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Dear All, The following emails were posted to the FOI list but not cross referenced to the Records Management list. I was contacted about the possibility of sending these across as not everyone on the RM list is subscribed to the FOI list. I hope that you find this of interest and use. Best, Lawrence From: Discussion of the implications of FoI for FE and HE institutions [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Steve Bailey - JISC infoNet Sent: 27 January 2012 09:39 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Records management the true cost of FOI? (Hybrid question straddles both disciplines so cross posting) Hi Lawrence, Its certainly hard to deny that compliance is an important weapon in our armoury but I do think its one we produce rather too often. I've written and presented on this elsewhere but in essence my concern is that not only is compliance context-specific (as previous replies have rightly said) but frankly its rather boring. This is not a flippant point and what I mean by it is that it is essentially a negative investment: spending money on compliance is spending money to prevent something happening (getting sued etc) it is not an investment which overtly benefits the organisation. It does not make it more efficient, more creative, more productive, more profitable etc. Of course we may argue that some of these should/could happen as a result of the kind of RM-investment we are making as part of increased compliance but its usually a fairly weak and unproven argument, often given as a kind of after thought to the main compliance message. As budgets shrink I worry that this leaves RM rather out on a limb: unable to prove the positive impact it makes to the organisation and clinging to a compliance message which whilst still obviously on the SMT-radar may not be considered quite the priority it was when money was more plentiful. Of course every senior management team worth their salt appreciates the importance of keeping out of court but appetites to risk will undoubtedly harden in many quarters especially, as Paula remarks, the likely sanctions are not seen to be too draconian. And if this is true for senior management I'd argue the same is true in spades for the average user whose interest in or concern for corporate compliance is often minimal at best. RM is fundamentally reliant on the thousands of actions carried out by hundreds of users each and every day. By and large these are people who want to turn up, do their job as quickly and easily as possible and go home again. Tools which demonstrably enable them to do this better are likely to be welcomed, tools which impose extra barriers and change working practices simply to keep someone else out of trouble will not. Obviously in extreme examples compliance issues could make or break the organisation they work for so you could argue they should have concern for such issues, but I'm not convinced people really think that way. In short, compliance should be at the core of RM but it should be a given, something both we and our funders take for granted that we will sort. What we should be focusing on instead is how we hide all this from the user and how we demonstrate value added benefit to both individual users and the efficiency of the organisation as a whole To address another of your points: "At this time, I am not focusing on the method by which the estimated cost is calculated. I have always felt that it is distorted because it is based on crude estimates rather than a rigorous approach and thus reflects an organisational (or cultural) response to FOIA than an issue of economic resources". I agree entirely and this is why we are currently funding 7 universities to capture in detail the exact time taken to respond to 5 requests each. This tracking information will be profiled by each stage of answering a request (logging, locating the information , considering exemptions etc) and we are also capturing the salary of each person involved along the way so at the end we should have as robust an idea of the true cost of answering a range of requests as it is possible to get. I should also add that these projects also have to include a couple of 'round robin' requests in their mix to get an idea of how different institutions answer the same requests. We are also asking each institution to complete the RM Maturity Model as well. Obviously we have to be careful about not drawing too many conclusions from this but it will be interesting to see if there any apparent links between areas of (im)maturity and cost differences. The results of this work should be available in March. We also hope to make the (Googledocs/Excel based) tool freely available afterwards for anyone who wishes to apply the same methodology within their own organisations. Best wishes Steve From: Discussion of the implications of FoI for FE and HE institutions [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lawrence Serewicz Sent: 26 January 2012 16:55 To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Subject: Records management the true cost of FOI? (Hybrid question straddles both disciplines so cross posting) Dear All, I spend a fair bit of time thinking about records management, FOI, and the DPA. Perhaps too much time. :) One question that keeps percolating in my mind is the following considering the post legislative scrutiny of FOI<http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/policy/moj/post-legislative-scrutiny-foi.htm> that is occurring at the moment. To what extent is the concern with the cost of FOI<http://www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/research/foi/countries/cost-of-foi.pdf> a reflection of an underlying records management weakness? Or, is it an issue of being sensitive to a change in accountability<http://lawrenceserewicz.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/organisational-silence-can-kill-you-why-foia-is-priceless/> (implicit or explicit) ushered in by FOI or an organisational response to change? A counter hypothesis, to test the main hypothesis, would be to look at the state of records management and internal communications for those organisations without a responsibility to respond to FOIA requests? Do you have a robust records management system despite not having to respond to FOI requests? For those with a response to FOIA, has your records management function improved<http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dis/icarus/research-areas/foi-impact> (or at least raised its profile) since the Act came into force? Elizabeth Shepherd has done some good work<http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dis/icarus/research-areas/foi-impact/FOI-2011.pdf> in this area. Also there is the JISC records management maturity model,<http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/records-management/measuring-impact/maturity-model/download> though this only refers to FOI process rather than making a direct link between FOI and records management (although it is implicit). At this time, I am not focusing on the method by which the estimated cost<http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/12/23/freedom-of-information-requests-cost-councils-31million-115875-23655059/> is calculated. I have always felt that it is distorted because it is based on crude estimates rather than a rigorous approach and thus reflects an organisational (or cultural) response to FOIA than an issue of economic resources. I am unaware of any other public sector service with a similar published cost. For example, I have not seen the cost of a complaint computed with a "price of a complaint" in the way that the FOI requests are sometimes published with a reference to the "cost of democracy" or the "opportunity cost" associated with answering the request. None of this is to dispute that answering FOI requests can take time and cost money. However, I am trying to understand whether that cost is more a reflection of underlying records management (given that there is no need to create information) than a "new burden" in the way that adding new recycling rounds is a new burden because it is requiring a new service. As FOI practitioners and records management professionals, I would be interested in your experience. In particular, I would be interested in the non-UK list members experience. Is records management the true cost of FOI or is it bound up with other secondary issues like culture and organisational efficacy that cannot be disentangled for analytical purposes? I look forward to hearing from you. Best, Lawrence ________________________________ Help protect our environment by only printing this email if absolutely necessary. The information it contains and any files transmitted with it are confidential and are only intended for the person or organisation to whom it is addressed. It may be unlawful for you to use, share or copy the information, if you are not authorised to do so. If you receive this email by mistake, please inform the person who sent it at the above address and then delete the email from your system. Durham County Council takes reasonable precautions to ensure that its emails are virus free. However, we do not accept responsibility for any losses incurred as a result of viruses we might transmit and recommend that you should use your own virus checking procedures. ________________________________ Help protect our environment by only printing this email if absolutely necessary. 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