Little Ozzies Nursery

Mobile Phone and Electronic Device Use

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 necessary to safeguard children.

Mobile phones and other devices that accept calls, messages and video calling

At Little Ozzies Ltd 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 during working hours in the vicinity of our children.

We use mobile phones supplied by the nursery only to provide a means of contact in certain circumstances, such as outings.

This policy should be used in conjunction with our online safety and acceptable IT use policies, to ensure children are kept safe when using the nursery devices online.

Staff must adhere to the following:

• Mobile phones are stored at the start of each staff members shift in the staff mobile storage cupboard which is located in the nursery kitchen. Staff have their own allocated number to store their phone in and it is their responsibility to put their phone in at the start of their shift. The management team will keep a check to ensure that all staff who are working that day have put their phone away. When staff are leaving, they should not use their mobile phones until they have left the nursery premises.
• Smartwatches/Fitbits are either turned off or disconnected from mobile phones and not accessed during your working hours.
• Mobile phones/smartwatches/Fitbits can only be used on a designated break and then this must be away from the children

• Personal devices are not allowed to be connected to the nursery Wi-Fi

• 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 and content appropriate apps are accessible to staff, or children using them
• Passwords/passcodes for nursery devices must not be shared or written down, and will be changed regularly
• During outings, staff use mobile phones belonging to the nursery, at management discretion staff phones can be used in an emergency content checked by SLT member 
• 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. 

Parents’ use of mobile phones and smartwatches

Parents are kindly asked to refrain from using their mobile telephones whilst in the nursery (including coming up the nursery pathway) or when collecting or dropping off their children.  We will ask any parents using their phone inside the nursery premises to finish the call or take the call outside of the nursery grounds. 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.

Parents are requested not to allow their child to wear or bring in devices that may take photographs or record videos or voices. This includes smart watches with these capabilities, such as Vtech. This ensures all children are safeguarded and also protects their property as it may get damaged or misplaced at the nursery.

When parents are coming into the nursery for example during stay and plays, staff will ask them to leave their mobile phones in the office until they are leaving the premises.

Visitors’ use of mobile phones and smartwatches or other personal devices with imaging and sharing capabilities

Visitors are not permitted to use their mobile phones or other personal devices with imaging and sharing capabilities, e.g. smart glasses whilst at nursery.

Any visitors that are coming into the nursery will be asked by staff to leave their mobile phones in the office until they are leaving the premises.

Smartwatches

We recognise there are many health benefits for the use of smart watches such as counting steps and heart rate. To ensure the safe wearing of Smart Watches staff must: 

• The watch has to be worn in ‘flight mode’ or Bluetooth is disconnected, this will ensure there is no internet connectivity to access notifications or Wi-Fi.
• Staff understand they may not use their watch to receive calls or check messages whilst in the playrooms as this creates distraction and potential dangers.
• Staff have to be vigilant of others checking their watches and remind them of the nursery policy and procedures of the safe wearing of a smart watch.
• Photographs can only be processed from a Smart Watch with a mobile device in close proximity; staff are reminded that the safe storage of a mobile phone is in the mobile phone locker in the kitchen or office.
• Staff should not use their Smart Watch to access photos or images whilst on nursery premises (indoors or outdoors) and whilst on local trips/outings.
• Where ongoing technology advances we reserve the rights to request the removal of a Smart Watch if the safety of a child[ren] is at risk.

Photographs and videos

At Little Ozzies Ltd 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 via our Tapestry account. We will obtain this permission when each child is registered and update it on a regular basis as the child moves up through nursery with us, to ensure that this permission is still valid. 

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 the local press. 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. Photographs and videos will not be taken in areas where intimate care routines are carried out.

If a parent is not happy about one or more of these uses, we will respect their wishes and find alternative ways of recording their child’s play or learning. 

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.

Photographs or videos recorded on nursery mobile devices will be transferred to the correct storage device to ensure no images are left on these mobile devices.

Parents, and children, are not permitted to use any recording device or camera (including those on mobile phones or smartwatches) on the nursery premises without the prior consent of the manager.

During special events, e.g. Christmas or leaving parties, staff may produce group photographs to distribute to parents on request. In this case we will gain individual permission for each child before the event. This will ensure all photographs taken are in line with parental choice. We ask that photos of events such as Christmas parties are not posted on any social media websites/areas without permission from parents of all the children included in the picture.

At Little Ozzies Ltd we use tablets in the rooms to take photos of the children and record these directly on to their electronic learning journeys tapestry. 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 have not been sent from these devices and remind staff of the whistleblowing policy if they observe staff not following these safeguarding procedures.