1.5.3 Storage of Records

Background and Purpose
Current Position Adults Health and Social Care and Children's
Current Position - Council
Current Position Southwark Primary Care Trust (PCT)
The Way Forward?

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

1. Background and Purpose

1.1	Following the Office Accommodation Strategy Report approved by Members in June 2007 this report outlines the current position in relation to archive and on site storage of paper records in Adults Health and Social Care and Children's Services. (including Education?)
1.2	It includes details of a Council contract with an external provider for storage of seldom accessed records held by other Departments.
1.3	It provides information on the action currently being undertaken by Southwark PCT regarding storage of records by an external provider.
1.4	Finally, it looks at the requirements and options for future storage of paper records in Adults Health and Social Care and Children's Services.

2. Current Position Adults Health and Social Care and Children's

2.1	All Business Units in Adults Health and Social Care and Children's Social Care Services hold their own paper records that are required on a day-to-day basis; these are located within their offices in lockable cabinets or rooms. In Children's Social Care Services there has been a move to holding service user records in electronic format. Since January 2007 there has been a phased programme to introduce the Electronic Social Care Record. Case records made from the period January to July 2007 when the phased package was introduced are held in electronic format, previous records remain stored in paper format. A project working towards a similar phased programme being implemented in Adults Social Care has been considered, however, the project is temporarily on hold.
2.2	The Departments' archive store facilities holds : - Previous volumes on current service users, Records of former service users, Records on service user where cases have recently been closed, Files on former employees Records from previous financial years
2.3	Records currently held in the archives cover the following broad activity categories: Children's Services (Looked After Children, Safeguarding etc.) Adult Services Finance HR Other Services - Complaints, Departmental Services, Secretariat However, it must be noted that not all Business Units in Adults Health and Social Care have records stored within the archive facilities.
2.4	There are currently five (5) archive store areas used and monitored by the Adults Health and Social Care and Children's Social Care Services Records Team (Tower Workshop (2), Woodmill (2), Bradenham (1). The facilities in the Woodmill and Bradenham that are used for archive storage are not usable as office accommodation. There are no additional costs incurred for using these units as store facilities.
2.5	The units in Tower are rented from Property Division. Full year costs £43,395 made as follows : - £36,372 for rental and service charges £7,023 for NNDR The projected expenditure for 2007/8 is £41,960 as the rental and service charge is anticipated to be £34,937 The Records team holds the budget for this activity. In addition the Records Team funds the cost of transport of boxes of records to Business Units. In 2006/7 £1549 was spent on this activity. Expenditure of £1187 in the period March to October 2007, with projected expenditure from 2007/8 is £1700. Individual Business units are responsible for the cost for returning files to the archives. No details of that expenditure are available at present.
2.6	In addition a further unit at Tower Workshop is being used of Adults Service records for the Physical Disabilities Team. The Physical Disabilities Team fund the annual rental costs for this unit of £5,318 plus NNDR of £1,498, a total of £6,816. The Records Team will then take on responsibility for the budget and this store facility once the contents have been logged.
2.7	At Mabel Goldwin House a further two areas, that are not suitable for use as office accommodation, are used as on-site storage of back records. There are no additional costs for the use of these areas as store facilities. The records in these areas are being catalogued and reviewed; any items to be retained will then be monitored by the Records team.
2.8	A separate on-site store facility within the building currently occupied by the Adoption and Fostering Service is used for Adoption records in line with the specific requirements of the Adoption legislation. Following consultation with the Service Manager for Adoption and Fostering, it is clear that these records will continue to logged and monitored by the Adoption Service, with no input from the Records team. It is understood that there are no additional costs incurred for this area being used as a store facility. Once staff from the Adoption and Fostering unit move from their current office a replacement store facility will be required for these records either within their new offices or at a location in very close proximity.
2.9	In April 2004 a total of 1,000 boxes of records from Children's District Services were held in store. At the end of November 2007 - 6750 boxes were held plus 84 storage cabinets. This covers many service areas in Adult and Children's Social Care.

