Social media is becoming a large part of the world we live in and as such at The Nursery we need to make sure we protect our children by having procedures in place for safe use.
We use Instagram 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
- Not allow others to post on our Facebook page, i.e. only management can post on the page, only parents / family / carers who have been invited to join the group can view and comment on the posts
- 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 or Instagram staff must:
- Not name the setting they work at
- Not make comments relating to their work or post pictures in work uniform
- Not send private messages to any parents/family members
- 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
- 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 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
- Not belong to our closed Facebook group if linked to a personal account
- Not like or share any of our Facebook posts
- Not be connected to the nursery Facebook / Instagram account in any manner
- If any of the above points are not followed then the member of staff involved will face disciplinary action, which could result in dismissal.
*Nursery settings are advised at their discretion to decide if staff and parents can connect on social media and should update the procedures based on this decision.
All electronic communications between staff and parents should be professional and take place via the official nursery communication channels, e.g. work emails and phone numbers. This is to protect staff, children and parents.
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).
We ask parents to:
- 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).