Documentation Policy
Confidentiality and Photo Policy
1 Introduction
1.1 Stepping Stone complies with the regulations set out by the Early Years Foundation Stage framework and OFSTED. Therefore we require to record, and keep, information about children who spend time in our care. We adhere to confidentiality regulations and this information will not be accessible to any persons not directly employed by Stepping Stone.
2 Aims and Objectives
2.1 We obtain as much information as possible prior to your child’s first session. This is so your child has an easier time to settle in, without the process being too formal.
2.2 We have a ‘Policies and Procedure’ file which we are happy for you to take away to look through at your own leisure, we require you to sign the acknowledgement form to confirm that you have read them all and agree to the contents. We will discuss any issues or concerns you come across when reading these.
2.3 We require information such as full name, date of birth, name used, address of every parent or carer with whom the child lives with and emergency contact details. This will be collected using the Child Record forms and be kept within the child’s personal information folder. A copy will also be kept on person of the adult during outings as it will also give consent for seeking emergency care.
2.4 We are required to inform the local authority of all individual children who receive free entitlements to the Early Years provision through the Early Years Census. I will be required to inform them of your child’s full name, date of birth, address, gender, ethnicity (if you have stated it), any special educational needs status and the number of funded hours during the census week as well as the total number of hours including those that are not funded.
2.5 We hold a current enhanced CRB check for all adults over the age of 16 who live on the Stepping Stone premises or regularly visit these premises. We also hold them for all assistants who are registered to work with us through Ofsted.
2.6 We use a sign in form to record the names and hours that children are in our care for.
2.7 We are required to display Stepping Stones certificate of registration, this is on the wall at the bottom of the stairs; one for registered child-minders Vicki and Chris Fooks.
2.8 Certificates of education, qualifications, training, insurance and checks etc are available to view upon request, in the ‘parents pack’. However, these cannot be removed from the premises.
3 Confidentiality Policy
3.1 All documents containing personal information regarding children and their families will be treated as confidential.
3.2 There will be no direct access for visitors, other adults or children to view these at any time. Whereby other people such as Ofsted need to view documents, prior written permission will be sought.
3.3 In cases where complaints have been made, the details of the complaint may be viewed by other parents when asked, however, details of the person making the complaint and any other person mentioned within the complaint will be kept confidential- names may be changed in order for the complaint to be understood in its entirety without disclosing any confidential information.
3.4 Examples of work or learning journeys may be shown to other parents with your verbal consent for me to do so. Otherwise examples of these that I show will be from our own children. When showing progress forms or action plans to others, no personal information or names of children will be shared.
3.5 The only circumstance where I will divulge confidential information without parental consent will be to social services and to Ofsted if I have any concerns about the wellbeing of your child, please see my Safeguarding Policy.
3.6 You will also find out confidential information about myself and my family during the course of our working relationship. I would, therefore, be grateful if you too would respect my family’s confidentiality and not repeat this to other parties.
3.7 Parents are allowed access to their child’s records at any time, you are welcome to take the learning journeys away to look at, and of course show other members of your family. It would, however, be beneficial to give me a little notice so that I can make sure they are up to date as possible.
4 Photograph Policy
4.1 With the revision of the EYFS in September 2012 came the need to inform parents more substantially about how a setting takes, stores and uses photographs of the children whilst in the setting, in order for us to be covered with regard to child protection requirements.
We are therefore obliged to inform parents exactly how we take, use and store photos of your children.
4.2 On contract we currently have a couple of statements, which you sign permission, for us to take photos to use in your children’s learning journey, to send home on a photo board, and for us to use on our website.
4.3 Our current usage includes:
Using the digital camera to take photos and short videos
Using the child-minders mobile phone to take photos and short videos
We will upload these onto our personal laptop
We order photos using either the photobox or snapfish websites, we do not share the albums so no one else would have access to the photos that we upload onto these sites.
We then store the photos in a file on my laptop; we may use these at other times for art and craft or ICT activities, or when updating the photos that we have in the home.
4.4 We have photos of your child around the home, such as on their coat pegs, on the hangers in the downstairs toilet for their own flannel/hand towel, the family posters in the kitchen. We do leave these up continuously, so these may be viewed by other people who come into the setting.
4.5 As we update our website we will be putting some photos of children participating in different activities, to show the different things that we do. If at any time you choose not to want specific photos of your children on this website, you are within your right to ask us to remove them.
4.6 In addition to the use of digital images we also have to inform you that we although a lot of our records are on paper and stored confidentially, there are some information that we also store electronically (using the laptop and backing up using a portable hard drive), this information may include contact information, bank details, child’s assessment and behaviour reports, invoices etc.
4.7 Assistants to not have permissions to use their mobiles to take photos or videos during their time at work.
4.8 We are registered with the information commissioner’s office, which checks that we are storing data electronically and have the correct systems and policies in place.
Date last reviewed / Signature18 Mendip Close, St Albans, Hertfordshire, AL4 9SS
07875574298,
www.steppingstonechildcarelimited.com /