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About the project

PROV is planning to develop a new Retention and Disposal Authority (RDA) to replace PROS 07/01 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of Common Administrative Functions.

The Common Administrative Functions RDA provides disposal coverage for common types of records relating to functions such as finance, human resources and property management. PROS 07/01 is currently our most widely used RDA in Victorian Government as it applies to all agencies. 

PROS 07/01 was issued in April 2007 and has been only slightly varied since.  It has been extended and has no set expiry date. 

 

Project update – March 2024

PROV is pleased to announce that the first stage of the PROS 07/01 update is complete: PROS 24/03 RDA for the Human Resources Management Function was approved on 19 March 2024 and is now available for all agencies to use.


This new RDA replaces four functions from PROS 07/01 relating to human resources. They have been replaced by the following five functions:
•    Employment Management
•    Health, Wellbeing and Safety
•    Industrial Relations 
•    Staff Development
•    Volunteer Management.


On the RDA’s landing page, we have included a linking table to make mapping the old classes in PROS 07/01 to their PROS 24/03 counterparts simple, as well as advice on resentencing requirements. The RDA also contains a glossary of terms to ensure it is easy to interpret.


The RDA is in our now-standard ‘rolled up’ style. This has reduced the number of classes from 88 across four functions in PROS 07/01, to 18 across five functions in PROS 24/03. We hope that this will make sentencing and disposal easier.


PROV would like to thank everyone who assisted in this process, from the HR subject-matter experts who agreed to interviews early in the process, to the many representatives from across Victorian government who took the time to read the drafts and submit their feedback.


PROS 07/01 has also been varied to remove the original functions. They all now direct readers back to PROS 24/03. You can find the most up to date version of PROS 07/01 here.


Next Steps

PROV is now planning the next stages of the PROS 07/01 update. We will continue to replace groups of related functions with new rolled up RDAs.


We will continue to provide updates on this project as it develops.
 

Project update - November 2023

Since the feedback period for Draft 1 of the new RDA for Human Resources Management Function closed, we have spent the time closely reviewing all of the feedback we received and making a number of changes to the draft. We received a lot of really helpful comments and suggestions, and the changes we have made have led to an improved Draft 2.


Given the significance of the RDA redevelopment project, as it will apply to all public offices, we have released a revised draft for a second round of public and stakeholder feedback. After incorporating the feedback from the first round of consultation, the functions are now described as:
•    Employment Management
•    Health, Wellbeing and Safety
•    Industrial Relations 
•    Staff Development
•    Volunteer Management

 

We have also produced a report describing the changes made in more detail. Both of these documents can be found on this blog post. We will be accepting feedback on the draft from any interested party until COB Wednesday 6 December 2023.


PROV will continue to provide updates on this project through this page, our blog, and via the PROV Bytes newsletter. We are also continuing to accept feedback on PROS 07/01, especially for functions that have not yet been redeveloped at this stage of the project.
 

Project update - September 2023

Draft Human Resources Function RDA

The project team thanks everyone who provided us with feedback on the draft RDA for Human Resources Function records. We are working through all the comments, conducting some additional research and consultation, and will provide an update on a revised draft and next steps soon.

What's happening with the rest of PROS 07/01? 

During 2023-2024 PROV will develop a plan, in consultation with stakeholders, for the continued redevelopment of PROS 07/01. We intend to commence this work after the Human Resources RDA is finalised.

If you are interested in contributing to the planning please contact us at agency.queries@prov.vic.gov.au
 

Project update - July 2023

The past several months have been spent conducting interviews across government to discuss current experiences of using the selected functions in PROS 07/01, and hearing from HR and records specialists what they would like to see in the new HR Functions RDA.

Based on these interviews, a draft has been prepared and is was available for stakeholder feedback. The functions are described as:
•    Employment Management
•    Health, Wellbeing and Safety
•    Industrial Relations 
•    Staff Development

This draft has adapted existing coverage in PROS 07/01 into our ‘rolled up’ RDA style. This means that while most records that were covered in PROS 07/01 have coverage here (as well as some records for which there was no coverage), there are far fewer classes. Classes that had the same or similar retention periods, such as 5 years and 7 years, have been rolled up into larger ‘bucket’ classes. The intention is to make the RDA easier to implement.

While many records have the same or similar retention periods in the new draft, there has been some new appraisal either greatly increasing or reducing the retention periods for a small number of record types. More detailed information can be seen in the linking table showing where the existing record human resources classes of PROS 07/01 are covered in the new draft – this was found on the Request for Feedback post.

We will be accepting feedback on the draft from any interested party until COB Friday 4 August 2023.

PROV will continue to provide updates on this project through this page, our blog, and via the PROV Bytes newsletter. We are also continuing to accept feedback on PROS 07/01, especially for functions that have not yet been redeveloped at this stage of the project.

 

Project background

For the first part of this project, we previously put out a call for feedback on PROS 07/01.  This round of consultation is still open and we are still very interested in gathering further feedback.  Please submit your spreadsheet via email to agency.queries@prov.vic.gov.au.  After reviewing the feedback we may contact you for further information.

Throughout August and September 2021, PROV also asked interested stakeholders to complete a short survey on which functions from the RDA for Common Administrative Functions should be prioritised for inclusion in a new pilot project to begin to redevelop and replace PROS 07/01. 

PROV received a great response to our survey. Thank you to everyone who participated, as well as those who have provided feedback on coverage gaps over the past few years. From collating all of the feedback, the two stand-out functions voted for review were Personnel Management and Financial Management.

Given the size and complexity of both of these functions, we decided to focus on Personnel Management in the first instance. We will be combining this with some smaller, closely-related functions to come up with a rolled-up RDA pilot project covering all personnel-related records. The functions from PROS 07/01 to be included are:

  • Personnel Management
  • Occupational Health & Safety
  • Industrial Relations
  • Staff Development 

 

More feedback on PROS 07/01 to share?

We are still interested in your feedback on the existing RDA – what works, what doesn’t, what classes are confusing, what gaps in coverage are there?

Do you find it easy to use? If so, what do you like about it? Does it cover all of the common and administrative records you create? If not, what is missing? Do you have any problems using the RDA?

We want you to think about:

  • the challenges you face in implementing PROS 07/01
  • the structure, format, numbering and disposal triggers
  • what records should be covered by the Common Admin RDA.

This spreadsheet breaks PROS 07/01 into each class (including functions and activities).

We ask that any feedback you have about a class is added to the spreadsheet alongside that class.

There is also another tab in the spreadsheet for general feedback you may have or for feedback that doesn’t relate to any of the existing classes – gaps etc.

 

Modernising RDAs

In the years since PROS 07/01 was issued, recordkeeping across government has continued to evolve. In order to keep up with these changes, PROV undertook a disposal remodelling program with one of the main changes being the introduction of a new style of RDAs. 

Previously, RDAs were written in a Function – Activity – Record Classes style. PROS 07/01 is an example of this style.  PROV now endeavours to issue RDAs that are easier to develop and implement. One step of this is to introduce RDAs that are rolled up  which means that they have functions that are described in great detail, followed by a minimal number of record classes. There is no activity level and records with the same retention period are grouped together – sometimes referred to as ‘buckets’.

It is the aim that the replacement for PROS 07/01 will follow this ‘rolled up’ structure to streamline disposal and ‘future proof’ the RDA as much as possible.

 

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