The care records definition — plain language text
Read the simplified version of our care records definition.
The purpose of the care records definition is to understand what care records are. Having a definition will help the government and other organisations know which records are valuable for those in care and should be protected until a wider decision is made about:
how long to keep these records
what to do with them long term.
These might be records about people’s time in care or the settings where people were in care.
What the care records definition means for care organisations
For State care organisations, the definition will be mandatory and the records containing these types of information must be protected.
For non-State care organisations who do not hold public records, this definition will provide a recommendation of which records to protect.
This definition does not tell organisations which records to create — or which records they should have created. The rules about this will be different for the different types of care organisations.
But the types of information listed on this page can help all organisations understand:
which information can be the most useful to people who have been in care, and
which types of records they should be trying to create and look after.
Types of information included in the care records definition
The types of information have been created from international best practice guidelines on access and management of care records and feedback from survivors and stakeholders. In early November 2023 we asked the public for feedback and used the responses to improve the definition.
Find out more about how we came up with the care records definition
We’ve put the information types into groups to help people understand the definition.
Category 1 — Records of individuals in State and non-State care settings
We’ve broken Category 1 down more to help people understand which types of information need protection.
1.1 Core identity of individuals in care settings
This is information about who someone is. This includes information about their whakapapa (a person’s connections, journey and experiences) such as where they have been and who their whānau or family are. Examples of these types of records are:
copies of birth certificates
medical histories, and
information about people’s culture.
1.2 Provision of services to individuals in care settings
This is information about work which is done to support people in care. This includes records of the person being placed, moved, or leaving care and the reasons for these decisions being made. This also includes day-to-day records of the care provided like:
daily diaries
social work plans
work to keep people in contact with whānau.
1.3 Recordkeeping requirements of and for individuals in care settings
This is information about how the records of people’s care experiences are looked after and what has been done to keep the records safe, accurate and up to date. This includes information about:
who has access to the records
any changes to the records
when the records are transferred to another place.
1.4 Complaints, allegations, incidents, responses and decisions affecting the safety and wellbeing of individuals in care settings
This is information about incidents that happen to people in care and complaints about things that affect their safety and wellbeing. This includes:
information about what happened
what the organisation did about it
how they informed the person and their whānau of their response, and the outcome of investigations carried out.
Category 2 — Records of State and non-State care settings
Category 2 is information about the processes, rules and histories of the care organisations over time. This includes:
records of who the staff and caregivers were
what training and support they got
the different policies that care organisations were expected to follow.
For a comprehensive list of the types of information included, read the detailed text version of our care records definition.