The Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse is again hearing private evidence from victims which detail recordkeeping failures. In the linked story one person who came forward is 91 years old.
That is a very long time to carry around painful memories.
Blog article: http://rhizomedigital.com.au/recordkeeping-failures-child-welfare-systems/
Records out of control
I have been following this Royal Commission particularly to read the responses by institutions. More often than not the responses involve poor recordkeeping. For example in this article the Salvation Army claimed that written records do not exist of employees at the Box Hill boys home in the 1930s and 1940s. Only ‘proper’ employment records were retained for for ordained officers. Not keeping records about everyone who performs work in your organisation, despite their paid or non paid status, is irresponsible.
Other examples of poor recordkeeping uncovered through the Royal Commission are not just exclusive to the organisations providing child welfare services, but the Government as well: “Emma White, acting director general for the WA Department of Child Protection, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse, that there were no records concerning any allegations of abuse at any of the four homes currently being examined by the inquiry.”
Other examples include poor reporting and information sharing by Police, even in our new age of having working with children checks.
Cate O’Neill from the University of Melbourne’s Find and Connect project writes about theserecordkeeping failures in The Conversation as “a lack of appreciation of the value that these files would have to care leavers in the future, or to inquiries”.
A lack of understanding around what records are and how they provide evidence (including what kind of evidence they provide) is at the heart of this issue. Records are not just single items that can be read in isolation that ‘show’ information documenting abuse, but are part of a system of information recording and sharing. Employee records are linked to other records to provide evidence of someone’s whereabouts and activities performed within a particular timeframe. Recordkeeping failures occur when records are not seen as having ongoing value for multiple purposes over time. But who is determining value?
Effective recordkeeping practices are a policy issue and should be supported by good procedures, as well as an organisational culture that understands their social, cultural and moral obligations to society as a whole. All organisations have the same obligations, but they are expressed in different ways. And the impact of recordkeeping failures are felt heavily regardless of the sector. The Enron collapse and scandal impacted heavily on the social and economic stability of the U.S. as well as the rest of the world.
The implications of the Royal Commission go deep into adequate recordkeeping practices and information sharing between child welfare agencies and various Government departments and services. Is the current child protection and welfare system of policies and practices creating adequate records for the multiple purposes they might be used for into the future?
Further implications highlight the role of Government as protector of children who are under their care. A lawyer representing men abused when they were teenagers at a naval base wants the Australian Government investigated by the child abuse royal commission.
The complexity of this situation and the ongoing recordkeeping failures is not being addressed adequately by legislation either. Many organisations rely on legislation to guide their retention and disposal policies and practices. The Fair Work Act 2009 indicates that employee records should be held for 7 years under section 535 (1), but how is this retention prescription identified? What purpose does this serve? Does this help private organisations with their social, cultural and moral obligations to society as a whole?
Recordkeeping requirements are not adequately addressed in compliance mechanisms through legislation and regulation. What can organisations do? At the very least it is vital to identify the kinds of records that are being created and match them to the activities being performed. This is the basis of a functional analysis. What this process delivers is an awareness of how records are matched to what the organisation actually does. Often this process alone identifies what records are not being created and retained. An analysis of business activities provides an awareness of accountability risks – legal and societal accountability. This process can help to identify recordkeeping requirements that help create and manage records for as long as they might be required – however long that might be.
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