Equal Care Co-op Retention Schedule

	A	B	C	D	E	F
1	Broad descriptor	Record Type	Retention Start	Retention period	Action at end of retention period	Notes
2	Care Records with standard retention periods	Adult health records not covered by any other section in this schedule	Support ended or person last seen	8 years	Review and if no longer needed destroy	Basic health and social care retention period - check for any other involvements that could extend the retention. All must be reviewed prior to destruction taking into account any serious incident retentions. This includes medical illustration records such as X-rays and scans as well as video and other formats.
3	Care Records with standard retention periods	Adult social care records	Support ended or person last seen	8 years	Review and if no longer needed destroy
4	Care Records with standard retention periods	Children’s records	Support ended	25th or 26th birthday (see Notes)	Review and if no longer needed destroy	Basic health and social care retention requirement is to retain until 25th birthday or if the patient was 17 at the conclusion of the treatment, until their 26th birthday. Check for any other involvements that could extend the retention. All must be reviewed prior to destruction taking into account any serious incident retentions. This includes medical illustration records such as X-rays and scans as well as video and other formats.
5	Care Records with standard retention periods	Electronic Patient Records System	See Notes	See Notes	Destroy	Where the electronic system has the capacity to destroy records in line with the retention schedule, and where a metadata stub can remain demonstrating that a record has been destroyed, then the code should be followed in the same way for electronic records as for paper records with a log being kept of the records destroyed. If the system does not have this capacity, then once the records have reached the end of their retention periods they should be inaccessible to users of the system and upon decommissioning, the system (along with audit trails) should be retained for the retention period of the last entry related to the schedule.
6	Care Records with standard retention periods	Mental Health records	Support ended or person last seen	20 years or 8 years after the patient has died	Review and if no longer needed destroy	Covers records made where the person has been cared for under the Mental Health Act 1983 as amended by the Mental Health Act 2007. This includes psychology records. Retention solely for any persons who have been sectioned under the Mental Health Act 1983 must be considerably longer than 20 years where the case may be ongoing. Very mild forms of adult mental health treated in a community setting where a full recovery is made may consider treating as an adult records and keep for 8 years after discharge. All must be reviewed prior to destruction taking into account any serious incident retentions.
7	Care Records with standard retention periods	Obstetric records, maternity records and antenatal and post natal records	Support ended or person last seen	25 years	Review and if no longer needed destroy	For the purposes of record keeping these records are to be considered as much a record of the child as that of the mother.
8	Care Records with Non-Standard Retention Periods	Record of long term illness or an illness that may reoccur	Support ended or person last seen	30 Years or 8 years after the person has died	Review and if no longer needed destroy	Necessary for continuity of clinical care.The primary record of the illness and course of treatment must be kept of a patient where the illness may reoccur or is a life long illness.
9	Event & Transaction Records	Referrals not accepted	Date of rejection.	2 years as an ephemeral record	Review and if no longer needed destroy	The rejected referral to the service should also be kept on the originating service file.
10	Telephony Systems & Services	Recorded conversation which may later be needed for clinical negligence purpose	Creation	3 Years	Review and if no longer needed destroy	The period of time cited by the NHS Litigation Authority is 3 years
11	Telephony Systems & Services	Recorded conversation which forms part of the health record	Creation	Store as a health record	Review and if no longer needed destroy	It is advisable to transfer any relevant information into the main record through transcription or summarisation. Call handlers may perform this task as part of the call. Where it is not possible to transfer clinical information from the recording to the record the recording must be considered as part of the record and be retained accordingly.
12	Telephony Systems & Services	The telephony systems record (not recorded conversations)	Creation	1 year	Review and if no longer needed destroy	This is the absolute minimum specified to meet the NHS contractual requirement.
13	Co-operative Governance	Purpose Circle Meetings	Creation	Before 20 years but as soon as practically possible	Transfer to a Place of Deposit
14	Co-operative Governance	Purpose Circle Meetings (Closed)	Creation	May retain for 20 years	Transfer to a Place of Deposit	Although they may contain confidential or sensitive material they are still a public record and must be transferred at 20 years with any FOI exemptions noted or duty of confidence indicated.
15	Co-operative Governance	Members Meetings	Creation	Before 20 years but as soon as practically possible	Transfer to a Place of Deposit
16	Co-operative Governance	Statutory Roles - Records	Creation	May retain for 20 years	Transfer to a Place of Deposit	This may include emails and correspondence where they are not already included in the board papers and they are considered to be of archival interest.
17	Co-operative Governance	Destruction Certificates or Electronic Metadata destruction stub or record of information held on destroyed physical media	Destruction of record or information	20 Years	Consider Transfer to a Place of Deposit and if no longer needed to destroy	The Public Records Act 1958 limits the holding of records to 20 years unless there is an instrument issued by the Minister with responsibility for administering the Public Records Act 1958. If records are not excluded by such an instrument they must either be transferred to a place of deposit as a public record or destroyed 20 years after the record has been closed.
