Carerealm keeps activity log entries indefinitely. There is no auto-purge job — every entry ever written is still there. The table is append-only: no UPDATE or DELETE endpoints exist for trace rows.
Why indefinite retention
Compliance — adult social-care services typically need to keep records for 6+ years (longer for safeguarding cases). The activity log is part of that record.
Investigations — disputes, safeguarding reviews and complaints can surface long after the events themselves. Logs need to be available when those reviews happen.
Trust — staff and supported people both need to know that the record cannot be silently rewritten.
Right to erasure (GDPR)
If a data subject exercises their right to erasure, log rows containing their personal data may need to be redacted (not deleted). That's a super-admin action handled case-by-case via [email protected].
Heads up — Don't put personal information about supported people into log descriptions if it can be avoided — log entries describe what happened, not the content of what was written. The detail of a diary entry lives in the diary, not the log.