Social Networking Policy

Social Networking Policy

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

We use Facebook and Instagram 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 written permission in place from parents before posting any images of children
• Only the designated person or management can post on our social media pages
• We have a closed page which only parents and others who have been invited to join the group 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.

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 we ask staff:
• • Not to name the setting they work at
  • Not to make comments relating to their work or post pictures in work uniform
  • Not to send private messages to any parents or family members
  • To direct any parent questions relating to work via social networking sites, to the manager
  • To ensure any posts reflect their professional role in the community (e.g. no inappropriate social event photos or inappropriate comments i.e. foul language)
  • To report any concerning comments or questions from parents to the manager or designated safeguarding lead
  • To follow the Staff behaviour policy
  • Not to 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
  • To follow this in conjunction with the Whistleblowing policy.
• If any of the above points are not followed then the member of staff involved will face disciplinary action, which could result in dismissal.

*Note from Citation: 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 Parents as partners policy, Complaints and compliments policy).