	Children's	4675 and 84 cabinets (equal to approx 1077 boxes)
	Adults	1448
	HR	428
	Other	200
	Total	6753 and 84 cabinets (equal to approx 1077 boxes) estimated total 7830 boxes
2.10	A further increase in files to be stored is anticipated due to : - Files from Children's Social Care Services being sent for storage as part of the process as Children's Services teams transferring to new office locations. Files from Adults Service Teams being stored as part of the process when services are transferred outside of Local Authority responsibility. Files from Adult Services that require storage as part of moves to new office locations. The full impact of the implementation of the Electronic Social Care Record in Children's Social Care Services, leading to a reduction in paper records held within the Business Units. Adults Social Care Services working towards the use of the Electronic Social Care Record. Records from Adults Services Learning Disabilities Team currently being prepared for storage in the Department's archives. Other service areas in Adult Health and Social Care and Children's Services identifying records that are currently held within their offices and that need to be retained, however, due to lack of space, these items require storage outside of their office locations (NB this includes Finance and HR records). Files from Mental Health Services teams being returned to the Department for storage.
2.11	The number of boxes of records requiring storage is likely to increase in the next 12 - 18 months. It is anticipated that within two years, following the completion of the office moves as part of the Office Accommodation Strategy and the full implementation of the Electronic Social Care Record in Children's Social Care and Adults Social Care that very few paper records will be generated. Adults Services may continue to hold back volumes in paper format rather then transferring them to electronic format, so manageable levels of volumes may require storage spaces beyond that timescale. Back volumes of Children's Social Care Records already held in the archive store are likely to remain in paper format due to the high cost s of the scanning process for the quantity of paper records held.
2.12	The Records Team currently receives an average of 100+ requests each month from staff in Business Units for checks on records held in storage. In at least 50% of these requests a set of files has to be sent to a Business Unit. There has been an increase in the level of requests and the number of files sent out per request over the last 18 months. Few requests are received from Adults Social Care services offices, the majority of requests come from Children's R&A and Safeguarding teams and Looked After Children teams.

	Year	Archives	A&F (OFSTED)	Total
	2004/5	424	909	1333
	2005/6	502	482	984
	2006/7	628	570	1198
	2007/8 (8 /12)	618	311	928
	It is anticipated that the number of requests will continue to increase in the next 12 - 18 months whilst more file records are added to the stores and staff require access to full background details on cases where at present only limited information is held in electronic format.
2.13	It is expected that the level of requests for access to paper records will reduce after 2 - 3 years as more data is held in electronic format. In the longer term requests for files are likely to be made only in relation to : - Court Proceedings, where the full set of documentation held might need to be presented, or as a minimum will need to be reviewed prior to any hearing. The requirement to seek background information on former service users and their family as part of an ongoing assessment where there is no data held in the electronic record, Requests from other Local Authorities for background information on service users (former and current) where the other authority is undertaking a safeguarding assessment or considering Court Proceedings, Requests for access to files being made by service users and or their advocates under the Data Protection Act (see Paragraph 2.14), Complaints and Claims against the Council (see Paragraph 2.15).
2.14	Data Protection Act - requests for access to records by or on behalf of service users, numbers received are : -

		1/2/2005/ 31/3/2006	1/4/2005 - 31/3/2006	1/4/2006 - 31/3/2007	1/4/2007 - 30/11/2007
	Children's	8	47	44	24
	Adults	1	5	4	5
	Human Resources	0	6	2	1
	Other	0	1	0	2
	Not Known*	0	13	16	18

	Totals	9	72	66	50
* Not Known - applicant not known to the Department, no papers held.
	A consistent level of requests has been received over the last 2 years. A revised policy and procedure was approved in October 2007 by SMT's in Children's Services and in Adult Health and Social Care. A Publicity leaflet has also been produced for service users. A 'Roadshow' and training for staff are in hand during December 2007 and January 2008. It is anticipated that the level of requests are likely to increase as a result of this activity.
2.15	Complaints and Claims against the Council - those involved in the investigation processes for any items received under these categories require prompt access to all records held by the Departments in order to undertake an assessment and provide a full response within prescribed timescales.
2.16	The HR teams in Adults Health and Social Care and Children's Services hold records on former employees for a longer period of time than their colleagues in other Council HR Teams. This is in line with the Council's retention of records schedule. The rationale for this decision is to enable monitoring and checking of former employees in relation to safeguarding children and protection of vulnerable adults issues.
2.17	Access to Finance records - staff in Business units retain the records (invoices and financial transactions) for the current financial year. They also hold the records for the previous financial year until the Council's accounts for that year have been audited and approved. At that point they are sent for storage and are retained for up to 7 years.
2.18	Records are also held on investigations undertaken by or on behalf of Adults Health and Social Care and Children's Services. There is a sizeable store with very restricted access to records held that fall into this category. Both Departments' will need to consider how and where these records should be stored in the longer term.

