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Confidentiality Policy

The purpose of this policy is for all staff and parents to be aware of what we do to ensure information is kept confidential. 

BCC recognises that confidentiality and trust in staff to keep information confidential is a key part of our ability to safeguard children. This policy must be read in conjunction with the Bristol Childcare Privacy Notice.

  1. Staff are told the principles of the Confidentiality Policy during their recruitment and induction process as part of the Code of Conduct discussion. Staff are also required to read the company Privacy Notice. This is on the BCC website and a link is emailed to staff as part of the induction process.
  2. All parents’, carers’ and children’s details are held securely at all times and only processed in accordance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation.
  3. Staff Supervision and Appraisal meetings and documentation remain confidential as set out in the Staff Handbook. Staff keep the paper copies of the documents in their professional development folders and a copy is scanned to the secure HR dropbox folder.
  4. All conversations held in nursery relating to staff or children are in strict confidence and only discussed with other parties on a need to know basis or with parent’s permission. This includes all forms of communication.
  5. Staff must not discuss nursery business or children outside nursery at any time other than at a professional meeting and at no time must discuss nursery business or children with ex members of staff. This includes online on social media and on chat groups.
  6. Parents are consulted if information is passed to other settings or agencies. However, parents must be aware that we have a duty to share information with other agencies if requested or we believe it is in the interests of the child. We will not inform parents that we are sharing information with other agencies if we reasonably believe that doing so would put the child at risk of significant harm. Please see the Safeguarding Policy and the Privacy Notice.
  7. Parents are informed of how their data is processed in relation to the Nursery Free Entitlement, Early Years Pupil Premium, childcare vouchers, tax free childcare, tax credits or any other form of payment of their childcare bill in the Privacy Notice.
  8. Requests for information regarding children or staff must be made in writing. Staff must not give out information about children over the telephone. The identity of anyone calling about a child must be verified by taking a phone number and phoning them back. Please see the Safeguarding Policy.
  9. Staff are instructed to treat any information given to them by the children with respect and confidentiality, but must be aware they may need to share the information in the interests of the child. Please see Clause 6C of the Safeguarding Policy.
  10. Staff working across the three Bristol Childcare nurseries are requested to share information about each nursery sensitively and only as required. “Loose talk” or gossip between staff and nurseries is unacceptable and will be dealt with under the Disciplinary Policy.
  11. Staff should avoid exchanging personal information about individuals with whom they have a professional relationship. Staff should avoid talking about organisations or individuals in social settings, including all social networking sites.
  12. If it is necessary to discuss difficult situations with each other to gain a wider perspective on how to approach a problem, the individual’s or organisation’s consent must be sought before personal information enters into the discussion, unless it is beyond doubt that the individual or organisation would not object to this, have already consented or is explicitly stated in the Privacy Notice. The exception to this is, as set out in our Safeguarding Policy, where a referral is made without informing parents.
  13. No documents must be taken out of nursery premises except to take to Head Office or a meeting on nursery business. Any documents taken to meetings must be returned to nursery or Head Office immediately where they will be filed as appropriate. All nursery documentation must be retained and filed at nursery or Head Office, staff are not authorised to take documents home, unless permission is given by the Managing Director or Finance Manager in an emergency situation.
  14. When photocopying or working on confidential documents, staff must ensure they are not accidentally seen by others and must take care not to leave them anywhere inappropriate. This also applies to information on computer screens.
  15. Staff must be aware of the confidentiality of the information on iConnect and must use iConnect responsibly and in accordance with the E-Safety Policy.

Why information is held

  1. Information held by Bristol Childcare Ltd. relates to children whom we care for and parents / carers of these children. We hold information in order to deliver safe child care, operate financial systems and have the ability to contact parents as required.
  2. Information regarding parents and their children is passed to the Local authority for the management of the Nursery Education Grant (Free entitlement)
  3. Information about students is given to the training organisation and the college, but to no one else.

Access to information

  1. Information is confidential to Bristol Childcare and may be passed to colleagues, line managers or directors to ensure the best quality of care.
  2. Where information is sensitive, i.e. it involves disputes or legal issues, it will be confidential to the employee dealing with the case and their manager. Such information should be clearly labelled ‘Confidential’.
  3. Parents may have sight of any personal records held in their name or the name of their child. The request must be in writing to a Director giving 14 days’ notice and be signed by the individual. Sensitive information will only be made available to the person or organisation named on the file.
  4. Employees may have sight of their personnel records by giving 14 days’ notice in writing to the Managing Director.

