RECORD KEEPING POLICY - West Wycombe Preschool

RECORD KEEPING POLICY

BUSINESS RECORDS

We keep records for the purpose of maintaining our business. These include:

Records pertaining to our registration including insurance and OFSTED.
Landlord/lease documents and other contractual documentation pertaining to amenities, services and goods.
Financial records pertaining to income, expenditure, payroll, sick pay and maternity.
Risk assessments and documents relating to our annual health and safety checks.
Employment records of staff including their name, home address, telephone number and medical details relating to their position.
Disciplinary, meeting and training records for individual staff
Committee Member Details including their name, home address and telephone number
Name, address and telephone number of anyone else who is regularly in unsupervised contact with the children
Children’s special educational needs individual health care plans, reports from other professionals working with children, observations from other settings working with children and hospital reports.
Safeguarding documentation noted at pre-school and child protection records used for partnership working with outside agencies i.e social services, the police.
Meeting minutes for staff and committee
Complaints records.
Accident and medical records for individual children
Application forms and interview notes for prospective candidates
Disclosure and Barring Service information for all staff, committee members and individuals volunteering at pre-school or working with the children.

Our records are regarded as confidential on the basis of sensitivity of information. These confidential records are maintained with regard to the framework of the Data Protection Act (2018) which is the implementation of GDPR, as well as the Human Rights Act (1998).

This policy and procedure is undertaken in conjunction with the Confidentiality Policy.

Procedures

All records are the responsibility of the Pre-School Manager and Deputy Manager who ensure they are kept securely in lockable filling cabernets within the office. The office is locked when no staff are on site.
All records are kept in an orderly way in files and filing is kept up-to-date.
Financial records are kept up-to-date for audit purposes and are occasionally kept off site with the pre-school treasurer. These records are always accessible
Health and safety records are maintained; these include risk assessments, details of checks or inspections and guidance etc. Some of these records are kept off site in West Wycombe School Office as they are pre-schools landlord and share a building. These records are always accessible.
Our Ofsted registration certificate and insurance certificate are displayed on the pre-school notice board on the first floor.

We notify Ofsted of any change:

in the address of our premises;
to the premises which may affect the space available to children and the quality of childcare available to them;
our registered person’s or managers name, address and contact information;
any significant event which is likely to affect our suitability to look after children; or
any other event as detailed in the Early Years Foundation Stage Welfare Standards April 2017.

CHILDREN’S RECORDS

If a child attends another setting, we establish a regular two-way appropriate information sharing with parents and other providers. Where appropriate, we will incorporate comments from other providers, as well as parents and carers into the child’s records.

We keep two kinds of records on children attending our setting:

1. Developmental Records

These include observations of children in the pre-school, photographs, video clips and samples of their work and summary developmental reports.
These are kept online through Tapestry and can be easily accessed should professionals, parents or OFSTED require.

2. Personal Records

These include registration and admission forms, signed consent forms, and correspondence concerning the child or family, signed terms and conditions, reports or minutes from meetings concerning the child from other agencies, an ongoing record of relevant contact with parents, and observations by staff on any confidential matter involving the child, such as developmental concerns or child protection matters.
Child’s development, health and well-being – including a summary only of the child’s EYFS profile report, a record of discussions about every day matters about the child’s development health and well-being with the parent.
Early Support – including any additional focussed intervention provided by our setting (e.g. support for behaviour, language or development that needs an Individual Education Plan) and records of any meetings held.
Welfare and child protection concerns – including records of all welfare and protection concerns, and our resulting action, meetings and telephone conversations about the child, any Child Protection Plan and any information regarding a Looked After Child.
Correspondence and Reports – including a copy of the child’s 2 Year Old Progress Check (as applicable), all letters and emails to and from other agencies and any confidential reports from other agencies.

These confidential records are stored in a lockable file or cabinet, which is always locked when not in use and which is secure in the office.

We ensure that access to children’s files is restricted to those authorised to see them and make entries in them, this being the Pre-School Manager, Deputy Manager, Designated Safeguarding Children Officer, SENCO, the child’s key person, or other staff as authorised by Pre-School Manager.

We may be required to hand children’s personal files to Ofsted as part of an inspection or investigation process; or to local authority staff conducting an audit, as long as authorisation is seen. We ensure that children’s personal files are not handed over to anyone else to look at.

