What Records Do You Retain When Children Leave?

[Guest]

Having just waved bye to 4 children moving on to school I have once again faced the dilemma of exactly what records to copy and retain. You may have heard that at a future date we can be sued for not picking up a child's special needs, I think even when that child is 21 years old! I know this is a huge subject - we are all aware that special needs might not manifest themselves in a child until they are older or cannot be picked up until a later stage of development (eg dyxlexia).

I would love to hear what records you copy and retain (with parental permission of course!). Does the liability remain with the practitioner or the setting? I imagine that in 21 years I will be enjoying a happy retirement!

I look forward to your posts on this.

[Guest]

as far as i know, and wait to be corrected, you have to keep regsiters until child reaches 21, funding forms for not sure how long in case there is a fraudulent claim

accident and incident records for 21years and 3 months

not sure about accademic records as we now pass all onto school or the paretns and dont actually keep a copyourselves

[Beau]

I was told that apart from Accident and Incident forms and the daily register, settings should not be keeping any records on children who are no longer at the setting. These should all either be passed on to their next setting, given to the parents or shredded.

[Guest]

Thanks for the info. I have been to our PLA County Office for guidance but was only given a sheet about length of time to keep invoices, insurance docs etc. Given the 'sue, sue, sue' society we live in, I am anxious to protect myself as much as possible, and therefore, with parental consent, want to keep some form of documentation to which I can refer should I ever have the misfortune to be sued by a parent for not having picked up a special need during the child's time at Nursery, even though they may have left years earlier. What a sad world we live in......... any other comments out there?

[hali]

Hi

 

All info on the child go with them when thay leave (keyworker files, profiles etc).

All other recoerds are kept in my loft at home for as long as i am around (i think in our policy its 21yrs)!!!!

[Guest]

I asked my PLA County Branch Development Worker for advice. She gave me this and I thought it might be useful to post it here for everyone to share:

RECORDS WHICH SHOULD BE KEPT/STORED BY ………………………NURSERY

 

RECORD LENGTH OF TIME IT SHOULD BE KEPT

Financial Records

Bank Statements 6 years

Bank Reconciliations 6 years

Remittance advice 6 years

Recipients cash balances 10 years

Sales ledgers 10 years

Correspondence re: donations 3 years

 

InsuranceCertificates 40 years

 

Licence or Lease

Licencing agreement or lease 6 years

 

[/b]Staff Records

All personal records 7 years

Individual wage slips 2 years

Time Sheets 3 years

Accident Reports 21 years

Staff attendance records 21 years

National Insurance & Income Tax returns 7 years

Unsuccessful job application forms 4 months

Unsuccessful job interview records 4 months

 

Children’s Records

Accident reports 21 years 3 months

Medical records 30 years

Parent contact details 2 years

Details about child 2 years

Outing permission 2 years

Permission to administer medicine 21 years 3 months

Emergency treatment permission 21 years 3 months

Collection authority 21 years

Incident reports 21 years

Registers 21 years

 

Visitors

Record of Visitors 2 years

 

Committee, Students & Volunteers

Personal details 2 years

 

It was agreed at a Committee meeting on ……………………. that the above records will be kept for the stated length of time and in the event of dissolution of the pre-school will be stored by the Branch/County Pre-School Learning Alliance.

 

 

Signed ……………………… Chair Date ………………………………………

 

SORRY! It was a table but the boxes disappeared when I pasted it!

[bubblejack]

Where on earth are we expected to keep all these.!!! I have a lot of paperwork at home as it is as my cupboard space is limited at pre-school.

[Guest]

Thanks everyone for the info (espcially Lisa !)

 

Very useful and another policy to write !!!!!

 

Byeeeeeeeeee

 

Janice

[Guest]

Thought wage slips were 7 years??They all must be kept in a locked box!!

Gary could build another room!!

[Beau]

We have barely enough space for the equipment. Looks like some of that will have to be ditched to make way for the paperwork.

[Guest rhodessj]

Hi all and thanks to Lisa for that great breakdown

 

I've been away on holiday and have been missing the site - it was so good to find more work to do on my return!!

 

Our group was under the impression that registers need to be kept for 6years along with the financial stuff.... I have emailed the list to our Chair and mentioned the need to consider storage space (and a more sensible filing system for it all!) - ooh another job to add to the administrator's description...

 

Sandra

[Guest]

Hello. Hope you had a good break. Its not thanks to me but my very reliable senior development worker at the PLA! Honest, I just share what I think will benefit everyone else!

Lisa

[Guest]

Oops! Not only am I incompetent but I think I just added a reply to the wrong thing!

Apologies to the person who sent me a private message on this subject but I deleted it by mistake. Please e-mail me again and I promise to reply.

Thanks.

[hali]

Thankyou LJW

 

i have printed that off and going to give it to our chair!!!