How to Redact Documents

We need to understand the key ASN documents you create and how you use them.

Right now, we're looking for you to share redacted versions of both the Team Around the Child minutes and Child's Plan.

Please do this for 2 or 3 children, and make sure the documents match each other (i.e. they were both written following the same Team Around the Child meeting).

Your redacted document needs to:

• Be clear and readable. Please only redact personal identifiable information - i.e., names, addresses, or specific context that will identify a student. We need to understand what you write in your document, how it is organised and what this content is meant to do.
• Keep the layout, formatting, and section headings exactly as you would use them in real life.

How to redact your document

1. Replace all names via Find and Replace
1. In Word: Press Ctrl + H, or go to Home > Replace.
2. In the ‘Find what’ box, type the word or phrase you want to find.
3. In the ‘Replace with box’, type the new word or phrase. This could be [Child's Name], [Parent's Name], [Teacher's Name], etc.
4. Once you’ve done this, double check the document for other names.
2. Remove contact details. Replace email addresses, phone numbers, and home addresses with [Email], [Phone Number], [Address], etc.
3. Check headers and footers. These sometimes contain names and job titles. Double-click to edit them and remove anything that could identify someone.
4. Replace reference numbers. Change case numbers or ID codes to placeholders like [Reference Number].
5. Final check. Accept any tracked changes and delete comments that might contain personal information.

Why this matters

Following these steps means you’ll meet data protection requirements, and we won’t need to come back with extra questions.

We really appreciate your help with this – it makes all the difference to creating something that works brilliantly for Scottish ASN admin!