For the Record - December 2023

Recordkeeping

Your chance to let us know how we are doing - public office satisfaction survey

State Records NSW and Museums of History NSW (MHNSW) invite all public offices to participate in a jointpublic office satisfaction survey  during December. This survey offers an opportunity to give feedback on how State Records NSW and MHNSW (Agency Services) has provided advice and support throughout the year and ways we can improve.

Click here - https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GNX95W3 - to complete the survey. It should only take about 10 minutes.

We invite you to circulate the link to staff in your organisation who may be interested in providing feedback.

The survey aims to determine the level of satisfaction with the services both our organisations provide your public office.

This includes your satisfaction with:

• the State Records NSW website and enquiry service
• the State Archives Agency Services pages of the Museums of History NSW website and enquiry service
• the process of transferring and retrieving records to and from the State Archives Collection and making access directions.

The survey will also allow you to suggest topics of interest for future recordkeeping forums, webinars and newsletters.         

We will use the survey findings to look at how we can improve and provide you with better support in the future.

The survey will be open for three weeks, closing on Friday 22 December 2023.

Your opinion is important to us, and we appreciate your time.

If you have any queries about the joint customer satisfaction survey, please contact govrec@staterecords.nsw.gov.au.

2023 Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise

Last month we sent out scorecards to the 278 public offices that participated in the 2023 Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise. The scorecards provide a snapshot of the assessment results for the public office and provide a comparison with the jurisdiction results. If you have any queries about your organisation’s scorecard, please contact us at govrec@staterecords.nsw.gov.au

The “State of recordkeeping in NSW” report provides an overview of the 2023 Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise and the aggregate or summary results. The results can be used to benchmark against the rest of the jurisdiction of the State Records Act 1998 or by ‘public office type’. The report is available from the State Records NSW website .

Overall records management maturity score

We have been asked by some public offices about their overall records management maturity score and their level of compliance.  When a public office undertakes an Records Management Assessment Tool (RMAT) assessment of its recordkeeping, each level of the maturity scale (1 to 5) is scored, this enables the results of the assessment to be presented as a numerical outcome (the average of the 19 assessment questions).

This numerical outcome is the overall records management maturity score for the public office and is a score out of 5. For example, a public office might have an average of 2.89 as a result of the assessment; this equates to 2.89 out of 5 and is the records management maturity score.

Baseline compliance with the State Records Act 1998 and the standards issued under the Act has been set at 3 out of 5. Public offices that score below 3 out of 5 are not compliant, while public offices that score 3 or above are compliant.  

Additionally, when a public office undertakes the RMAT assessment they are assessing how mature the organisation is in relation to particular records management requirements. The numerical outcome of the assessment also indicates the level of ‘maturity’ of the recordkeeping in the public office.

Scores of 3 out of 5 or above indicate that the public office can be identified to be ‘mature’ in their records management. In the 2023 Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise, 105 public offices were identified as ‘mature’ recordkeeping organisations as they had scored 3 out of 5 or above, while 173 public offices had scores below 3 and are only at ‘initial’ or ‘developing’ levels of maturity.

The table below provides further information on maturity levels and the results of the 2022 and 2023 Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise.

2024 Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise

The next monitoring exercise is planned to be held from 1 March 2024 – 5 April 2024. We will be sending out communications to all public offices closer to the start of the monitoring exercise.

Like this year, you will need to assess your organisation using the Records Management Assessment Tool (RMAT) and then submit your results via the Service Portal (access to the Portal is from State Records NSW’s website).

To prepare for the 2024 monitoring exercise we suggest:

• Review this year’s assessment and do some benchmarking to understanding how your organisation is performing in relation to others.
• Identify where work needs to be done to improve conformity and maturity of recordkeeping. Make sure you incorporate these items into your records management strategy!
• Identify where your public office is undertaking work to improve performance in recordkeeping, as this information should be used in your 2024 submission. You may like to use the comments section of the assessment form to advise us on the work you are doing.
• Remember to identify the evidence that supports the level of maturity you have chosen in your assessment. This information is important if your organisation’s internal auditors or the Audit and Risk Committee seek to verify the assessment you have made.

If you have any queries about the 2024 monitoring exercise, please contact us at govrec@staterecords.nsw.gov.au

Exposure draft of local government records retention and disposal authority

On 16 October 2023 an email was sent to all Senior Responsible Officers and records management contacts in local government, to advise that the exposure draft of a revised disposal authority was now available for review and feedback.

Submissions are due by 15 December 2023.

Please note that any changes to the disposal authority for local government are unlikely to happen until the end of 2024.

We have also recently added a spreadsheet of local government records that are required as State archives to assist with transfer planning.

If you have any enquiries about transfer plans please contact the Agency Services team from Museums of History NSW at transfer@mhnsw.au

The State Records NSW Board has recently approved the following Retention and Disposal Authorities (RDAs):

• AR548 Management of Crown lands
• AR549 Supreme Court of NSW
• AR550 Major Infrastructure projects – Infrastructure NSW

PDFs of approved retention and disposal authorities are available from our website https://staterecords.nsw.gov.au/recordkeeping/guidance-and-resources/records-retention-and-disposal-authorities .

Museums of History NSW news & updates

Renew or register your access directions before 8 December 2023

About 75% of public offices in NSW have taken action to renew or register access directions so that sensitive information does not inadvertently become open to public access when changes to the State Records Act commence on 1 January 2024.

The new ‘default to open’ provisions will significantly improve access to all records that are more than 20 years old – regardless of whether they are held by public offices or in the State Archives Collection. This will strengthen an important mechanism for transparency and accountability of government but also requires public offices to manage the risk of personal and other sensitive information becoming public.

Public offices that have not taken action or advised MHNSW of their plans should do so as soon as possible and no later than Friday 8 December 2023.

Please renew or register access directions via the online Service Portal at State Archives Agency Services (mhnsw.au) or contact the Agency Services team via email transfer@mhnsw.au

Electronic copies of annual reports

Electronic copies of annual reports should no longer be uploaded to OpenGov.

The Cabinet Office Circular C2022-02 directs that to satisfy the requirement for electronic copies of annual reports to be sent to the NSW State Archives Collection, agencies are to follow the procedures for transfer to State archives outlined at State Archives Agency Services (mhnsw.au). Requirements for library deposit are also set out in the circular.

Annual reports that were uploaded to OpenGov in line with previous requirements will be harvested by MHNSW for transfer into State archives. To enable public access to annual reports via the State Archives Collection, an Early Access direction will be required for any annual report that has not entered the open access period. MHNSW will contact public offices directly if this action is required.