Social Networking Policy

Social media is a large part of the world we live in and as such at Winston’s Place Day Nursery we need to make sure we protect our children by having procedures in place to ensure the safe use.

We use Facebook to share posts, pictures and videos of the experiences and activities the children have accessed at nursery, as well as to post updates, reminders and links to best practice.

In order to safeguard children, we ensure:
• We have prior parental consent for each child before posting any images
• Only the designated safeguarding lead or management team can post on our social media pages
• We have an open page which other can view and comment on the posts
• We have separate permission to use any images for any open public pages that we use for marketing purposes
• We monitor comments on all posts and address any concerns immediately, referring to the DSL where appropriate

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 are required to:
• 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 or family members
• Direct any parent questions relating to work via social networking sites, to the manager or DSL
• 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 or designated safeguarding lead immediately
• Follow the Staff behaviour policy at all times
• 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
• Follow this policy in conjunction with the Whistleblowing policy.

Failure to follow these points may result in disciplinary action, which could include dismissal.

All electronic communications between staff and parents should be professional and take place via the official nursery communication channels, e.g. work emails. 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 X.

We ask all parents and visitors to follow this policy to ensure that information about children, images and personal data does not fall into the wrong hands, in line with GDPR and safeguarding regulations.

We ask parents not to:
• Send friend requests to any member of nursery staff
• Screenshot or share any posts or pictures from the nursery on social media platforms as these may contain other children
• 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).

Parents are asked to:
• Share any concerns regarding inappropriate use of social media through the official procedures (please refer to the Parents as partners policy, Complaints and compliments policy).