The importance of good record keeping

Good record keeping is an important part of the accountability of organisations to those who use their services. They enable organisations to keep a summary of decisions made and the reasons for them. They are an essential source of evidence for reviews, investigations and referrals to other agencies such as the Police, Social Work and, in relation to the Act, Scottish Ministers.
Well kept records provide an essential underpinning to good child protection practice. Safeguarding children and young people requires judgments to be made on the basis of this information.

Any information recorded in a record relating to a child, young person or worker should be accurate, factual and jargon-free.
Where opinions and judgments are made it should be clear who has expressed them and how and why certain conclusions were reached. Organisations should not record any comments or views which they are not able to justify.

Where concerns are recorded about a worker’s conduct towards a child or young person it is important that the concerns relate to a clear frame of reference, such as a Code of Conduct and/or Code of Good Practice.

See The grounds for referral: Thinking about acceptable and unacceptable standards of behaviour .