Australian Society of Archivists
1999 Conference
Changing Roles in New South Wales
Tony Newton
Introduction
Good afternoon. For the next twenty-five minutes
Catherine Robinson and I will be talking
to you about how the new NSW State
Records Act 1998 has and will impact on the archives and
records professions in NSW public offices and within State Records
itself. Our respective talks are specifically focussed on Part 2 of
the Act, which covers Records management responsibilities of public
offices.
The Act was proclaimed on the 1 January 1999 and has given
recordkeeping in NSW greater recognition and focus. For the first time
in NSW recordkeeping responsibilities have been formally articulated
in legislation. In preparation for this a Premier’s memorandum
was issued in June 1998 which enunciated the Governments policies on
records management, including the implementation of the recordkeeping
standards created by State Records.
Today I will be concentrating on Part 2 of the Act that is helping
improve recordkeeping in NSW by setting out the records management
responsibilities of NSW public offices. The key provisions of this
part of the act are concerned with:
- protecting records in the custody of a public office
- making and keeping full and accurate records of an agency’s
activities
- establishing and maintaining a records management program in
conformity with standards and codes of best practice,
- making arrangements for monitoring and reporting on records
management programs, and
- keeping technology dependent records accessible.
Part 2 of the Act also assigns recordkeeping responsibilities and
defines management roles in recordkeeping as a way of raising
awareness of records management in Government. Section 10 of the Act
requires each chief executive to ensure that the public office
complies with the requirements of the Act, and creates a number of
obligations for public offices:
- to protect records, ensuring their safe custody and preservation
(s.11)
- to make and keep full and accurate records of its activities
(s.(12(1)). State Records issued a standard on Full and
Accurate Records to help public offices meet this obligation
- to establish and maintain a records management program in
conformity with standards and codes of best practice (s.12(2)). We
have also issued a key standard on Records Management Programs
to assist with this obligation
- to make arrangements with State Records for monitoring and
reporting on its records management program (s.12(4))
- to give State Records access to its records to monitor compliance
with the requirements of the Act (s.15) and
- to ensure that information in technology dependant records in its
control or custody can be produced or made available when needed
(s.14).
Standards
As I previously mentioned, State Records has issued 2 records
management standards under Part 2 of the Act, the standards on Full
and Accurate Records and Records Management Programs.
It is the latter standard that I would like to concentrate on now. The
standard requires public offices to establish and maintain a records
management program in conformity with standards and codes of best
practice endorsed by State Records, including the Standard on Full and
Accurate Records and the Australian Standard AS4390 Records
Management. Of the nine principles outlined by the standard I have
chosen four that have a direct impact on the records profession:
Principle 1 - The records management program
should be identifiable from all other corporate programs
Each public office should establish and maintain a records
management program that is identifiable from other corporate programs
through policy statements, corporate planning documents, the
allocation of resources and assignment of responsibility.
To meet minimum compliance a public office must be able to
demonstrate that the records management program is:
- distinguished from all other programs by having a separate policy
statement adopted at corporate level
- included as a result area in corporate plans
- allocated appropriate resources to enable the program to be
established and maintained
- the responsibility of a single manager.
Principle 4 - Formal responsibility for all
aspects of the records management program should be appropriately
assigned
This principle defines the role of the corporate records manager who
has formal responsibility for the records management program. The role
of corporate records manager is to establish policies and standards
for recordkeeping and records management for the organisation as a
whole and to measure performance against those standards, to provide
consulting services to business units, to develop corporate electronic
records management strategies, and work with other managers of
information resources and other stakeholders to develop a coherent
information architecture across the organisation and ensure
recordkeeping systems support organisational and public
accountability.
To meet minimum compliance an agency must be able to demonstrate
that:
- responsibility is assigned to an appropriate management delegate,
designated the corporate records manager
- operational records management responsibilities are formally
assigned at appropriate levels
- recordkeeping responsibilities of individual employees have been
documented and communicated to all staff.
Principle 5 - The records management program
should be appropriately located within the organisational structure of
the public office
The records management program should be appropriately located in
the organisational structure to support the key objectives of the
program and to perform its organisation-wide role effectively. More
specifically this means the program will be located with either the
information management area under the Chief Information Officer or
with the ‘Corporate Governance’ or similar accountability
related area rather than the corporate services area.
Minimum compliance requires that public office can demonstrate that
the records management program:
- is organisationally located in the most appropriate way to
support its key objectives and perform its role effectively, and
- has identified and developed relationships with other key
information management and accountability stakeholders.
Principle 7 – The records management program
should be staffed by personnel with appropriate skills and knowledge
A public office should ensure that it has people with the pool of
skills necessary to achieve the records management program’s key
objectives. This means appointing suitably skilled staff to positions
exercising records management responsibilities throughout the
organisation and monitoring and developing the skills of existing and
future staff. Sources of education and training in records management
include graduate and post-graduate university courses, TAFE courses,
short course training offered by State Records and other organisations
and a variety of continuing education possibilities.
The Corporate Records Manager should have relevant qualifications or
immediate access to advice from someone with such qualifications which
may include:
- postgraduate qualifications in the discipline of recordkeeping
- extensive industry experience
- eligibility for professional membership of relevant professional
bodies
- experience implementing organisation-wide policies and standards,
and
- appropriate managerial competencies and skills (National
Competency Standards for Records and Archives).
Minimum compliance requires a public office to demonstrate that:
- the Corporate Records Manager has relevant qualifications or has
immediate access to advice from someone with such qualifications
- other records management staff have qualifications appropriate to
their positions
- professional development for records management staff is
encouraged in corporate policy and practice
- records management staff are capable of performing the full range
of tasks associated with their positions
- records management staff are familiar with current best practice
- a skills audit of records management staff is performed at
regular intervals
- a training needs analysis is performed at regular intervals.
Challenges
I have been undertaking a comprehensive range of visits and talks
with both records management and senior management staff in NSW public
offices. My perception has been that management sit up and listen when
you talk about making their organisation more accountable; e-mail,
digital imaging, Internet e-commerce and other cutting edge issues;
and other agencies great accountability failures. Using
these issues as a way of introducing more wide ranging recordkeeping
issues has proven useful for encouraging management to support changes
in their organisation. In fact, ‘other agencies great
accountability failures’ has become so popular State Records is
working with the NSW Audit Office to identify a number of well known
cases where bad records management has been identified as a major
contributing factor to the accountability failure. We intend creating
a publication that suggests how good recordkeeping might have lessened
or eliminated the accountability problems in the selected cases.
Almost everyone I speak with says the most challenging aspect of
making their organisation compliant with the State Records Act is not
the work required on recordkeeping systems, or talking to management,
or distressing about audits. It is the challenge of changing cultures
within their organisations, changing the ways people have done things
for years, convincing staff that good recordkeeping is everyone’s
responsibility, not just the responsibility of the records management
staff. In other words, breaking down the traditional over reliance on
records managers to do everything. The re-education aspects of
implementing the new Act are going to take some years and already we
have noticed a paucity of experienced, qualified people applying for
records management positions. I estimate there will be a lack of
skilled staff in the NSW public sector for at least another 3 – 5
years.
This will present some challenges for some of our regionally based
agencies where records managers can have difficulty convincing their
management that recordkeeping edicts coming from remote, centralised
Sydney must be addressed. The use of e-mail, the Internet, distance
education, extensive regional training and visits is proving
invaluable to assist country based agencies meet compliance.
I will now ask Catherine to continue with the
second part of this paper. Thank you very much.
Tony Newton
Manager, Government Recordkeeping
23 July 1999 |
