Social media is becoming a large part of the world we live in and as such at CJ’s Little Pickles we need to make sure we protect our children by having procedures in place for safe use.
We use WhatsApp & our website (with parents permission) to share pictures of the activities the children have accessed at nursery. In order to safeguard children, we will:
• Ensure all children in the photographs or posts have the correct permissions in place from their parent / carer
• Monitor comments on all posts and address any concerns immediately.
Staff use of social media:
We require our staff to be responsible and professional in their use of social networking sites in relation to any connection to the nursery, nursery staff, parents or children.
When using social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat etc staff must:
• Not make comments relating to their work or post pictures in work uniform
• If a parent asks questions relating to work via social networking sites, then staff should reply asking them to come into the setting or contact the manager. Staff should not engage in public or private conversations relating to the nursery in anyway, including talking about children and colleagues.
• Ensure any posts reflect their professional role in the community (e.g. no inappropriate social event photos or inappropriate comments i.e. foul language)
• Report any concerning comments or questions from parents or other staff to the manager/ safeguarding lead
• Follow the staff behaviour policy
• Not post anything that could be construed to have any impact on the nursery’s reputation or relate to the nursery or any children attending the nursery in any way.
If any of the above points are not followed then the member of staff involved may face disciplinary action, which could result in dismissal.
Parents and visitors use of social networking:
We promote the safety and welfare of all staff and children and therefore ask parents and visitors not to post, publicly or privately, information about any child on social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
We ask all parents and visitors to follow this policy to ensure that information about children, images and information do not fall into the wrong hands.
We ask parents not to:
• Send friend requests to any member of nursery staff
• Screen shot or share any posts or pictures from the nursery on social media platforms (these may contain other children in the pictures)
• Post any photographs to social media that have been supplied by the nursery with other children in them (e.g. Christmas concert photographs or photographs from an activity at nursery)
• Share any concerns regarding inappropriate use of social media through the official procedures (please refer to the partnership with parents policy, complaints procedures and grievance policy).