Care Records (New Zealand)

In November 2023, RIMPA Global provided feedback on the draft scope and definition of Care Records held in New Zealand.

The draft scope and definition of care records was developed to aid understanding about which care records the government and other organisations should protect, resulting from recommendations from the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry (the Inquiry). The Inquiry recommended the Crown urgently:

• look at the rules around keeping care records
• think about stopping disposal of them until finishing its other work about care records.

RIMPA Global's feedback supported all five different types of care records being in scope, specifically:

• identity records, 

• records of incidents, responses and safety decisions, 

• records of providing care, 

• records about meeting recordkeeping requirements for people in care and 

• records of state and non-State acre settings.

Our submission asked if records of vulnerable people should be identified as a specific type so that vulnerable people do not suffer further disadvantage or marginalisation.  We also highlighted that beyond defining care records, any solution also needs to entail contemporary recordkeeping principals and practices designed to capture the identified records for appropriate management and eventual disposal. Because record retention is often required for extended periods of time, management practices will need to prioritise discovery and long-term preservation of digital records to ensure the record content remains viable, available, and readable for as long as required.