8 December 2006 - North Group Meeting

RMS North gets to grips with Information Governance Toolkit

For its final meeting of 2006, the RMS North group met in Northumberland to get to grips with the increasingly significant concept of Information Governance. Recent articles in the Bulletin have highlighted the potential benefits of adding the term 'Information Governance' as a weapon to the records manager's arsenal. Whilst the term 'Corporate Governance' has long existed as a function or set of activities in many organisations, its implicit relationship with recorded information assets may have been somewhat overlooked. Today, with an apparently growing appeal in certain sectors, the term 'governance' perhaps resonates more clearly through some organisations, providing a more accessible alternative to 'records/information management', with their somewhat technical connotations. Clearly, an association with information governance provides a fresh opportunity for records management to reiterate the age-old, universal truth that good governance and decision making is fundamentally dependant upon good quality, access and provision of information.

Danny Budzak, who's article entitled Information Governance appeared in issue 135 of the Bulletin, provided the group with an overview of his work in developing an Information Governance Toolkit on behalf of the Local e-Government Standards Body. Similar in design to the Social Care Information Governance Toolkit previously produced by the Department of Health, Danny's toolkit breaks information governance down into key areas of activity, allowing users to benchmark their organisations existing arrangements against a best practice model. The completed toolkit can then serve as a framework for identifying and implementing beneficial changes in information governance procedures and practices, closing the gaps between existing and best practice. This is achieved through the use of attainment levels for each area of activity, and recommended actions to move organisations on to the next level of attainment at each stage.

Broad areas of activity, as defined in the toolkit, include Records Management alongside Managing Information Governance, Information Security, Compliance and Information Quality Assurance. Each broad area is then broken down into ten more specific activities or criteria against which attainment and improvement can be assessed. Usefully, as well as offering assessment criteria and recommended actions for improvement, the toolkit also suggests that sources of documentary evidence to support each of the assessment criteria be listed by the toolkit user. The resource therefore helps define a solid evidence base from which organisations can evaluate and prove their information governance activities. Flexible in design, the toolkit can be adapted to suit the needs of the specific organisation, and therefore avoids being unnecessarily prescriptive in its application.

After lunch the group was given a tour of Northumberland's state of the art records management facilities, based at the colliery site. The group also took the opportunity to test the toolkit's attainment criteria, and to exchange their thoughts on its design, content and implementation with Danny.

The meeting was expertly hosted by Kathy Shiel, Records Manager for Northumberland County Council, at the Woodhorn Colliery Museum & Archive site near Ashington. The committee would like to extend a warm thank you to both Kathy and Danny for making the day such a resounding success.