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St.Mary, Fishponds, Stapleton

Records Management Guides from the Church of England

These guides are designed to help parishes and dioceses develop a consistent and best practice approach to the treatment of Church records in their care whether paper or electronic.

Save or Delete? - Care of Diocesan Records (revised December 2008) is designed to support diocesan offices and staff to manage the mass of information that they create and manage in support of the work of the diocese, enabling them to easily identify what needs to be kept and what can safely be destroyed.

The guide includes answers to questions such as:

How long do we need to keep faculty petitions?

Should we keep DBF returns to Companies House?

How long should we retain Section 48 Education Inspection reports?

Keep or Bin? - The Care of Your Parish Records (revised April 2009) is designed to help clergy and parish officers to understand which records need to be kept by the church, which should be sent to the local archive centre, and which can simply be disposed of as confidential waste.

The guide includes the answers to questions such as:

For how long do we need to keep bank statements?

Should we keep copies of our service sheets or weekly pew sheets?

How can we store paper documents to safeguard their preservation over time?

How should we go about backing up our computer system?

Guidance notes on clergy files (revised March 2009) provides advice on structure and maintenance of these important records.

These guides have been researched and produced by records and archive management specialists at the Church of England Record Centre, drawing on expert advice from The National Archives, Local Record Offices and the wider archive profession.

By clicking on the resources links to the left you will be able to download copies of the guides. For those unable to download a copy, paper copies are available by post from the Church of England Record Centre, 15 Galleywall Road, South Bermondsey, London SE16 3PB.