When can a Client record be deleted?
Due to the importance of preserving historic Client information to meet NDIS and legal requirements, SupportAbility has implemented restrictions to the parameters in which a Client record can be deleted.
This article outlines the conditions restricting the deletion of a Client record, the required privilege in order to be able to delete a Client record, and information about the 'Staff Privileges Report' which is a useful tool for identifying Staff with the relevant privilege/s and access.
Audience: All
Summary
The following list summarises the content of this article. Click on the links below to take you to the relevant sections:
- What are the conditions restricting the deletion of a Client record?
- Which privileges are required to delete a Client record?
- How to identify which Staff have the required access to delete a Client record?
What are the conditions restricting the deletion of a Client record?
Due to the serious repercussions of deleting Client information, the ability to delete a Client record has been restricted significantly, primarily when it is attached to other related records.
These restrictions were introduced over a two year period commencing in April 2017 with the release of v4.13 whereby any Client record linked to an Activity could no longer be deleted.
The following parameters, which are current today, were introduced in May 2019 with the release of v6.4 where Client records could no longer be deleted in cases where they are attached to any of the following records:
- Activities
- Journals
- External Invoices
- Client Incidents
- AIR Incidents - People Involved
- AIR Incidents - Injured Parties
Which privileges are required to delete a Client record?
Assuming no other records, as listed above, have been added to a Client record, then it will be possible to delete the Client record.
For example, this might be in the instance where a blank Client record was inadvertently created and no information has been entered, or a duplicate Client record with minimal information entered was created in error.
Only Staff who have been granted the 'Delete Records' Security Privilege in their Staff Account will be able to delete a Client record:
Staff with the 'Delete Records' privilege will only be able to delete those Client records they have access to, according to the Sites/Services they have listed in their Staff Account. Staff who have been granted one of the high-level global Security privileges i.e. 'Edit Client Records Across ALL Services' or 'Team Leader for ALL Services' in combination with the 'Delete Records' privilege will have access to all Client records across the organisation and thus be able to delete any Client record.
We appreciate that there are times when records need to be deleted, however, the ability to action this should ideally be limited to one or two senior people in an organisation. The 'Delete Records' Security privilege, must be assigned by SupportAbility and requires authorisation from either a CEO or Company Director if being granted to a Staff Member other than an Authorised Representative.
N.B. It should be kept in mind that Staff who already have the 'Delete Records' privilege and the 'Edit User Accounts' privilege are able to grant this privilege to other Staff Members.
How to identify which Staff have the required access to delete a Client record?
If a Client record requires deleting then the Staff Privileges Report is a useful resource for identifying those Staff who have been granted the 'Delete Records' Security Privilege.
This Report is accessed via the 'Reports' menu and is located in the 'Staff Accounts section':
More information about this report is available in the Staff Privileges Report article, linked below for reference.