Citizen Data at London Borough, Research Paper Example

Ethics in record keeping is ensuring that the records kept are reliable, complete and correct for manipulation and use. Ethical record keeping issues should not only be on storage, but needs extend to other activities. According to Lacovino, “analysis of professional duties relevant to other professions or persons in the course of the activity and record keeping process in which they engage” (2006, p. 3).

After reading the London Borough of Brent case study, I was able to identify ethical issues related to record keeping. The records were consistent, and duplication of records was high. The records were being held differently in 12 distinctive databases one for each council. Each department with incomplete data was holding copies differently. Secondly, data on residents were being held in two separate systems for customer relationship management. The system also had a lot of faults and errors or omissions. This created an ethical issue on record keeping because records are supposed to be reliable and thus, provide accurate information regarding the issue at hand. The primary reason of record keeping is to be able to offer high excellence services to customers and to other professional bodies. The citizen data in London were inaccurate and using it to serve clients is ethically wrong, as you will be giving wrong information to the clients (Corey, Schneider & Callanan, 2010).

The other ethical issue is the information, which could be used, by scrupulous people, to harm or hurt innocent clients.  From the case study, lack of up-to-date records made the council employees provide wrong services to clients. For example, one department will be having on its record that a resident is blind while the other does not. Therefore, the special services he/she requires might not be forth coming. This has made the council concentrate on development of Change, Accept or Reject (CAR), which would be able to handle information update as they occur within the council (Local Governance).

Based on the mechanism set through the introduction of Brent Client Index system, the council was able to customize the records held in 12 databases into one virtual registry. This caused the council a sum of 1.5million and deployed 800 employees to manage the system. The databases were merged, and the system solved the various conflicts by comparing data in all the databases and taking the most current and up-to-date information. The council introduced a CRM application, which was used, by all departments, to access information from a central point. The difference visible with the United States record keeping is that, their records keeping is much better and provide accurate and up-to-date data. According to Citizen Archivist dashboard, United States is making their records available online, this means that they are updated regularly, and can be accessible regardless of location. On the dashboard, one can be able to edit an article and store useful information discovered. Their records are of a high standard, for example, their military records are always updated, and there systems provide efficient information (Citizen Archivist Dashboard). The US military records contain records that can be available online, these are historical events, state libraries, administration and the organizational history of the military (US Military records).

In conclusion, the system that the council put in place was good and made the work of the council easier and reliable. The long time that the worker could spend on the phone calling other department to confirm information became outdated, and clients were served with the agency and specialty as required.

References

Corey, G.,  Corey, M. & Callanan, P.  (2010). Issues and Ethics in the Helping Professions SAB 240 Substance Abuse Issues in Client Service Series. New York: Cengage Learning.

Citizen Archivist Dashboard, retrieved on 24^th October 2012 from <http://www.archives.gov/citizen-archivist/>

Hudson, H. (3 November 2011).  Local Governance. Retrieved on 23th October 2012 from <http://www.information-age.com/channels/information-management/it-case-studies/1666438/local-governance.thtml>

Iacovino, L.  (2006). Recordkeeping, Ethics and Law: Regulatory Models, Participant Relationships and Rights and Responsibilities in the Online World Volume 4 of the Archivist’s Library. New York: Springer.

Neagles, C. (1994). US Military Records: A Guide to Federal and State Sources, Colonial America to the Present. Salt Lake City, UT, USA: Ancestry, Inc.