18	Co-operative Governance	Incidents including safeguarding (serious)	Date of Incident	20 Years	Review and consider transfer to a Place of Deposit
19	Co-operative Governance	Incidents including safeguarding (not serious)	Date of Incident	10 Years	Review and if no longer needed destroy
20	Co-operative Governance	Non-Clinical or Care-Related Social Impact Records	End of year to which the assurance relates	12 years	Review and if no longer needed destroy
21	Co-operative Governance	Policies, strategies and operating procedures including business plans	Creation	Life of organisation plus 6 years	Review and consider transfer to a Place of Deposit
22	Communications	Loomio	Creation	6 years	Review and consider transfer to a Place of Deposit
23	Communications	Patient information leaflets	End of use	6 years	Review and consider transfer to a Place of Deposit
24	Communications	Press releases and important internal communications	Release Date	6 years	Review and consider transfer to a Place of Deposit	Press releases may form a significant part of the public record of an organisation which may need to be retained
25	Communications	Public consultations	End of consultation	5 years	Review and consider transfer to a Place of Deposit
26	Communications	Website	Creation	6 years	Review and consider transfer to a Place of Deposit
27	Staff Records & Occupational Health	Occupational Health Reports	Staff member leaves	Keep until 75th birthday or 6 years after the staff member leaves whichever is sooner	Review and if no longer needed destroy
28	Staff Records & Occupational Health	Occupational Health Report of Staff member under health surveillance	Staff member leaves	Keep until 75th birthday or 6 years after the staff member leaves whichever is sooner	Review and if no longer needed destroy
29	Staff Records & Occupational Health	Staff Record	Staff member leaves	Keep until 75th birthday or 6 years after the staff member leaves whichever is sooner	Create Staff Record Summary then review or destroy the main file.	This includes (but is not limited to) evidence of right to work, security checks and recruitment documentation for the successful candidate including job adverts and application forms. May be destroyed 6 years after the staff member leaves or the 75th birthday, whichever is sooner, if a summary has been made.
30	Staff Records & Occupational Health	Staff Record Summary	6 years after the staff member leaves	75th Birthday	Place of Deposit should be offered for continued retention or Destroy	Please see page 36 for an example of a Staff Record Summary used by an organisation.
31	Staff Records & Occupational Health	Staff Training records	Creation	See Notes	Review and consider transfer to a Place of Deposit	Records of significant training must be kept until 75th birthday or 6 years after the staff member leaves. It can be difficult to categorise staff training records as significant as this can depend upon the staff member’s role. The IGA recommends: 1 Clinical training records - to be retained until 75th birthday or six years after the staff member leaves, whichever is the longer2 Statutory and mandatory training records - to be kept for ten years after training completed3Other training records - keep for six years after training completed.
32	Procurement	Contracts sealed or unsealed	End of contract	6 years	Review and if no longer needed destroy
33	Procurement	Contracts - financial approval files	End of contract	15 years	Review and if no longer needed destroy
34	Procurement	Contracts - financial approved suppliers documentation	When supplier finishes work	11 years	Review and if no longer needed destroy
35	Procurement	Tenders (successful)	End of contract	6 years	Review and if no longer needed destroy
36	Procurement	Tenders (unsuccessful)	Award of tender	6 years	Review and if no longer needed destroy
37	Finance	Accounts	Close of financial year	3 years	Review and if no longer needed destroy	Includes all associated documentation and records for the purpose of audit as agreed by auditors
38	Finance	Benefactions	End of financial year	8 years	Review and consider transfer to Place of Deposit	These may already be in the financial accounts and may be captured in other records/reports or committee papers. Where benefactions endowment trust fund/legacies - permanent retention.
39	Finance	Debtor records cleared	Close of financial year	2 years	Review and if no longer needed destroy
40	Finance	Debtor records not cleared	Close of financial year	6 years	Review and if no longer needed destroy
41	Finance	Donations	Close of financial year	6 years	Review and if no longer needed destroy
42	Finance	Expenses	Close of financial year	6 years	Review and if no longer needed destroy
43	Finance	Final annual accounts report	Creation	Before 20 years	Transfer to place of deposit if not transferred with the board papers	Should be transferred to a place of deposit as soon as practically possible
44	Finance	Financial records of transactions	End of financial year	6 Years	Review and if no longer needed destroy
45	Finance	Petty cash	End of financial year	2 Years	Review and if no longer needed destroy
46	Finance	Salaries paid to staff	Close of financial year	10 Years	Review and if no longer needed destroy
47	Finance	Superannuation records	Close of financial year	10 Years	Review and if no longer needed destroy
48	Legal, Complaints & information Rights	Complaints case file	Closure of incident (see Notes)	10 years	Review and if no longer needed destroy	http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information-management/sched_complaints.pdf The incident is not closed until all subsequent processes have ceased including litigation. The file must not be kept on the patient file. A separate file must always be maintained.
49	Legal, Complaints & information Rights	Fraud case files	Case closure	6 years	Review and if no longer needed destroy
50	Legal, Complaints & information Rights	Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and responses and any associated correspondence	Closure of FOI request	3 years	Review and if no longer needed destroy	Where redactions have been made it is important to keep a copy of the redacted disclosed documents or if not practical to keep a summary of the redactions.
51	Legal, Complaints & information Rights	FOI requests where there has been a subsequent appeal	Closure of appeal	6 years	Review and if no longer needed destroy
52	Legal, Complaints & information Rights	Industrial relations including tribunal case records	Close of financial year	10 Years	Review and consider transfer to a Place of Deposit	Some organisations may record these as part of the staff record but in most cases they will form a distinct separate record either held by the staff member/manager or by the payroll team for processing.
53	Legal, Complaints & information Rights	Litigation records	Closure of case	10 years	Review and consider transfer to a Place of Deposit
54	Legal, Complaints & information Rights	Patents / trademarks / copyright / intellectual property-	End of lifetime of patent or termination of licence/action	Lifetime of patent or 6 years from end of licence /action	Review and consider transfer to Place of Deposit
55	Legal, Complaints & information Rights	Software licences	End of lifetime of software	Lifetime of software	Review and if no longer needed destroy
56	Legal, Complaints & information Rights	Subject Access Requests (SAR) and disclosure correspondence	Closure of SAR	3 Years	Review and if no longer needed destroy
57	Legal, Complaints & information Rights	Subject access requests where there has been a subsequent appeal	Closure of appeal	6 Years	Review and if no longer needed destroy
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100