3. Current Position - Council

3.1 Internal

As within Adults Health &Social Care and Children's Services all Business Units in other Departments hold their current / day-to-day paper records within their office location. There are some on site archive facilities in use in other Departments that are monitored by the Departmental Records Manager, (e.g. Children's Education, Environment & Housing and Legal Services all have departmental store facilities).

3.2 External

In November 2006 a contract was set up with Archival Records Management (ARM), an external provider based within Southwark for storage of archive records. At present this represents a relatively small contact (£50K). The main aim of the contract was to remove Council records held in Philip Morris House (a Council premises) to an off site store facility. As part of this contract the seldom-used records that may be required at short notice can be held in local store facilities. In addition, the seldom-used records not deemed as required at short notice but needing to be retained in line with the Council's Retention Schedule can be held in deep storage facilities owned by ARM outside of the Borough. The costs for services in this contract are outlined in Appendix 1.

The Corporate Records Manager is currently holding further discussions with ARM on some specific elements of this contract.

4. Current Position Southwark Primary Care Trust (PCT)

As within Health &Social Care and Children's Services all Business Units within the PCT hold their current records within their office location. There are some locations where this has created Health and Safety issues.

There are no in house archive store facility is held and managed by the PCT Records Team.

The PCT entered into a contract with Archival Records Management for storage of records in October 2006.

5. The Way Forward?

5.1	Council Office Accommodation Strategy - Following a recent audit of Council Premises, a report was presented for Member approval regarding office accommodation. The impact on Health and Social Care and Children's Services has been that checks are in hand to identify premises that can accommodate the staff providing services directly to members of the public in appropriate locations across the Borough. The storage capacity for current and or back volumes of case records is likely be severely limited in new office premises. This will have a further impact on the requirement to store records.
5.2	A review of Health and Social Care and Children's services provision for records storage capacity and facilities has been started. In addition to clarifying the current usage and detailing current capacity, the review will need to include projections for future storage requirements to meet anticipated demand for both medium and longer-term accessibility to records. The Council's Accommodation Strategy will impose a series of moves from existing office locations that will mean some or all of the existing stores need to be decanted, possibly at short notice.
5.3	One outcome of the moves outlined in the accommodation strategy is that some of the current units may still be available for use as store facilities e.g. Tower Workshops, however, others are likely to have a shorter life-span e.g. Bradenham, Mabel Goldwin House and Woodmill. The impact of these changes appears to be that the storage resources are likely to be insufficient to meet the needs of the Departments.
5.4	A proposal could be made to seek alternative facilities within the Council's building stock for store facilities for those records that are deemed as needing to remain within the control of the Health and Social Care and Children's Services.
5.5	Alternatively, consideration should be given to the use of the Council wide contract with ARM for provision of storage of records. A number of issues would require close scrutiny to ensure that the external provider can meet the specific requirements of Adult Health and Social Care and Children's Services Business units. : - Could specific secure storage be provided for Health and Social Care and Children's Services records? If so what are the cost implications and comparisons with current internal provision. A projection is outlined in Appendix 2 --- ARM indicate that they can provide separate secure storage for Social care records at no additional costs to that outlined in Appendix 1. However, the stores are only accessible by ARM staff. ARM staff are subject to CRB checks, the level of such checking will need to be verified to ensure it is regarded as sufficient to meet Social Care requirements. Are the Departments prepared to allow ARM staff to access individual records that may periodically need to be returned to Business Units (DPA, Requests Court Proceedings, Complaints etc.)? ARM indicate that they prefer to return boxes rather than individual records to Business Units. Could / should we negotiate with ARM for our staff to access individual records? Business Unit views required .... The Records Team recommend that an exercise to rebox records in secure storage boxes would be required if the files are to be stored with an external provider. This could improve the safety and security of records and would avoid the requirement for individual records from a range of boxes to be returned to the Business Units. The details of such a programme are outlined in a separate report. Given the differences in retention periods for Adults and Children's records, identification will need to be made of those records that could be sent for deep storage and those needing local but longer term storage where access is likely to be required on a regular basis. For those records from Children's Social Care that will be required again (and quickly), the cost of storage and retrieval from the external provider as against current internally provided services would need to be compared. Details of the costing are outlined in Appendix 1 and Appendix 2. In addition the Corporate Records Manager is currently holding discussions with ARM regarding a dedicated collection and delivery service for Southwark Business Units. The comparative costs for storing the boxes and cabinets in departmental stores and with the external provider is outlined in Appendix 2. ARM offers access to one user per Department to the ARM database of boxes held on behalf of the Council in their store facilities. It is therefore recommended that if ARM does store records for Adults Health and Social Care and Children's services, that the Records Team undertakes this link role. This would ensure the continued consistent and robust approach of checking, monitoring and tracking records held by both Departments.
5.6	Transfer of paper records into electronic documents could be explored, however, given the large quantity of Children's Social Care service users file papers, the preparatory work required and the actions involved in the scanning process could prove to be cost prohibitive.
5.7	Consultation - Malcolm Ward Children's, Susan Shah HR, Susan Sinclair A&F.... have been contacted to seek views on the storage of records, views received have been included in the body of the report where appropriate, additional comments are : - ...... Peter Harris Records Manager Health & Social Care Revised December 2007

