Confidentiality Policy

It is our intention to respect the privacy of children and their parent and carers, while ensuring that they access high quality early years care and education at Just Kids Daycare. We aim to ensure that all parents and carers can share their information in the confidence that it will only be used to enhance the welfare of their children.

Just Kids shares a purpose with parents and keeps all personal and confidential information or documentation in a secure locked place with only designated access. We are committed to work with parents positively, openly and honestly. We respect parents’ rights to privacy and confidentiality and will not share sensitive information unless we have permission, or it is necessary to do so in order to protect a child.

Our policy is developed with regards to and in accordance with The Human Rights Act 1998, The Care Act 2024, The data protection act 2028 (GDPR) and the Equality Act 2010.

Developmental records

• These include observations of children at Just Kids Daycare, samples of their work, summary developmental reports of achievement.

• They are usually kept in the rooms and can be accessed, and contributed to, by staff, the child and the child’s parents.

Personal records

• Names and contact details of persons with whom the child normally lives with.

• Names and contact details of all persons with parental responsibility (if different from above)

• Emergency contact details (if different from above)

• Details of any persons authorised to collect the child from setting/child-minder (if different from above)

• Any relevant court orders in place including those, which affect any person’s access to the child (e.g. Residence Order, Contact Order, Care Order, Injunctions etc)

• If the child is or has been subject to a child protection or care plan

• Name and contact detail of G.P.

• Any other factors which may impact on the safety and welfare of the child

The above is usually collected through registration and admission forms, signed consents, and correspondence concerning the child or family, reports or minutes from meetings concerning the child from other agencies, and observations by staff on any confidential matter involving the child, such as developmental concerns or child protection matters.

Other records

• Issues to do with the employment of staff, whether paid or unpaid, remain confidential to the people directly involved with making personnel decisions.

• Students on Nursery placement or other recognised qualifications and training, when they are observing in the Nursery they are advised of our confidentiality policy and required to respect it.

Policy statement

• Confidentiality will be respected by all members of the settings staff, students on placement and volunteers in Just Kids Daycare.

• No details regarding the children and their families will be discussed outside the Nursery environment.

• Any information kept on a child, which relates to a child’s safety will be kept in a confidential file that is secure and only shared with the relevant staff when necessary.

• Confidential records are stored in a lockable file or cabinet and are kept secure by the person in charge in an office or other suitability safe place.

• All students on placement and/or volunteers will be made aware of the confidentiality policy.

• Information shared by parent/carers will not be passed on without permission from the parent/carer.

• Parents have access to the files and records of their own child/ren but do not have access to information about any other child.

• Written permission will be sought from the parent/carers to take photographs of their children for use in our Nursery. For any photograph to be used by students or for use outside the school, extra written permission will be asked for.

• All child protection documents will be retained in a ‘Child Protection’ file, separate from the child’s main file. The main file will clearly show an alert that a child protection file exists and the location of this.

This child protection file will be locked away and only accessible to the manager and designated safeguarding lead. These records will be copied and transferred to any setting or setting the child moves to, clearly marked ‘Child Protection, Confidential, for attention of Designated Person Child Protection.  Original copies will be retained according to setting policy on retention of records.

Duty of care to the child may override the duty of confidentiality, and in such cases, we will pass appropriate information to other organisations.

With any concerns regarding suspected child abuse our confidentiality policy will be extended to include relevant persons from appropriate agencies. The setting policy indicates:

1. Information must be shared with police and Social Care where the child/young person is / may be at risk of significant harm
2. When the child’s and/or parent’s confidentiality must not be breached
3. That information is shared on a need to know basis

Procedure for parents to access to personal records 

Parents may request access to any records held on their child and family following the procedure below.

• Any request to see the child’s personal file by a parent or person with parental responsibility must be made in writing to Just Kids Daycare manager.

• The manager will send written acknowledgement of this request in no longer than one month.

•  The Nursery commits to providing access within 28 days – although this may be extended.

