Record Keeping Examples

Jane and Mary are sisters. Their father, Harry, lives in a care home nearby. Harry went to live there after their mother had died. Jane and Mary visit Harry daily, taking it in turns. Harry is a former army officer and a stickler for routines and jobs being done properly. He’s opinionated and doesn’t mind complaining and having confrontations. He’s mobile, healthy and still makes good judgements.

Recently Jane and Mary saw a decline in the care Harry was receiving and Harry confirmed things were deteriorating. He said the staff knew things weren’t good enough; there were too few of them and routines were slipping. Jane and Mary have decided that things have to improve if he is to stay there and they want to take action to try to address the situation. Harry agrees.

Jane and Mary understand that if they are going to complain they need to make some record of the things that are a problem. Other visitors to the home and other residents are also unhappy with the quality of care. Jane and Mary will see if the others are willing to band together to complain to the manager of the home and whether they are willing to contact the CQC to complete their feedback form.

John is a 50 year old father of 3. He has two adult sons by his first wife. He has a good relationship with them and he had never been criticised as being a bad father to them. Sophie is his 8 year old daughter by his second wife Alice who is 31 years old. John thinks he’s the victim of parental alienation as Alice has been making it very difficult for John to see Sophie. Alice is now saying Sophie doesn’t want to see him and is very resistant to any form of contact. Sophie has been seen by the CAFCASS officer who is saying Sophie is very clear about being frightened of him and has said that’s because of “what he’s done to mum”. John has no idea what she means and says he’s never been abusive or violent. Before their separation John and Sophie had a very good relationship and there had been no problems.

John thinks that Alice has been telling lies about Sophie’s availability for visits and he can’t trust what she says. He’s convinced Alice is influencing Sophie by making false allegations about him.

John believes Alice is motivated by money. When they were married Alice didn’t work and was inclined to over spend. This was the cause of arguments leading to their separation. The arguments got heated but never resulted in violence. They have been unable to agree a financial settlement. John believes this is the cause of the problems over Sophie and that it is Alice’s way of trying to get him to agree what she wants in the financial arrangements.

John’s parents are saying the situation will improve if he just lets things pass and he waits but he is afraid that he will lose contact with Sophie permanently and that he will lose everything; his daughter, a huge portion of his income and savings as well as the house. He doesn’t trust the system to deal with him fairly and thinks the CAFCASS officer is taking his wife’s side, believing her complaints.

Here is a sample of John’s records.

A few months ago things came to a head and Katy asked her husband Ben to leave home. He’d eventually agreed to leave and had promised to go to Alcoholics Anonymous. Katy had said that he could return home once he had stopped drinking.

Ben had started to drink heavily about 3 years ago. He was not violent but was bullying, rude and unkind to Katy and their two daughters Emma and Clare, when he had been drinking. He had been having problems at work with a manager who was “on my back”. He worked as a salesman in a builder’s merchants and there were targets he found difficult to achieve. If he had a bad month he was always worried about being singled out as a failure and being sacked, at which times he drank even more heavily.

Katy had become anxious that Social Services would get involved with their two daughters because of concerns about them being harmed. She worried that the school might alert them to a problem with the girls.Their teachers were asking the girls if there was something wrong at home and a friend of Katy’s had told her Emma was talking about her dad being “scary”. She didn’t want to be seen as not protecting her children from harm.

They had set up a contact plan and Ben promised to keep to it and not let the girls down. Once he had left home, their performance at school improved and they were less anxious and stressed. Both girls were keen that their dad stop drinking and come home.

Here is a sample of Katy’s records.

Richard is a bereaved father. His two children, a girl and a boy, live with him in the family home. Their mum died a couple of years ago. The children have found it really hard to adapt without their mum.

The eldest, Shaun is the most upset and he’s become anxious and withdrawn. Richard has discovered he’s being bullied at school. This includes physical attacks, threats and theft of his lunch money. Shaun is frightened and is missing days of school because of it. He’s lying to Richard to try to cover it up. He won’t say who’s involved other than that the ringleader’s father has a fish and chip shop. Other children are also being bullied but the school doesn’t appear to be doing anything about it.

Richard is worried. He’s concerned the physical attacks might get worse. He doesn’t trust the school to deal with things properly. He’s been talking to other parents trying to find out more and sets about compiling a record of the things that have happened to Shaun, how Shaun has reacted and what he’s said. He needs to recall things that have happened before he started making records and luckily he’s kept some written notes. He’s asking other parents to do the same to make it easier for them all to complain together and be more likely to get an effective response.