Appendix 1

Storage costs ARM contract

SCHEDULE OF RATES
SILVER STORAGE SERVICE
1.0 cubic ft Archive Box	per month	0.14
1.5 cubic ft Archive Box	per month	0.20
2.0 cubic ft Archive Box	per month	0.26
Other sizes	per month	pro rata to small box

GOLD STORAGE SERVICE

1.0 cubic ft Archive Box *	per month	0.22
1.5 cubic ft Archive Box *	per month	0.35
2.0 cubic ft Archive Box *	per month	0.46
Other sizes *	per month	pro rata to small box
* Large quantities attract discounts

DELIVERY/COLLECTION

Silver Service Retrieval

Next day retrieval (50 box maximum)	per trip	20.00 + 0.50 per box
Express (same day)	per trip	75.00 + 1.00 per box
File retrieval	plus trip charges	00.50 per file

Gold Service

Same Day (50 box maximum)	per trip	15.00+ 0.50 per box
Express (2 hour)	per trip	35.00 + 1.00 per box
File retrieval	plus trip charges	00.50 per file

INITIAL INTAKE

Initial intake coding	per item	FOC
Initial backlog collection		FOC

ENCODING & REPORTING SERVICES

Online database access (if required)	per month	50.00
Initial training		100.00
Bar-coding	new boxes / files	00.35

DESTRUCTION

Confidential Shredding	per box	2.00
Secure shredding	per box	4.60
120 litre secure document wheelie bin	per week	2.00
Confidential shredding	per wheelie bin	10.00
Permanent withdrawal	per box	1.90

ARCHIVE BOXES

1.0 cubic ft Box	41.0 cm	x	25.5 cm	x	30.5cm	2.00
1.5 cubic ft Box	43.0 cm	x	33.5 cm	x	25.5 cm	3.00
2.0 cubic ft Box	45.5 cm	x	38.0 cm	x	30.5 cm	4.00
Security Tags					per 100	10.00

Appendix 2

Archive Stores - boxes and cabinets

Children's	4675 and 84 cabinets
Adults	1448
HR	428
Other	200
Total	6753 and 84 cabinets (equal to approx 1077 boxes)
4675 & 1077 @ 22p per box per month x 12 months = £15,185.28 Children's records in local storage
1448, 428 & 200 @ 14p per box per month x 12 months = £3,487.68 Adults, HR and other records in deep storage
Total	£18,672.96
Estimated costs for transport of children's records based on average on 110 journeys per year (2+ per week) plus some returns from deep storage 12 (an average 1 per month).
110 x £15	1650 plus 50p per box per journey
12 x £20	240 plus 50p per box per journey
= 1890 plus 50p per box per journey estimate 2,000 boxes = £1,000
Estimated expenditure per annum	£20,060.32 + £1,000
Current expenditure using Council premises	Total = £51,911 (£43,395 + 1700 + 5318 + 1498)

End