How long to keep nursery records: a retention schedule

The EYFS says records about individual children must be kept for “a reasonable period of time” after they leave, and leaves the length to you (paragraph 3.98 of the group framework). UK GDPR then says you must not keep personal data for longer than you need it. Between the two, every setting needs a written retention schedule: what you keep, for how long, and why.

The periods below are the ones most nurseries and childminders in England use, taken from the Early Years Alliance’s retention guidance and the laws it cites. They are sector guidance, not a single legal list, so where your insurer, local authority or solicitor advises longer, follow them and write down why.

Children’s records

Record	Keep for	Why
Register (attendance, absence reasons, key person)	At least 3 years after the child leaves	EYFS “reasonable period”; Early Years Alliance
Absence follow-up calls	As the register	Part of the attendance record
Accident and incident reports	Until the child is 21, often 22	Limitation Act 1980: injury claims up to 3 years after 18
Medicine consents and dose records	As accident reports	A medicine given is evidence in the same kind of claim
Safeguarding and child protection records	Until the child is 25	Early Years Alliance; longer for looked-after children
Sleep checks	At least 3 years after the child leaves	As the register
Photo consent, and changes to it	At least 3 years after the child leaves	Shows what you were allowed to do with each photo
Progress check at age two	At least 3 years after the child leaves	The family holds its own copy
Records about special educational needs	Ask your local authority	The plan and its evidence usually move on with the child
Learning journals, photos, observations	Give to the family when the child leaves	Not records you need to keep

When a child has no date of birth on file, a period counted to a birthday cannot be worked out. Count from the day they left instead, using the longest period that applies.

Staff records

Record	Keep for	Why
Personnel files, training, supervision and disciplinary records	6 years after employment ends	CIPD recommendation
Unsuccessful applicants	6 months to a year	CIPD recommendation
DBS certificates	No longer than needed, generally up to 6 months	DBS code of practice
DBS details (number, issue date, who checked)	With the personnel file	Shows your safer recruitment
Paediatric first aid certificates	With the personnel file	EYFS ratio and mealtime rules depend on them
Staff accident records	3 years from the entry	Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1979

Money and running the setting

Record	Keep for	Why
Wages, salaries and expenses	6 years	Taxes Management Act 1970
Invoices and credit notes to parents	6 years	HMRC; ask your accountant for your company type
Funding claims and parental declarations	As your local authority’s funding agreement says	Usually checked in audits
Complaints and their outcomes	At least 3 years	EYFS requires a written record available to Ofsted
Risk assessments	At least 3 years	Injury claims can be brought for 3 years
Insurance policies	Permanently	Claims can arrive decades later

Deleting records on time

Storage limitation is as much a rule as keeping records is. The ICO expects you to be able to say why you hold each piece of personal data, and to delete or anonymise it when that reason ends.

• Set the date when the record is made, not when you tidy up. A child’s leaving date and date of birth are enough to work out every period above.
• Delete each kind of record on its own date. Keeping everything until the longest period runs out, because one record in the file needs it, keeps a register four times longer than it needs to be.
• Keep the child’s name and date of birth while any record is kept. An accident report that cannot be matched to a child is no use to anyone, including the child.
• Handle requests to delete. A parent can ask you to erase their data. Keepsake material usually goes. Records kept to meet a legal duty are exempt from erasure while that duty lasts, and you should tell the parent which ones and why.
• Destroy paper securely. Cross-cut shredding or a confidential waste service, with a note of what went and when.

Closing or selling the setting

The duty to keep records survives the business. Before you close, decide where every record will be kept for the rest of its period, who can reach it if Ofsted, a solicitor or a former family asks, and how it will be destroyed when the time comes. If the setting is sold, agree in writing which records go to the new owner.

Where Coat Peg fits

Coat Peg keeps each statutory record on its own clock and deletes it on its date: accident and medicine records until the child’s 22nd birthday, safeguarding records until their 25th, and the register, sleep checks, photo consent history and the two-year progress check for 3 years after the child leaves. Issued invoices are kept for 6 years. Photos, posts and care logs go 12 months after a child leaves. While any statutory record is kept, the child’s name and date of birth stay with it and nothing else does. When a parent deletes their account, the child’s records stay with the nursery, because they are the nursery’s to keep.