Record-keeping is an onerous task. Unfortunately, it’s both a statutory requirement and essential for providing a comprehensive history of students with special educational needs and disabilities (Send).
You should be looking to keep most documents relating to Send pupils for 25 years (from their date of birth). This includes child protection and Send files, normal student files and accessibility plans. You should also keep advice and information provided to parents regarding educational needs for 25 years beyond the closure date. And, at the end of this period, you need to dispose of them securely.
In fact, 25 years may not be enough - many local authorities state that you should hang on to paperwork for 35 years, ready to be produced in the event of a “failure to provide sufficient education” case.
Send statements, plus proposed or amended statements, must be retained for 30 years (from birth) and only disposed of if legal action is not pending.
So, what does this mean for special educational needs and disabilities coordinators (Sendcos)? First, we must maintain useful dated records and documents. And, second, we are going to have very large files for some students.
But what exactly should Sendcos be keeping in those files?
For the record
Each Send file you create or inherit should contain documents relevant to special educational needs and disabilities. It should not include a duplicate of information already found in the pupil file.
Here is a list of the documents you should expect in a Send file. Remember that it is essential to date everything:
- An index - even a simple sheet of lined paper at the front with a list of contents and their date is useful.
- Original letters from professionals and a copy of any resources or information booklets they provide (or an indication of where you can find them).
- A chronology of intervention or provision. This could be a list, provision map or a highlighted timetable.
- Copies of all learning plans and targets (pupil profiles or passports) with relevant comments by parents, pupils and professionals, plus signatures.
- A record sheet with the results of diagnostic or psychometric assessment results. There is no need to keep the original test paper although it can be useful to hang on to most recent one so as to analyse differences.
- If the student has an education, health and care plan (EHCP), their file should contain copies of all issued documentation. It’s not essential to keep records of meetings but it is advisable: a note of agreed actions can be incredibly useful.
Storage solutions
Schools can find it a challenge to store this volume of paperwork securely and for long periods of time. And even though many of the files - and therefore the responsibility of archiving them - are transferred to secondary schools along with the student, filing and storage is still a challenge for Sendcos in primary schools.
Some schools have moved to keeping records electronically in a format compliant with BS 10008 - the British Standard outlining best practice for information management systems. In terms of meeting their legal responsibilities, it is important for schools to note that merely keeping records in the virtual school network or an internal database does not comply with BS 10008, which allows for paper-based items ultimately to be destroyed.
The Data Protection Act 1998 also states that records must be kept no longer than necessary, so schools must be careful not to hang on to paperwork beyond the requisite number of years.
Electronic solutions such as online management information systems and programs for creating learning plans are great, but staff must append a printed copy of each document to the pupil’s Send file at least once a year, unless they are using an approved electronic document management system (EDMS).
Electronic aids
So why choose to create plans and provisions electronically if they still have to be maintained in a paper format (or at the very least uploaded to an EDMS)?
Electronic files are more convenient to use day-to-day. It’s quicker and easier to produce updates and copies; the files can be easily accessed and shared so that more than one person can contribute to them; and they can be integrated with other systems to save time.
However, you will need to ensure that a paper-based backup exists if your school doesn’t have compliant electronic long-term storage, which most don’t. You can use an electronic solution, such as Provision Maps by Edukey, but you will need to print copies of your files because these kinds of services are usually subscription-only and therefore not likely to be accessible far into the future.
In a small school with few Send-identified students, it may be sufficient to use Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and the school MIS to record information. However, a larger establishment or one with many vulnerable students may find it needs a tailored program to record learning plans, targets, interventions or provisions.
The first option means that documents can be stored on a shared drive or network so that anyone can access them, although this can lead to security issues. Tailored programs, meanwhile, can be password-protected so that only staff with the appropriate level of clearance can see documents.
For example, my school used SIMS and Provision Maps, but I still had paper files: one for a pupil’s main school records and one for Send documents. On a day-to-day basis I uploaded everything to Provision Maps, including learning plans and letters from external bodies. I could access this at any time and, once a year - or if a student left the school - I printed everything from Provision Maps and added it to their Send file. When a student left school I sent the paper file to archives.
This meant that the behaviour manager, and anyone else with access to Provision Maps at my school, could access the information without having to trawl through paper files, or find me to ask.
Anticipating problems
It is worth bearing in mind that electronic solutions can be costly. You may need multiple solutions, they can be restrictive in what they can achieve, and they can be corrupted by viruses.
However, despite their relative cheapness and flexibility, paper records present their own catalogue of challenges. They require a great deal of storage space, and many of the documents must be both readily accessible and adequately protected to ensure confidentiality. Papers files can also be easily mislaid or destroyed, and making copies from a single master file can be incredibly time-consuming.
Many of you will remember the call for schools to become paperless; sadly, it is not likely to happen any time soon - and certainly not for a Sendco. What is more important is ensuring that our data and information is accurate, up-to-date, easily accessible and yet secure. If we manage this, we can distribute the right documents to the right people at the right moments, without placing ourselves under too onerous an administrative burden.
For more advice, look at the Information and Records Management Society’s retention guidelines for schools at www.irms.org.uk
Abigail Hawkins is a Sendco at Edukey
Provision Map is an outstanding piece of software that is helping Sendcos succeed. Find out more about Provision Map
