actions and which details requirements relating to the authenticity of electronic records.
      • Electronic Transactions Act 2011 which is “an Act to facilitate the use of electronic methods in transactions and record-keeping”.
      • Financial Management Act 1996 which requires “that proper accounts and records are kept of transactions and affairs of the department in accordance with generally accepted accounting practice”.
      • Work Health and Safety Act 2011 which allows “inspecting or making copies of employee records that are directly relevant to a suspected contravention” of the Act and details records to keep regarding health and safety, including representatives, incidents, activities and entry permits”.
      • Working with Vulnerable People (Background Checking) Act 2011 which outlines records associated with the requirements for registration of persons engaged in regulated activity.
      • Public Health Regulation 2000 which stipulates that “The person in charge of a pre-secondary school must make a record of the immunisation status of each child enrolled at the school in a form that is readily accessible to the person in charge and the chief health officer”.
   3. Implementation Documents
      • Records Management Program (Internal access only)
      • Records Management Procedures (Internal access only)
        • RMP01 Titling Files
        • RMP02 Making and Capturing Records
        • RMP03 Creating and Using Files
        • RMP04 Student Records
        • RMP05 Record Security
        • RMP06 Locating and Moving Records
        • RMP07 Storing Records
        • RMP08 Managing Copies of Records
        • RMP09 Preservation of Records
        • RMP10 Retention and Disposal of Records
        • RMP11 Public Access and Use
        • RMP12 Disaster Preparedness and Recovery
        • RMP13 Outsourcing
        • RMP14 Digital Records
        • RMP15 Email Records
        • RMP16 Administrative Change
        • RMP17 Dispute Resolution
        • RMP18 Occupational Health and Safety in Records Management
        • RMP19 Resourcing the Records Management Program
        • RMP20 Student Immunisation Record Keeping
   4. Related Policies and Information
      • Access to Student Records Policy
      • Sensitive Information Handling Policy
      • School Management Manual (Internal access only)

Records Management Policy: RM201402 is the unique identifier of this document. It is the responsibility of the user to verify that this is the current and complete version of the document, available on the Directorate’s website at http://www.education.act.gov.au/publications_and_policies/school_and_corporate_policies/A-Z.