Clear and accurate records are essential as part of the accountability of all professional staff. They help to focus work, ensure it is documented, assist with continuity when staff change and provide a tool for supervision and review.
Case records should differentiate between factual information and professional judgement, and should indicate when consultations have taken place and decisions either to act or not to act have been made, by whom and what was decided.
Case records are an essential source of evidence for legal proceedings, investigations and inquiries. They should provide a chronology of involvement with the child as well as professional analysis of the detail of that involvement which demonstrates the reasons for the actions taken and the decisions made.
The recorded views of the child and family about key aspects of intervention should form an integral part of the case record.
All partner members of the Local Safeguarding Children Board must have clear procedures about record keeping.
