For the purpose of retention scheduling, Worcestershire County Council abide
with the Statute of Limitations regulation that personnel files are kept for
7 years after employment ceases. However, in updating the retention
schedule for Social Services, we have reached a moot point.
With the current climate of investigation into care homes, often decades
after the alleged offence, our colleagues in Social Services are concerned
that staff files should be retained for a much longer period, some saying 75
years (some cases for compensation seem to be brought even after the alleged
offender has passed away).
We were worried as to the Data Protection implications of this; the rights
of the staff whose files we were keeping. Our staff in the Legal Department
inform us that we would have to justify the difference in retention periods
for staff of different departments (but they don't see that as a huge
problem and certainly don't think Data Protection has anything specific to
say about it, so long as 'further processing' can be proven).
Storage problems would be incurred, but formats other than paper may be
investigated.
This is just a shout for advice really. Have other local authority Record
Offices/records management centres made retention decisions about files of
staff with 'sensitive' jobs?
All help much appreciated. Please reply off list to
[log in to unmask]
Thank you
Deborah Wilton
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