• The manager of Just Kids Daycare prepares the file for viewing and an informal meeting can be held in order to view this.

• All third parties are written to, stating that a request for disclosure has been received and asking for their permission to disclose to the person requesting it. Copies of these letters are retained on the file.

• ‘Third parties’ include all family members who may be referred too in the records.

• It also includes workers from any other agency, including social services, the health authority, etc. It is usual for agencies to refuse consent to disclose. This is best done with a thick black marker, to score through every reference to the third party and information they have added to the file.

• What remains is the information recorded by the Just kids Daycare, detailing the work initiated and followed by them in relation to confidential matters. This is called the ‘clean copy’.

• The ‘clean copy’ is photocopied for the parents who are then invited in to discuss the contents. The file should never be given straight over, but should be gone through by the Nursery manager, so that it can be explained.

• Legal advice may be sought before sharing a file, especially where the parent has possible grounds for litigation against the Nursery or another (third party) agency.

All the undertakings above are subject to the paramount commitment of Just Kids Daycare, which is to the safety and well-being of the child. Please see also our policy on child protection.

Some Guidance for Parents including not sharing Pictures on Social Media

Before Just Kids Daycare takes any pictures of children, we seek permission from the parents, this includes taking pictures to put up in the nursery or pictures to use for our website and social media accounts.

We speak to children about taking their photographs and if they do not wish to have their photo or video taken (even for observation purposes) we do not force them to do so and give them the opportunity to say no if they wish.

The NSPCC website gives useful information and guidance for parents about social media and how important it is to be safe online, especially when sharing images.

Data Protection

It is the responsibility of all members of staff to ensure that personal information about children, parents and carers and colleagues is not shared with individuals outside the setting. The nursery Manager has overall responsibility to ensure that all personal information us kept safe and secure and in compliance with the General Data Protection Act 2018.

How is Personal Information Stored?

Personal information is stored including:

• Children’s details such as name, address, date of birth, class and school, and medical information
• Parents information such as name, address, telephone numbers, email address, proof of address
• Staff information such as name, address, telephone numbers, right to work in UK, bank details, national insurance number and qualifications.

Other information including:

• Accident records
• Incident records
• Health Care records
• Administration of Medication records
• Worries and concerns

Maybe stored in these forms:

1. Paper: Paper copies of personal information are stored in a locked filing cabinet which has limited access to staff members and no access for parents. Parents should feel secure that their information about their child/ren is not accessible to anyone apart from themselves and Management.
2. Computer / Tablets: Any information that is stored on the computer will be held in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. Parents will be asked for their permission to store their personal details on computer when registering their children. Access to information stored on computer is limited to staff members, all setting computers and tablets are password encoded and only Management and staff are in possession of the password. If any parents would like access to their information stored on computer, then they must be accompanied by a member of staff who will display only the required information and will remain in the room with the parent to ensure data protection for all other families. Parents will have access to the personal developmental information for their child/ren and can access this by their account on the Tapestry Journal.
3. Mobile Phone for outings: Just Kids Daycare ask that parents give us permission to store a contact telephone number in the setting mobile phone for outings, this is to ensure that when the setting is escorted the children on trips and outing, a contact number is available for all parents and carers. Parents will be asked for their permission when registering their child. Parents should be aware that only setting staff have access to the mobile phone, which also has a passcode.
4. CCTV: This is used for monitoring purposes and security in the building, it is also in place to safeguard and protect the children that are in our care.

www.gov.uk sets out some key points in order to make sure we are using CCTV in the correct way and the reasons for why we have it in place.

The setting is registered with ICO (information Commissions Officers) to show that we collect personal Data and are following the correct procedures. This is updated annually.

If you have an questions about this policy please do not hesitate to contact the Nursery Manager who will be happy to advise you.

All parents should not that in the event of a safeguarding concern then information about children and their families may be shared with the relevant agencies without consent of parents.

Please also see our policy on Safeguarding.