This is the first of its kind as it has been jointly drafted in collaboration with Local Authorities, NHS Scotland Health Boards, General Practices, National Records Scotland and our network of archivists.
This version supersedes the Scottish Government Records Management: NHS Code Of Practice (Scotland) Version 2.1 January 2012
This version takes into account many changes in legislation and best practice since 2012, including the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) 2018 and the Data Protection Act 2018, and also changes in records management practice across various specialities.
This version aims to improve compliance and consistency across the variety of organisations within health and social care, particularly from the citizen’s perspective, and the evolution of traditional “health records” into wider “health and care” records and the increasing dependency on digital records.
Priority
The expectation is that organisations managing health, social care or joint health and care records related to NHS Scotland citizens, including General Practices, NHS Health Boards, Integrated Joint Boards, relevant areas of Local Authorities holding health and care records and other NHS Scotland’s partner organisations will adopt the new code of practice as part of their routine records management activities. This code of practice has been co-produced by representatives across the health and care sector.
Background
- The 2012 Scottish Government Records Management Code of Practice was based on the legal requirements and professional best practice recommended at that time, and was adopted by the NHS Health Boards in Scotland. General Practices would also keep an interest and refer to it regularly.
- The code of practice contains guidance for records managers and details retention schedules, all derived from consultation amongst representatives of the wide spectrum of parties and relevant professional bodies such as royal colleges.
- In preparing this review of the code of practice the methodology was as follows. A consensus workshop was organised with subgroups of specialists in various areas of the code of practice (medical records, corporate records, joint health and care records, digital records, GP records and permanent archival). Each of the groups were tasked to agree and propose the necessary changes to the 2012 code of practice. Over the last two years these groups have been working and making proposals. Comments from the specialist groups where incorporated in a version issued across representatives of the parties for internal consultation, including health boards, archivists, local authorities, and various Scottish Government policy areas, as well as some professional bodies relevant to the development of specific retention schedules in the code of practice. Following this internal consultation we did widen out consultation across the large community who will be impacted by this code of practice. This final consultation targeted relevant user and regulatory areas.
- The Scottish Government Records Management Health and Social Care Code of Practice (Scotland) 2020 sets out the expectations for managing the wide range of records across health and care organisations based on current legal requirements, information security standards and professional best practice.
Role of Scottish Government and Partners
- The Scottish Government has taken on the role of providing expert advice as well as coordinating the update of this code of practice amongst a complex and wide landscape of organisations, and has set up a network of specialist advisors who will work closely with the National Records Management Forum to ensure future updates are produced more consistently and frequently.
- Through taking this role, the Scottish Government is co-producer, co-owner and publisher of this code of practice.
- Work towards closer integration of health and social care in Scotland is ongoing, as such the new code of practice will be distributed to Scottish Integrated Joint Boards and to Local Authority partners as well as health boards and GPs, with the expectation that they will adopt the code of practice where relevant to their responsibilities.
- The Scottish Government through the National Records Management Forum has set up a new mechanism for a continual review of the code of practice, that will allow more frequent updates as needed, taking into account changes in requirements, either regulatory, technical or best practice.
Assurance and Due Diligence
- As part of the development of this version of the code of practice, due diligence has been carried out through the review process which included Information Governance professionals, medical professionals and their relevant bodies, records managers, archivists, information security experts and representatives of the complex variety of parties involved, including health boards, GPs, local authorities and integrated joint boards.
- A special group has been set up to review the recommendations for the management of records related to the transgender population however current best practice will continue to apply until this review is completed. This is a priority area and a revised set of recommendations will be released as soon as the review with relevant parties, policy areas and groups of interest is completed.
Data Protection Risk
- By implementing this version of the code of practice and its underpinning legislation the parties are exercising due diligence in their current data protection compliance, including a better adjustment of retention periods and minimising the retention of records for longer than necessary under Data Protection restrictions.
Next Steps
- As this is a specialist area, we conducted a “closed consultation” with relevant individuals and organisations
- The consultation did run for 7 weeks, from 16 December 2019 until 26 January 2020. The responses have been analysed by the National IG Policy Lead for Health and Care (Scottish Government) and the Chair of the National Records Management Forum and updated this version to reflect the feedback which has been summarised here.
- We have now published the SG HSC Scotland Records Management Code of Practice 2020.
- The Records Management Forum has been commissioned to support the National IG Policy Team for Health and Care (Scottish Government) in undertaking a continual review of this code of practice, engaging with the relevant parties and dynamically offering a mechanism to keep this Code up to date at the earliest opportunity.
For enquiries please contact DHCIG@gov.scot