Here’s a sample of Richard’s records.

Emily is 17 years old. Her work is in an accountants office as a receptionist. She’s worked there for about 3 months. Having got to know the other members of staff it’s clear the boss has tried it on with several female members of staff and also clients. No one in the workplace wants to complain about it. They think they won’t be believed.

Emily’s boss makes sexual comments to her too and sometimes touches her inappropriately. She is dreading being on her own with him and fearful of being sexually assaulted. She’s unsure what to do. She feels she wouldn’t get anywhere if she complains on her own.

Emily is hoping that if she and others in the staff team work together and keep records of what’s happening to them they could make a case which will be believed.

Here is a sample of Emily’s records.

As a last minute surprise 20th anniversary present for his wife, Brian booked a luxury weekend away. He had telephoned a hotel he’d found online and negotiated a good deal. He had spoken to the receptionist Sally who had agreed some extra discounts for additional options, following it up with an email to confirm all that was agreed.

He had checked his emails before setting off and found a standard booking form from the hotel confirming his reservation but it didn’t mention the negotiated terms. He thought nothing of it, particularly as he’d sent an email listing what had been agreed.

They arrived at the hotel and booked in. It all went smoothly. On two occasions he referred to his call the day before and to his email confirming agreed discounts. The receptionist (not Sally but her colleague, Thomas) raised no issues. They were taken to the room but it was nothing like they expected and it was not the suite Brian thought he’d reserved. He raised this immediately and asked to speak to the manager. After about 15 minutes a deputy manager arrived but he was flustered and unhelpful. He insisted that “there’s no way any member of my staff would have let you have the suite for that price”.

Read the case summary to see what happened next and how to make records as a problem develops.

Sally is a single 33 year old supervisor of a sales team in a stationery company. She’s worked there since leaving school, gradually working her way up the ladder. She enjoys her work, is conscientious and puts in the hours. Her team like and respect her and they consistently hit their targets. She had been happy in her position till Nick Brown came to work for the company a year or so ago.

Nick is supervisor of the second sales team. Sally has learned that Nick has a higher salary, better holiday allowances and other entitlements she does not share. She thinks he’s better treated because he’s a man and that the directors think that, because she’s female, they can get away with paying her less.

This has made Sally investigate more. She’s discovering that her team regularly has better sales figures than Nick’s. Nick works fewer hours, arriving after her in the mornings and leaving before her in the evenings. He’s off sick more too. The directors don’t seem to have noticed.

Sally is furious that her attempts to get an increase in salary have been unsuccessful. She’s been offered more holiday entitlement but thinks it’s insufficient. She believes she’s being paid less not only because of her sex but because she’s agreeable, doesn’t like confrontation and the directors do not think she will resign.

Here is a sample of Sally’s records.

Greg, one of the Directors of GT Ltd. thinks he should sack Barry Smith, a member of his delivery team, because of his recent conduct but wants to be sure they have reasonable grounds before doing so. He doesn’t want to find the company is exposed to a claim for unfair dismissal. He’s also worried because until recently Barry has been a reasonably good member of staff, not the best but certainly the same as about half the other delivery team workers.

GT Ltd. is a family business with workers who all know one another. It’s a tightly knit community and Greg is worried about not being seen as fair but also wants to show other members of staff, who themselves are angry and fed up with Barry, that they shouldn’t have to put up with all the problems he is causing. Other workers have had to cover his rounds when he’s not come to work and has failed to give notice of his not coming in. One popular member of staff has been assaulted by Barry for challenging his work and attitude.

Greg is also worried that Barry’s problems are due to his situation at home, causing him to be unpredictable and aggressive and that maybe he should be showing some understanding and patience. What other options might there be to dismissal but which would ensure Barry knows he’s on thin ice and must behave appropriately? Greg wants to find out all the options before starting to take action.

Here is a sample of Greg’s records.

Julia is single, in her early thirties and is being stalked by Dave Arnold. She works in the accounts department of a large electrical company and has done so for 5 years. One of the company’s customers is a business owned by Dave Arnold.

Julia is frightened by Dave’s behaviour. There have been too many strange incidents for them to be chance meetings. She has told her dad who is very worried about her. He’s telling her to be careful and never to go out alone especially at night. She has a constant sense of being watched as he’s been following her and knows where she lives.

Julia’s friends and some of her colleagues are supporting her. Another member of staff, Marie the receptionist, had been questioned by Dave Arnold who had been asking her lots of personal questions about her, such as whether she lived alone. He was very pushy and had scared her.

