Child Protection Procedures - East Ayrshire Council

3.18 Record Keeping
3.18.1 Good record keeping is an important part of the accountability of
professionals to those who use their services. It helps to focus work
and it is essential to working effectively across agency and
professional boundaries. Clear and accurate records ensure that
there is a documented account of an agency’s or professional’s
involvement with a child and/or family. They help with continuity
when individual workers are unavailable or change, and they provide
an essential tool for managers to monitor work or for peer review.
Records are an essential source of evidence for investigations and
inquiries, and may also be required to be disclosed in court
proceedings. In cases enquiries do not result in the substantiation of
referral, records should be retained in accordance with agency
record retention policies. These policies should ensure that records
are stored safely and can be retrieved promptly and efficiently.
3.18.2 To serve these purposes, records should use clear, straightforward
language, should be concise, and should be accurate not only in fact,
but also in differentiating between opinion, judgements and
hypothesis.
3.18.3 Well kept records provide an essential underpinning to good child
protection practice. Safeguarding children requires information to be
brought together from a number of sources and careful professional
judgements to be made on the basis of this information. Records
should be clear, accessible and comprehensive, with judgements
made, and actions and decisions taken being carefully recorded.
Where decisions have been taken jointly across agencies, or
endorsed by a manager, this should be made clear.
3.18.4 Relevant information about a child and family who are the subject of
child protection concerns will normally be collated in one place by the
social services department. Records should readily tell the ‘story’ of
a case. Specifically, the reader should be able to track:
• the relevant history of the child and family which led to the
intervention
• the nature of interventions, including intended outcomes;
• the means by which change is to be achieved; and
• the progress which is being made;
• details of any concerns about the child and family;
• details of any contact or involvement with the family and
any other agencies
• the findings of any assessment
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