CH: document retention, destruction and archive policy

Eliza_2

Morning all. The small charity I work for desperately needs a policy to guide decisions about keeping or destroying documents. I work with a hoarder who keeps absolutely everything, yellow stickies, emails from Nigerian politicians' widows, the lot. As a result things have built up something stupid, I do my best to delete or unsubscribe from anything that clutters up the emails (working at night before she gets to read them) as well as getting rid of some ancient insignificant paperwork - which I have to take home as I wouldn't put it past her to sellotape stuff together that has been shredded and anyway, as soon as she hears the shredder she's there like a shot. I'm getting pretty sneaky about chucking stuff though, but know she checks the bin.

If I can write a policy which is agreed by the board, she would have to abide by it, or at least it would encourage her to think more sensibly about what she's keeping. I appreciate that hoarders have problems and need to be treated gently and I do believe she has a genuine attachment to these things, for example when I ask if something can be chucked, eg a piece of paper with a phone number on it, (and I've already put the number in her phone book) she remembers when that person gave her the number and what she was doing at the time, and elements of the conversation, all of which seem to have an emotional pull on her. So the paper gets blutacked back on the wall again. (Or mysteriously lost, ho hum, oh dear it must have dropped down behind the desk!!!)

While understanding this, it is making life really difficult and affecting the running of the charity. The board know this but their heads are in the sand, in fact I believe now that I was appointed to try to sort this out which I can't.

Anyway, didin't mean to turn that into a tale of woe, but I intend to leave soon and before I go want to write a policy to take to the board. I could do with some examples or model policies from a similar organisation - can anyone help?

And yes, I have googled!!

Thank you so much. Liz

paddyrg

To cover your backsides it's probably worth keeping any files/emails/potential evidence for 6 years - but being selective in what you keep. Clearly any receipts, emails regarding people, employment, tax etc keep, filed, labelled, scanned, however you want to deal with it. Any Nigerian princesses/unsolicited bulk email bin.

Eliza_2

paddyrg wrote: »

Any Nigerian princesses/unsolicited bulk email bin.

Yep, I know that but trying to persuade her it will never 'come in handy' is another thing entirely!!

Savvy_Sue

There's always the 'data protection' angle ... "sorry we can't keep this because information has to be accurate. We don't know if this is or not, so ..."

I believe your public liability insurance details need to be kept on file forever ... is it 20 years or 100?

six years for finance and paye stuff.

If you have a local housing association, it might just possibly be worth asking of they have a policy. Most of them are charities, and there's all sorts of sensitive information floating around their records, but some of it has to be kept!

BTW if the charity works with children, then you possible need to keep their records for 20 years too, but I'm not sure, and it doesn't sound as if that's your problem ...

If it helps, what we try to do is keep the current and previous year's finance info 'handy'. When one year ends, we move the oldest stuff from files on our shelves into envelopes (labelled) in boxes which go into the loft. If we've got the time / energy, we shred the older stuff at the same time, but it doesn't always happen.

Client records get kept forever, but again moved into labelled envelopes and boxed rather than easy access.

Savvy_Sue

BTW, with the emails, can you either change the spam filters on her account and / or set up filters to get the rubbish away from her inbox? Or would she check and haul it back again?

Eliza_2

Thanks, yes she would haul it back again, I've managed to minimise them as much as possible. This is why I have to sneak into the emails at night from home (she doesn't check emails from home) and delete completely any rubbish.

I was thinking a policy approved by the board would get their backing and at least persuade her this stuff really doesn't need keeping (as it's often stored in several other places besides). Will get my thinking cap on over the next few days!

The charity doesn't work on a 1-1 in depth basis with clients any more, I'm wondering if these records still need to be kept. From what you say they probably do - young people 16 - 25, not children as such.

Will check with other vol sector organisations locally, thanks for all the ideas folks.

Savvy_Sue

Eliza wrote: »

The charity doesn't work on a 1-1 in depth basis with clients any more, I'm wondering if these records still need to be kept. From what you say they probably do - young people 16 - 25, not children as such.

Will check with other vol sector organisations locally, thanks for all the ideas folks.

I'd check with your local council's CYPS (children and young people's service, although it may be called something else). I would suspect that you do, but I do not know for how long.

I had a friend who worked as a childminder who said that the first thing every aspiring childminder should buy was a lockable filing cabinet, because all records had to be kept for at least 21 years (I think) in case, once the child was an adult, there was some claim about injuries which needed investigation.

In our service, one of our clients wanted to see their childhood records from social services after many years, and they were made available.

antrobus

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

...I had a friend who worked as a childminder who said that the first thing every aspiring childminder should buy was a lockable filing cabinet, because all records had to be kept for at least 21 years (I think) in case, once the child was an adult, there was some claim about injuries which needed investigation. ....

I think that's an 'insurance thing'. The NCMA aka PACEY state that their "public liability policy lasts 21 years and four months" and therefore "accident paperwork should be kept at least this long". They also state that "If you employ someone, you should keep staff accident paperwork and employer’s liability documentation for 40 years."

OP would presumably be advised to consult their charity's insurance providers to check whether they had any particular document retention requirements.