More questions re photos and phones

[Maza]

Do we really have to delete all photographs of mindees? I would love to keep some photos of all my mindees, as we made happy memories together. They were a big part of DDs early years and I know she will enjoy looking back at photos too.

Also, are we totally ok to use our mobile for photos if our policy says that that is what we do?

My DH works from home and he needs his mobile on him for work purposes. As long as the mindees are never left alone with him is that ok?

[Mouse]

Do we really have to delete all photographs of mindees? I would love to keep some photos of all my mindees, as we made happy memories together. They were a big part of DDs early years and I know she will enjoy looking back at photos too.

Also, are we totally ok to use our mobile for photos if our policy says that that is what we do?

My DH works from home and he needs his mobile on him for work purposes. As long as the mindees are never left alone with him is that ok?

I have old photos of mindees and don't delete them all. My photo folders have got photos of children who left a very long time ago and there has never been a problem with it. If a parent specifically asked me to get rid of every photo of their child I would, but unless that happens I will keep them. I use them as evidence of activities we have done. Since I had my last ofsted inspection I have had several children start and leave (after being here years). If I had to delete all of their photos it would seriously cut down the evidence I have for Ofsted.

I don't use my phone for photos so it isn't an issue for me. I really can't see it being a problem though if you're clear about it in your policy.

My family are often home when I have minded children here and I am not going to stop them using their phones. They know not to take photos of mindees. I'm not going to say I won't leave them alone with mindees as that's impractical.

[BallyH]

I don't have any old photos as I do tend to delete them. However, I do wish I had an album of all the children I have minded over the years. (I do tend to forget about certain kids when recalling all their names). A photo on their first day and a photo on their last day would be wonderful to look at now.

My husband works from home some days and my teenage boys have mobile phones. They all know not to take photos etc but I also wouldn't stop them having their phones.

[JCrakers]

See, I do make the older school children leave their phones in their bags because I thought we had to. I cant watch the children 100% of the time, so if I'm making tea and a 12yr old takes a picture of my 3yr old mindee and puts it on snapchat, how do I stand with that?

[Maza]

Thanks for your replies. I obviously take safeguarding very seriously but we do have to be realistic with things like family members and phones. Hubby wouldn't want any pictures of mindees on his phone - he usually can't wait until they have all gone home, so the last thing he wants is any reminders of them, lol. Mouse, do you use a separate camera then?

[Mouse]

Thanks for your replies. I obviously take safeguarding very seriously but we do have to be realistic with things like family members and phones. Hubby wouldn't want any pictures of mindees on his phone - he usually can't wait until they have all gone home, so the last thing he wants is any reminders of them, lol. Mouse, do you use a separate camera then?

Yes, I have a camera that I use for all photos. I've never really used a phone camera for any pictures, childminding or not. It's nothing to do with safeguarding. I just prefer a camera.

[Mouse]

See, I do make the older school children leave their phones in their bags because I thought we had to. I cant watch the children 100% of the time, so if I'm making tea and a 12yr old takes a picture of my 3yr old mindee and puts it on snapchat, how do I stand with that?

Are you talking about your own child or a minded child? If I had any older mindees I would take their phones off them. Not just phones but any device that could take photos.

[singingcactus]

I have photos of all my kiddos stretching back over 24 years. Some digital, some paper - from the time of the dinosaurs before digital cameras were a thing :). I will never delete them. Ever. I periodically send one to the old mums too if I come across one for any reason. My old mums love to get the odd reminder :)

[JCrakers]

Are you talking about your own child or a minded child? If I had any older mindees I would take their phones off them. Not just phones but any device that could take photos.

Older mindees :)

I read this bit wrong Mouse off your post 'My family are often home when I have minded children here and I am not going to stop them using their phones' I thought it read that you wouldn't stop the mindees from using their phones

Its been a long day :laughing:




I also have kept pictures from years ago as I love looking back at them. I've not deleted one of them yet over 8yrs

[loocyloo]

I've got photos of all the children I've ever looked after. My very first nanny family gave me a photo album with a few photos of their children in when I left, and I then put photos of every child in it.
I got my first digital camera just before I started minding and initially had photo albums of minded children, then one day a minded child 'removed' ( grrrrr :-( ) lots of photos so I then started getting a photo book printed for each year. Everyone loves looking at them and even my current mindees can name old mindees they've never met!

