A seal of approval for Aberdeenshire’s information management

Efforts to improve the way we manage our information took a major step forward earlier this month when Aberdeenshire Council’s Records Management Plan was formally approved by the National Records of Scotland (NRS).

The plan, known as the RMP, is a legal requirement for all public-sector bodies in Scotland and describes how we perform in 14 areas of record-keeping, covering everything from how we look after shared drives and paper files, to collaborating with partners like the NHS. Our RMP incorporates both the council and the Aberdeenshire Licensing Boards.

Alongside the RMP is an Improvement Plan which details the actions that we will take to make sure we meet the standards expected by ourselves, the NRS, and the people we serve. Above all, it’s about making the best use of the information we have to ensure we can deliver services as efficiently and effectively as possible.

There will be a number of projects throughout 2016 that you can get involved with, speak to your Records Management Group rep to find out more, or to find out who your rep is, please contact Joe Chapman.

The information management team will also be publishing regular articles and how-to guides over the coming months with advice about how you can make small changes in your work that make a big difference to how we manage public records.

The NRS assessment report on Aberdeenshire’s Records Management Plan is available online. The RMP itself will be published on the council website shortly, and look out for more information about this process in a forthcoming Aberdeenshire Update!