Storing information

  1. Paper based information about volunteers, students and other individuals will be kept in filing cabinets by the Student Co-ordinator.
  2. Employees’ paper based recruitment information will be kept at Head Office and will be accessible to the Head Office administration team and Senior Management. All documentation is scanned to a secure HR dropbox folder that only Senior managers, senior admin staff and managers have access to. Employees’ paper based personnel information is kept in nursery in Personnel files kept in locked cabinets. Files or filing cabinet drawers bearing confidential information should be labelled ‘Confidential’.
  3. Child and parent records will generally be kept on a computer system which is held off site (not at the nursery). Data is held on a fully passworded and firewall protected server. Paper records may be kept in the nursery office and shall only be accessed for the purposes of caring for a child.
  4. Information is retained for periods as set out in Appendix 1 – Record Retention Schedule.

Duty to disclose information

  1. There is no obligation in general to pass on knowledge of a crime. However, it is a criminal offence to:
  • Deliberately mislead the police
  • Receive a reward of any kind in return for not notifying the police about a criminal act
  • Fail to notify the police about an act that could be construed as an act of terrorism
  • Fail to notify the police about an act that could be construed as drug trafficking
  • Knowingly take monies from a benefits agency fraudulently.
  1. In addition if staff believe that an illegal act has taken place, or that a member of staff or parent is at risk of harming themselves or others, they must report this to a senior manager who will report it to the appropriate authorities. Users should be informed of this disclosure. Please also see the Safeguarding Policy.

Disclosures

  1. When dealing with Disclosures and Disclosure information (DBS Checks) Bristol Childcare complies fully with the DBS Code of Practice which can be found at. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dbs-code-of-practice
  2. Disclosure information is always kept separately from an applicant’s personnel file in secure storage with access limited to those who are entitled to see it as part of their duties. It is a criminal offence to pass this information to anyone who is not entitled to receive it.
  3. Photocopies or originals of DBS certificates will not be kept. Managers will check DBS certificates and as per the EYFS, BCC will keep a record of the date of issue of a Disclosure, the name of the subject, the company used and the date of the Update Service renewal.

Data Protection

  1. The General Data Protection Regulation regulates when and how an individual’s ‘personal data’ may be obtained, held, used, disclosed and generally processed. It applies to processing of personal data and records.
  2. To comply with the law, information must be collected and used fairly, stored securely and not disclosed to any other person unlawfully. To do this, Bristol Childcare staff must comply with the Data Protection Principles, which are set out in the Regulation and in our Privacy Notice. In summary, these state that personal data shall be:
  • Processed fairly and lawfully and shall not be processed unless certain conditions are met
  • Obtained for specified and lawful purposes and not further processed in a manner which is incompatible with that purpose
  • Adequate, relevant and not excessive
  • Accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date
  • Kept for no longer than is necessary as outlined in Appendix 1 of this policy.
  • Processed in accordance with the data subject’s rights
  • Protected by appropriate security
  • Not transferred to a country unless that country has equivalent levels of protection for personal data.
  1. Bristol Child Care Ltd is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office. Full details can be found at https://ico.org.uk/ESDWebPages/Entry/Z1023897

Breaking Confidentiality

  1. Confidentiality may be broken in the following circumstances:
  • Where the person from whom the information was obtained, and (if different) the person to whom it relates, consents
  • Where the information is already available to the public from other sources
  • Where the information is in the form of a summary or collection of information so framed that it is not possible to ascertain from it information relating to any particular person
  • When there is a serious risk of harm to the individual, as in a threatened suicide
  • To protect others. For example, information about possible child abuse should be disclosed to the appropriate agency. Please see the Safeguarding Policy.
  • To prevent a serious criminal act, especially where others may be endangered, for example an act of terrorism.
  1. If a member of Bristol Childcare staff has to break confidentiality then the person whose personal information it is must be told that this is going to happen verbally if possible, or in writing if suitable, unless to do this would put a child at risk of significant harm. Please see the Safeguarding Policy. Other that for a Child Protection issue, the member of staff should only do so after all attempts to persuade the individual to disclose the information voluntarily have failed. A Bristol Childcare Director should be consulted before disclosure. They will be responsible for making the final decision about breaching confidentiality and ensuring that the correct action is taken.

 

List of appendices

Appendix 1 – Record Retention Schedule