[sing-low]

I deleted most of my photos a while back when there was some question over the ICO allowing cms to keep them. This was despite having signed permissions from parents agreeing to me keeping photos. It's now a real sadness that I don't have photos of our God-daughter (which she became after she left) when she was such a huge part of our life. I believe Sarah clarified the issue with ICO. Will and find the details and post later.

[FloraDora]

You can now complete a self assessment and print off the report through ICO, some training goes alongside it.

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/improve-your-practices/

I presume this question has come about from the latest tabloid spread about a nursery that says they went from outstanding to inadequate because they took photos of children and sent them to parents.
I read that ofsted report and the action of taking photos wasn't the issue it was the private mobiles that were seen to being used by the inspector during the inspector and when she spoke to the manager she couldn't see the issue around this. It was the managements lack of safeguarding knowledge that was the issue...which was proven by her being happy that the press got involved, posed for photos and still was showing nationally that she hadn't a clue about safeguarding by allowing the photos she had taken then to be in a national paper and on the Internet! There were other issues too which she wasn't clever enough either to take on board, just keen on making public excuses for the drastic change of grade.

When a nursery nurse who was part of a sex gang took photos of children in a nursery a few years ago everyone panicked and banned phones from nurseries, assuming that all nursery nurses would do similar! What this panicking didn't take account of was not that she took photos on her private phone, but that the safeguarding procedures were so poor in that nursery around changing children and also generally, also that whistleblowing had taken place but not heeded. So safeguarding procedures all round were questionable
I took part in major safeguarding children training put on by the safeguarding children team in my LEA following that.
It was all about making sure all safeguarding was thought about in place, not once were we told that all mobiles had to be banned from premises, but we had to have tight safeguarding around recruitment, regular review and assesment of the staff as well as personal mobile phone procedure.
The advice was that logically, you do not want staff to permanently be attached to their phones because they should be working! So provide personal lockers to keep their personal items in and at breaks they can check their phones and use them. These lockers should be in a public place so sneaky access could be avoided. But really we must remember that because one rotten person was found to be working and abusing their position in a nursery it doesn't mean everyone is the same!
Childminding is different, the children are in our sight or hearing at all times, we would notice if someone took sneaky pictures. My policy is not that visitors have to turn off phones or leave them in their car but that If they use their phone and have it on public view they must do so away from the children, outside or in another room.
So members of family would have the same rules. They can have their phone with them but if they use it, for texting, phoning or surfing they must leave the room and go somewhere where children are not.

I do not think it is a good idea to take photos on phones unless you delete them daily after transferring them to a a secure storage facility. Phones are constantly used and constantly lost and are a part of personal equipment - I use an slr camera as photography is my hobby but twice a day I transfer the images on to a specific for business external hard drive, which is unplugged daily and stored securely and all photos are deleted from my camera as soon as I have done this as I often show my photos to people and would not want the children's photos on view. There are no childrens photos on my iPad or computer storage. When children leave I transfer their photos onto a cd for parents to keep and they sign to say it's ok if I keep some for my childminding business, evidence of curriculum and sampled progress. Which is kept the same as all photos linked with the children. The rest are deleted.
We just have to have a system that shows you have taken all steps to ensure safeguarding, that you have taken on board information and training and know the pitfalls of lack of secure storage and data and that the procedures you have in place follow ICO and safeguarding rules and are robust.
We don't need to panic!

[sing-low]

From nursery world website
http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1149284/confusion-rules-photographs

[k1rstie]

From nursery world website http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1149284/confusion-rules-photographs

Thanks for sharing

[FloraDora]

From nursery world website
Confusion over rules for photographs | Nursery World (http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1149284/confusion-rules-photographs)

Thank you for this signpost, great that what I /we do has been confirmed.

My ICO link covers the eight areas they highlight that we need to cover.

[hectors house]

I keep thinking each year that I will do a photo book "Year Book" of activities and outings that we did that year - but it hasn't happened yet. I sometimes do a "What I did at Hector's House" photo book when children leave me for school if I have looked after them since they were a baby - it takes hours to chose the photos, I could see that my "year books" would be the size of an encyclopedia! :D

[greenfaerie]

Phew, that's a relief! I just had my first family leave today and I requested their permission to keep some photos, since otherwise I'd lose all of my evidence of activities that I've done for this first year! :S