Julia is worried that her boss won’t be happy if she complains about Dave Arnold because he is a good customer. She thinks she might get into trouble at work especially because Dave Arnold is now turning the tables on her by complaining about her behaviour. She’s feeling really threatened. Not only is she being stalked but the stalker is getting the upper hand.

Julia has heard that the police are sometimes unhelpful so she’s thinking there’s no point in reporting the stalking even though it’s a frightening situation. She wants to be able to prove she’s got a genuine problem and she’s not being paranoid.

Here is a sample of Julia’s records.

Neighbour Disputes

Jackie is a divorced mum with a young daughter living in a rented house in a city centre. She’s lived there for 7 years. She’s a part time prison officer in a men’s prison so is not someone who is easily frightened. Her neighbours are all reasonable people and she knows most of them.

Jackie is very worried by the behaviour of a new family who have recently arrived in the street. The mother Sandra seems drunk a lot of the time. Her three troublesome sons are aged 16, 14 and 12. A man is around sometimes too. He seems to be drinking and using drugs. He arrives in a new BMW, is always wearing designer trainers and clothes and seems to have a lot of money. Jackie suspects he is a drug dealer.

Jackie knows through her job that if you want to get something done about a problem you need to get evidence of it, not just write an account but also be sure to keep photos, for example to record a car number plate, take videos of anti social behaviour, make audio recordings of incidents and record evidence of anything else to make sure you can show what’s happening. If neighbours band together to complain and everyone has some evidence it strengthens their individual cases and makes them more powerful as a group.

Jackie sets about enlisting the help of all her friends in the street so that they complain. She is prepared to co-ordinate their efforts to make all the complaints as strong and as powerful as they can be. She knows that once they have some evidence they can report the problems to the council and to Sandra’s landlord. If there are criminal offences being committed they can go to the police. If the Council’s response to complaints is unsatisfactory there is also the possibility of getting it looked at again by means of a ‘community trigger’.

Here is a sample of Jackie’s records.

Dominic is a musician and the youngest child of Mary. His older brother Tom is the attorney for Mary who signed the power of attorney about two years ago when their father died. He’s an accountant and lives with his wife Sian and their two children who are being privately educated. Tom earns a good living. They have a younger sister, Clare. Both Dominic and Clare had thought it was a sensible decision to choose Tom because he is an accountant, was organised and lived only 10 miles away from their mother.

Mary was always clear that if possible she wanted to stay in the family home and not be moved into a care home. Consequently it was decided that for as long as possible Mary would stay put and Tom would arrange a live in carer. The family would also support their mother as necessary. It was agreed that money would be spent on concerts and other trips to make Mary’s life as full and interesting as possible. As far as Dominic and Clare were aware their father had left sufficient funds after his death for this plan to be possible for at least 4 years.

The plan for Mary was going fine to start with but then things started to go wrong. Dominic and Clare became suspicious about how Tom was acting and what he was doing because he seemed evasive. Was he performing his duties of attorney honestly and as agreed or was he taking advantage of his position as attorney? Were the bills being paid and money being spent on their mother as decided? Or was something fishy going on? Did they need to act? Tom started to keep records of what was happening in case they needed evidence.

Here is a sample of Tom’s records.

Melanie and her husband adopted Tom when he was 5 years old. He is now 11. They also have a son James and a daughter Joanne who are both older. Tom’s background was of neglect and emotional abuse. His mum had drink and drug problems and had been very young when she had Tom. He’d been taken into care as a baby. There was no information about who his father was.

The family had received adoption support and were aware Tom might develop problems. He’d been seen by a child psychiatrist some time ago but now his behaviour was deteriorating again.

Melanie rang Dr Smith at CAMHS to talk to her about Tom. She gave an account of the deterioration in his behaviour and its impact on them as a family. He’d been fine for

a long time when he was first placed with them and after his adoption but things were bad about a year ago and now it’s got worse again since starting senior school in September. This also followed Melanie showing him some of the cards and letters saved from his mum as part of his life story work. James seems to be coping better than Joanne who is frightened of Tom. Tom is a big, tall boy who seems to enjoy seeing them scared. Dr Smith said it was important to keep a record of what’s happening and it’s impact on them all. She would arrange to meet them soon.

Here are some of the notes Melanie made.

Trevor Yoxall, an engineer and senior manager at AB Ltd, is married and has two children. He has worked at AB Ltd for nearly 25 years. He received a letter yesterday, from the management, to tell him about a complaint. The complaint is about some things he was overheard to say by a female colleague. He is being accused of making racist comments but with little detail given.