La necesidad de respuestas: las propuestas de Voltaire y Rousseau

Version Date Author Status Comment

1.0 Feb 12 Records Manager Ratified

1.1 Nov 2012 IG Assurance Lead Ratified Simplified and deleted duplicate flowcharts

All emails which you compose should only contain business information and be written in a professional manner, stored appropriately and deleted when no longer needed. To find out how long documents need to be kept, see Appendix A. Emails may have the same legal status as any other written document such as a letter or fax. Information contained in an email is subject to disclosure under the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) and the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI).

What you need to do: Sending an email

a. Consider why you are sending an email:

o What am I hoping to achieve by sending this email?

o If I need an urgent response will the email be picked up in time?

o Could I talk face to face with the individual(s) or perhaps by phone? b. Consider what you are emailing:

o Articulate the purpose of the email in the subject line/first line – use Action required,

For Information or Response required

o Do you need to explain the context of the email?

o Confidential or personal confidential data must only be sent from an NHS.net account to another secure email address, e.g. another NHS.net account or kent.gcsx.gov.uk (Social Services in Kent). For further secure email addresses, see page 46.

c. Consider who you are emailing:

o To – those who need to take action or those who need to be aware of the information contained in the email

o CC – only copy those into an email who really need to see it

o BCC – should only be used when sending out an email to multiple recipients. This is to prevent the huge recipient list being shown on every email.

Content of email

d. All emails which you compose must be written in a professional manner with care and discretion.

e. Remember – an agreement formed by email can be legally binding. f. Emails should be concise and action focused.

g. Language and formatting (bullets, paragraphs, etc.) should be used to ensure clarity – see KCHFT Style Guide.

h. Keep the use of abbreviations to a minimum. i. Key points should be emphasised in bold.

j. Articulate the purpose (including any action required and any timescales if necessary) in the subject line and/or the first line of the email e.g. For Action: Staff Satisfaction Survey: Complete by 01/11/10.

k. Use an electronic signature with contact information as per KCHFT’s Style Guide. l. Avoid sending attachments where possible by:

o Sending a link to a document on a shared server if the recipient has access

o Sending a link to the intranet/internet page where the document is stored

o Copying and pasting a section of the document into the email

o Offering to send the document if requested

m. Proofread the email before sending to check it is clear and concise.

n. Try to avoid sending an email in the ‘heat of the moment’ or with a negative purpose. o. Ensure that the email correspondence trail does not contain any sensitive content.

p. As the contents of emails are legally admissible you should not alter the original content of the previous email.

Receiving an email

q. Consider the following principles to make time spent reading, dealing and filing emails more productive:

o Do it – if it is possible to respond/action within the time you have, do it

o Delegate it – to another colleague or member of your team giving clear instruction on next action required

o Diarise it – schedule time to action the email if you cannot deal with immediately

o Delete it – delete the email either immediately or once actioned, ensuring you save any attachments or email text in your relevant filing system.

Storing an email

r. Set up appropriate folders in your inbox (right click ’inbox’ and select ’New Folder’ then drag email(s) to folder) for emails you cannot action immediately or delete. Have a regular ‘tidy up’ of your emails, check the Records Management Code of Practice (see appendix A) to see if you can delete emails or save them on your shared drive.

s. If information in an email (or an attachment) needs to be retained it should be saved on your relevant shared drive.

t. When dealing with long email strings, provided that the string has not been edited and all previous email are part of the string, it is sufficient to keep the last email in the string and delete the others (click ‘save as’ and find the appropriate place on your shared drive – attachments have to be saved separately using the same process).

Secure Email Addresses

Below is a list of the domain extensions that you should look out for when sending emails of a confidential nature as these are identified as being secure:

@gsi.gov.uk – Government Offices

@gsx.gov.uk – Government Secure Intranet @kent.gsx.gov.uk – Social Services in Kent @gse.gov.uk – Government Extranet @pnn.gov.uk – Police

@scn.gov.uk

@pnn.police.uk – Police @eu-admin.net

@gsisup.co.uk

@cjsm.net – Criminal Justice @psops.net

If any confidential email cannot be sent to/received from either NHS.net or one of the above then the organisation should be contacted to arrange a secure method of transfer.

APPENDIX J – MOVE MANAGEMENT PROCESS

Are you on the move?