Parents have access, in accordance with our Confidentiality and Information Sharing Policy, to the files and records of their own children, but do not have access to information about any other child.

Our staff will not discuss personal information given by parents with other members of staff, except where it affects planning for the child’s needs

We may, depending upon the reason for each record retain children’s records for twenty one years after they have left the setting. These are kept in a secure place within the pre-school loft which is locked when no staff are on site.

OTHER RECORDS

We keep daily registers of the names of the children we are caring for along with their hours of attendance. These records are kept on site for 3 years or until the next OFSTED inspection and then disposed of

Issues to do with the employment of staff, whether paid or unpaid, remain confidential to the people directly involved with making personnel decisions. These are stored for six years.

Students are advised of our Confidentiality and Information Sharing Policy and are required to respect it.

RETENTION PERIOD OF RECORDS

We will adhere to the following legal requirements on retention periods for records and as per the advice given by the Pre-School Learning Alliance. In addition, we will endeavour to follow the recommended guidelines where possible and practical:

Children’s Records	Retention Period	Status	Authority
Children’s records – including registers, registration forms, medication records and accident record books pertaining to the children	Records should be retained for a reasonable period of time (for example 3 years after children have left the provision)	Requirement	Early Years Foundation Stage Welfare Requirements (given legal force by Childcare Act 2006)
Until the child reaches the age of 21 – or until the child reaches the age of 24 for child protection records		Recommendation	Limitation Act 1980/The Statute of Limitations (Amendment) Act 1991 Normal limitation rules (which mean that an individual can claim for negligently caused personal injury up to 3 years after, or deliberately caused personal injury up to 6 years after the event) are postponed until a child reaches 18 years old.
Records of any reportable death, injury, disease or dangerous occurrence	21 years after the date on which it happened	Requirement	The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR) (SI 1995/3163)

Personnel Records
Personnel files and training records (including disciplinary records and working time records)	6 years after employment ceases	Recommendation	Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
Application forms and interview notes (for unsuccessful candidates)	6 months to 1 year	Recommendation	Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
Enhanced DBS Certificate information	Six months	Recommendation	Disclosure and Barring Services The following basic information may be retained after six months and the Disclosures should be securely destroyed in line with the DBS Code of Practice: ? the date of issue of a Disclosure ? the name of the subject ? the type of Disclosure requested ? the position for which the Disclosure was requested ? the unique reference number of the Disclosure ? who obtained the Disclosure ? the details of the recruitment decision taken

Pay Records
Wage/salary records (including overtime, bonuses and expenses)	6 years	Requirement	Taxes Management Act 1970
Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) records	3 years after the end of the tax year in which the maternity period ends	Requirement	The Statutory Maternity Pay (General) Regulations 1986 (SI 1986/1960)
Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) records	3 years after the end of the tax year to which they relate	Requirement	The Statutory Sick Pay (General) Regulations 1982 (SI 1982/894)

Income Tax and National Insurance returns/records	At least 3 years after the end of the tax year to which they relate	Requirement	The Income Tax (Employments) Regulations 1993 (SI 1993/744)
Redundancy details, calculations of payments, refunds, notification to the Secretary of State	6 years from the date of redundancy	Recommendation	Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

Health & Safety Records
Staff accident records (for organisations with 10 or more employees)	3 years after the date of the last entry (there are separate rules for the recording of accidents involving hazardous substances)	Requirement	Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1979 (SI 1979/628)
Records of any reportable death, injury, disease or dangerous occurrence	3 years after the date on which it happened	Requirement	The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR) (SI 1995/3163)
Accident/medical records as specified by the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH)1999	40 years from the date of the last entry	Requirement	The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 1999 (COSHH) (SI 1999/437)
Assessments under Health and Safety Regulations and records of consultations with safety representatives and committees	Permanently	Recommendation	Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

Administration Records
Complaints Record Book	At least 3 years from the date of the last record	Requirement	Early Years Foundation Stage Welfare Requirements (given legal force by Childcare Act 2006)
Insurance Liability Documents	40 years from date of issue	Requirement	The Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Regulations 1998
Minutes/minute books	Permanently	Recommendation	Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

This policy was adopted by West Wycombe Pre-school Playgroup in October 2017. Policies are updated when necessary and reviewed on a yearly basis.

Reviewed August 2023