The ESFA has recently released guidance to Academy Trusts on the retention of records, including how to dispose of records and what to do when your Academy Trust or a member of your Academy Trust closes.
The types of records to be kept by an Academy Trust include pupil, staff, building, finance and governance records. All records should be retained in line with regulations and retention guidelines detailed in the Academy Trust Handbook.
When records have reached their retention period (for finance records, this is 6 years after the financial year end per Companies House), data must be disposed of securely and confidentially.
All records containing personal information, or sensitive policy information must be made either unreadable or disposed in a way that the information cannot be reconstructed.
But what happens to those records when an academy closes? This depends on the reason for the closure. For example
The full guidance can be read here detailing how records should be maintained in each of the three examples above.
If you have concerns around how data has been handled you should speak with your data protection office or alternatively visit The Information Commissioner Office (ICO) website, which provides further advice and guidance. More information is available here.
