Public Sector Records Retention and Disclosure Training Course

Course overview

Public bodies must retain evidence of decisions, services, spending, procurement, safeguarding and regulatory activity for the right period, while responding lawfully to disclosure requests and protecting restricted information. Poorly classified records, unmanaged email, duplicated files and unclear ownership create practical risks: missed retrieval deadlines, inconsistent disclosure decisions, unnecessary storage cost, audit findings and loss of public trust. This course equips participants to establish defensible records controls across paper, shared drives, business systems and cloud collaboration spaces.

Participants learn how to translate legislation, organisational policy and archival requirements into an operational records retention and disclosure framework. They practise designing file plans, applying metadata, distinguishing records from transitory information, building retention schedules, placing disposal holds, documenting appraisal decisions and preparing records for defensible destruction or transfer. The course also examines disclosure workflows, including request logging, search scoping, exemptions, redaction, review records and response evidence, with attention to the relationship between access rights, privacy obligations and public-sector accountability.

Delivery combines instructor-led briefings with realistic public-sector scenarios involving council services, government programmes and regulated agencies. Participants use a retention-schedule template, disclosure request tracker, search protocol, redaction decision log and disposal authorisation record. By the end of the week, each participant produces a practical Records Retention and Disclosure Control Plan for a selected service area, ready to adapt with their records manager, legal adviser or information governance lead.

The course is suited to records and information staff, service managers, disclosure officers and operational leaders who own information risks but need a structured, workable method rather than a purely legal or archival treatment.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Map records created across a public-service process using a records inventory and information-flow diagram
• Design a functional file plan that groups records by business activity rather than individual staff preferences
• Apply ISO 15489 recordkeeping principles to capture, metadata, access and lifecycle controls
• Build a retention schedule with trigger events, minimum retention periods, disposal actions and accountable owners
• Conduct records appraisal using evidential, operational, legal and historical value criteria
• Run a documented disclosure-request search using a search protocol, custody log and review checklist
• Prepare defensible redaction and exemption decision records while preserving an auditable version history
• Produce a service-level Records Retention and Disclosure Control Plan with implementation priorities

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Records Managers — who need to implement consistent retention, disposal and transfer controls across services
• Freedom of Information Officers — who must locate, review and disclose records within statutory response times
• Information Governance Managers — who coordinate records, privacy, access and accountability requirements
• Public Sector Service Managers — who own business records and need workable controls for their teams
• Data Protection Officers — who need retention decisions and disclosure processes aligned with privacy obligations
• Digital Transformation and IT Managers — who configure repositories and collaboration platforms that hold official records

Requirements and prerequisites

This is a foundation-to-intermediate course and does not require prior records-management certification, legal training or archival experience. Participants should be familiar with the types of information their service creates, such as case files, correspondence, reports, contracts, meeting papers or system transactions. Basic confidence using shared drives, email and spreadsheets is assumed because exercises use inventories, schedules and request logs. A complete beginner can attend and should expect a structured introduction to records lifecycle, retention and disclosure concepts before applying them. No specialist electronic document and records management system experience is required.

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor-led sessions to establish public-sector recordkeeping and disclosure principles, followed by applied workshops using a simulated service department. Participants analyse a records inventory, classify sample files, assign retention triggers, assess appraisal value and complete a disclosure search and review trail. Small groups compare competing access, privacy and preservation considerations in case studies, then receive facilitator feedback on their schedules and decision logs. The final day is an implementation clinic in which participants convert course outputs into a prioritised control plan for their own organisation.

Course outline

Day 1: Public-sector records accountability and lifecycle foundations

• Public records as evidence of decisions, services and expenditure
• Records lifecycle stages from creation to destruction or archival transfer
• Distinguishing records, copies, working documents and transitory information
• Roles of business owners, records managers, IT, legal and archives teams
• ISO 15489 principles for authentic, reliable, usable and integral records
• Records inventory fields and information-flow mapping
• Risk assessment for unmanaged email, shared drives and line-of-business systems

Workshop: Participants map the records and repositories generated by a simulated public-service process and produce a scoped records inventory.

Day 2: Classification, metadata and retention scheduling

• Functional classification schemes and business activity analysis
• File-plan design conventions for paper and digital repositories
• ISO 23081 metadata elements for context, control and retrieval
• Retention triggers based on event dates, closure dates and supersession
• Retention schedule structure: series, description, trigger, period and action
• Linking legal, regulatory, operational and fiscal retention requirements
• Applying retention labels and disposition rules in Microsoft Purview

Workshop: Participants create a functional file plan and draft retention schedule entries for procurement, casework and committee records.

Day 3: Appraisal, disposal, preservation and legal holds

• Appraisal criteria for evidential, informational, operational and historical value
• Sampling and aggregation approaches for high-volume record series
• Disposal authorisation workflows and segregation of duties
• Defensible destruction certificates and audit-trail requirements
• Transfer preparation for archival records and permanent preservation
• Legal holds, investigations and suspension of routine disposal
• Managing legacy backlogs, duplicate content and orphaned repositories

Workshop: Participants assess a mixed records backlog, justify appraisal decisions and complete a disposal authorisation and legal-hold register.

Day 4: Disclosure requests, search, review and redaction

• Disclosure request intake, scope clarification and statutory deadline tracking
• Search protocols for email, shared drives, case systems and collaboration sites
• Chain of custody and evidence logs for retrieved records
• Review sequencing for relevance, confidentiality, privacy and third-party information
• Exemption and exception analysis using jurisdiction-specific guidance
• Redaction methods, redaction quality checks and released-copy control
• Decision notices, disclosure logs and lessons learned from request patterns

Workshop: Participants process a simulated disclosure request and produce a search log, review checklist, redaction decision log and response evidence pack.

Day 5: Operationalising a records retention and disclosure programme

• Records policy architecture, procedures and service-level work instructions
• Control design for email, Teams, SharePoint and business applications
• Training, communications and manager accountability models
• Metrics for overdue disposal, retrieval performance and disclosure timeliness
• Internal assurance reviews and audit-ready evidence collection
• Incident response for lost, altered or prematurely destroyed records
• Ninety-day implementation roadmaps and stakeholder engagement plans

Workshop: Participants assemble and present a Records Retention and Disclosure Control Plan with priorities, owners, measures and a 90-day action roadmap.

Tools & standards covered

ISO 15489 Records Management, ISO 23081 Metadata for Records, Microsoft Purview Records Management, MoReq2010

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions