For the Record - August 2023 | State Records NSW

ISSN 1321-6260
August 2023 - No 160

What’s new?

Executive Director State Records NSW appointed

Martyn Killion has been appointed as Executive Director, State Records NSW from 4 September 2023 to 30 June 2024 following a recruitment process, after Mary Darwell was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of Museums of History NSW (MHNSW).

Martyn brings to the role over 35 years’ experience in the NSW public sector, particularly in the arts and government recordkeeping, most recently as acting CEO and as Director, Collections, MHNSW.

We acknowledge Mary’s contribution as Executive Director during our establishment and her continued commitment to public offices.

We are also grateful to Kathryn Natoli, Director, Strategy and External Relations MHNSW who has been Acting Executive Director during August.

New animated training resource - Introduction to Good Recordkeeping

A new animated training resource launched this month - Introduction to Good Recordkeeping.

The animation is available on our website and can be viewed here.

The animation has been developed to help public offices get started with fundamental recordkeeping principles and practices, and is designed for a wide range of users from entry level employees up to Chief Executive level.

Public Sector Advisory Committee closes

With the change to joint administration of the State Records Act 1998 now in force, the Public Sector Advisory Committee (PSAC) established for the previous State Archives and Records Authority of NSW will close.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude for the participation and contribution of all members of the closing Committee.

In the coming weeks, we will be starting a new joint PSAC for State Records NSW and MHNSW. This Committee will advise, provide feedback, collaborate, and share experiences with State Records NSW and MHNSW to inform decisions, services, and initiatives of both agencies.

The new Committee membership will be nominated by State Records NSW and MHNSW to ensure representation from NSW Government agencies, departments, authorities, state-owned corporations, local government, local health districts and universities. From next year there will be an expression of interest process to fill any vacancies as they arise.

Right to Know Week NSW 2023 – 25 September to 1 October 2023

28 September marks International Access to Information Day, which recognises the rights of citizens around the world to access government information. This right is encapsulated under Article 19 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In recognition of this day, NSW celebrates Right to Know (RTK) Week. For more information visit the Information and Privacy Commission NSW (IPC) website .

Recordkeeping

Records Managers Forum: call for presentations

Do you have an interesting records and information management initiative that you would like to share? State Records NSW is always keen to feature guest presentations from NSW public sector organisations at upcoming forum events.

If you are interested in providing a guest presentation or in assisting us in creating case studies for guidance, we’d like to hear from you. For more information, please contact us at govrec@staterecords.nsw.gov.au

Update on the 2023 Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise

State Records NSW conducts an annual Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise with public offices. The authority for this monitoring exercise is section 12(4) of the State Records Act 1998 which requires each public office to report on its records management program in accordance with arrangements made with the Authority.

The key objective of the 2023 monitoring exercise was to determine if there had been an increase in the overall records management maturity in public offices.

There was an increase in the rate of participation of public offices. The 2023 Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise had 278 responses (74% response rate), up from 247 responses (65% response rate) in 2022.

Pleasingly, the overall records management maturity of the jurisdiction has increased from 2.67 out of 5 in 2022 to 2.79 out of 5.

This year’s results also indicate that more public offices are ‘mature’ in their records management. Thirty-eight percent of participating public offices can be identified as ‘mature’ in their records management (achieving a total records management maturity score of 3 out of 5 or above), up from 30% in the 2022.

State Records NSW will use the results of this year’s Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise and the extensive comments provided by public offices to prioritise our efforts for assistance and guidance over the year.

The State of recordkeeping in NSW report is scheduled for release on our website in September and will include results for each question. We have also included results for each sector of the jurisdiction, which will enable your organisation to benchmark against the relevant sector’s results.

Individual scorecards for public offices are scheduled to be sent out from late September.

The next Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise will be held in March 2024.

If you have any queries about the Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise, contact us at govrec@staterecords.nsw.gov.au

Retention and disposal authorities

The Board of the State Records Authority NSW has recently approved the following Retention and Disposal Authorities (RDAs): Aboriginal Land Councils.

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 .

New guidance

State Records NSW recently published the following guidance:

FAQs

For general advice see our ‘Frequently asked questions’ page: https://staterecords.nsw.gov.au/guidance-and-resources/frequently-asked-question.

For Records and information management enquiries and advice email: govrec@staterecords.nsw.gov.au 

Standards and Policies

The Board of the State Records Authority NSW recently approved the following:

Regulatory Framework for the State Records Act 1998

The Regulatory Framework is an external facing policy, found here .

The Framework describes State Records NSW approach to regulating records management and how we will use the powers in the State Records Act 1998 to support our regulatory activities. The policy was originally made available to public offices in 2021 via the website.

The Regulatory Framework informs a variety of audiences including public offices, State Records NSW staff and external stakeholders and members of the public.

Policy on co-regulation and referral of matters

While the Regulatory Framework focusses on voluntary compliance by public offices, non-compliance matters may require referral to an oversight agency for investigation and enforcement.

The Policy on co-regulation and referral of matters is an internal policy for State Records NSW, found here , that recognises the co-regulatory landscape within NSW and guides staff in referring recordkeeping and records management matters to the appropriate oversight agency.

Policy on managing complaints about recordkeeping

While the State Records Act provides no specific complaint-handling provisions or powers, each year State Records NSW handles a small number of complaints concerning poor recordkeeping in public offices.

The Policy on managing complaints about recordkeeping in public offices is an internal policy for State Records NSW, found here . It guides staff in the handling of complaints including their risk-based triage, assessment and response.

The Policy has been used to triage and manage complaints since its approval in 2021. The policy has ensured that State Records NSW only accepts those complaints relevant to its regulatory objectives.

Museums of History NSW news & updates

All State records are affected by the 1 January 2024 change to public access by default

Museums of History NSW (MHNSW) has contacted all public offices to advise of the significant changes to the State Records Act 1998 commencing on 1 January 2024, including:

the Open Access Period being reduced from 30 years to 20 years
State records becoming open to the public by default once they are 20 years old unless otherwise closed through a Closed to Public Access direction.

It is very important to note that the default to public access will apply to all State records once they are 20 years old – not just those that are described in a Retention and Disposal Authority as ‘required as State archives’ or that are already part of the State Archives Collection.

This means that public offices need to consider sensitivity for:

records that are in their control and may be stored on-site or with a commercial storage provider (note that GRR is a commercial service provider and is separate from the State archives)
records that have already been transferred to State archives and are in the custody of MHNSW.

All State records that contain sensitive information need to be protected by a Closed to Public Access direction once they are 20 years old – whether they are under the control of a public office or held in State archives by MHNSW. Under the Act, access directions expire five years after they are made, so public offices need to ensure that their access directions are current.

If your public office has not already renewed or registered access directions, please take the necessary action now through the Service Portal operated by MHNSW and State Records NSW. The Service Portal can be reached at the Agency Services webpage here .

MHNSW will soon initiate communication with public offices at senior levels where action is needed to mitigate the risk of sensitive material inadvertently becoming open to the public.

Help with access directions – demonstration video and help sheets available now

The Agency Services webpage at MHNSW now has available a short video demonstrating how to register or renew access directions through the Service Portal – here .

Detailed help sheets for all actions relating to access directions are also available here .

If you need extra help, please contact the Agency Services team at MHNNSW – transfer@mhnsw.au or 02 8805 5337.

For the Record - August 2023