This policy refers to all electronic devices able to take pictures, record videos, send or receive calls and messages. This includes cameras, mobile telephones tablets and any recording devices including smartwatches. More and more devices are technically, capable of connecting us to the outside world. We will adapt the policy to include all devices we deem required to safeguard children.
Mobile phones and other devices that accept calls, messages and video calling:
At CJ’s Little Pickles we promote the safety and welfare of all children in our care. We believe our staff should be completely attentive during their hours of working to ensure all children in the nursery receive good quality care and education. To ensure the safety and well-being of children we do not allow staff to use personal mobile phones, smartwatches and/or fitbits during working hours. We use a specific nursery only mobile phone to provide a means of contact in certain circumstances, such as outings.
This policy should be used in conjunction with our online safety policy to ensure children are kept safe when using the nursery devices online
Staff must adhere to the following:
• Mobile phones are to be left in the staff room and on silent. Smartwatches/fitbits can be worn.
• Mobile phones can only be used on a designated break and then this must be away from the children.
• Mobile phones/smartwatches/fitbits should be stored safely in the staff room at all times during the hours of the working day
• The use of nursery devices, such as tablets, must only be used for nursery purposes
• The nursery devices will not have any social media or messaging apps on them
• Any apps downloaded onto nursery devices must be done only by management. This will ensure only age appropriate and safe apps will be accessible to staff or children using them
• Passwords / passcodes for nursery devices must not be shared or written down
• During outings, staff will use mobile phones belonging to the nursery wherever possible. Photographs must not be taken of the children on any personal phones or any other personal information storage device. Only nursery owned devices will be used to take photographs or film videos
• Nursery devices will not be taken home with staff and will remain secure at the setting when not in use. If a device is needed to be taken home due to unforeseen circumstances, then the person taking this device home must ensure it is securely stored and not accessed by another individual and returned to nursery as soon as practically possible.
Parents and visitors use of mobile phones and smartwatches:
Whilst we recognise that there may be emergency situations which necessitate the use of a mobile telephone. Parents and visitors are kindly asked to refrain from using their mobile telephones whilst in the nursery or when collecting or dropping off their children. If you are found to be using your phone inside the nursery premises you will be asked to finish the call or take the call outside. We do this to ensure all children are safeguarded and the time for dropping off and picking up is a quality handover opportunity where we can share details about your child.
Photographs and videos:
We recognise that photographs and video recordings play a part in the life of the nursery. We ensure that any photographs or recordings taken of children in our nursery are only done with prior written permission from each child’s parent and only share photos with parents in a secure manner. We obtain this when each child is registered and we update it on a regular basis to ensure that this permission still stands.
We ask for individual permissions for photographs and video recordings for a range of purposes including: use in the child’s learning journey; for display purposes; for promotion materials including our nursery website and Facebook page. We ensure that parents understand that where their child is also on another child’s photograph, but not as the primary person, that may be used in another child’s learning journey.
Staff are not permitted to take any photographs or recordings of a child on their own information storage devices e.g. cameras, mobiles, tablets or smartwatches and may only use those provided by the nursery. The nursery manager will monitor all photographs and recordings to ensure that the parents’ wishes are met and children are safeguarded.
We ask that photos are not posted on any social media websites/areas without permission from parents of all the children included in the picture.
At CJ’s Little Pickles we use tablets in the rooms to take photos of the children and record these directly on to their electronic learning journeys. We ensure that these devices are used for this purpose only and do not install applications such as social media or messaging sites on to these devices. We also do routine checks to ensure that emails and text messages (where applicable) have not been sent from these devices and remind staff of the whistleblowing policy if they observe staff not following these safeguarding procedures.