At SEN Space, staff can be said to have a ‘confidential relationship’ with families. It is our intention to respect the privacy of children and their parents and carers, while ensuring that they access high quality early years care and education. We aim to ensure that all parents and carers can share their information in the confidence that it will only be used to enhance the welfare of their children. We have record keeping systems in place that meet legal requirements; the means that we use to store and share that information takes place within the framework The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act (2018) and the Human Rights Act (1998). It is important to note that the GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 do not prevent, or limit, the sharing of information for the purposes of keeping children and young people safe.

 

 

Confidentiality Procedures

 

· Most things that happen between the family, the child and the setting are confidential to our setting.

· Occasionally it may be necessary to share information about a child with, for example, other agencies or professionals, or possibly social care or the police.

· If we judge that information needs to be shared with another agency we will ask for consent from a parent/carer, except in exceptional circumstances in which the safety or welfare of the child might be jeopardised.

· Some parents may share information about themselves or their child with other parents; we cannot be held responsible if information is shared by those parents whom the person has confided in.

· We inform parents when we need to record confidential information beyond the general personal information we keep – for example regarding any injuries, concerns, or changes in relation to the child or the family, any discussions with parents on sensitive matters, any records we are obliged to keep regarding action taken in respect of child protection and any contact and correspondence with external agencies in relation to their child.

· All records, whether on paper or electronic, are kept securely. No-one outside the SEN Space staff has access to any information kept by the organisation about the children at the setting.

· Staff discuss children’s general progress and well-being together in meetings, but more sensitive information is restricted to our manager and the child’s Key Worker and is shared with other staff on a need-to-know basis.

· We do not discuss children with anyone who is not involved in the child’s care, including with other parents or anyone else outside of the setting.

· Our discussions with other professionals take place within a professional framework and not on an informal or ad-hoc basis.

· Parents may at any time request to see all confidential information that SEN Space holds about their child. To do so they need to email the manager, who will arrange for all such information to be provided to them.

· Our recording procedures and guidelines ensure that all records made about a child or family reflect an accurate and non-judgemental account of any work done or discussions held.

· The law requires that the information we hold must be accurate. If a parent says that the information, we hold is inaccurate, then the parent has a right to request for it to be changed. However, this only pertains to factual inaccuracies.

 

 

Children’s Records

 

We have record keeping systems in place that meet legal requirements; the means we use to store and share that information takes place within the framework of the Data Protection Act (1998) and the Human Rights Act (1998). We keep two kinds of records on children attending our setting:

 

Developmental Records

· These include observations of children in the setting, photographs, video clips and samples of their work and summary developmental reports.

 

 

Personal Records

These may include the following (as applicable):

· Personal details – including the child’s enrolment form and any consent forms.

· Parents details including contact information (address, phone numbers, email) and contact information for other adults (emergency contacts).

· Contractual matters – including a copy of the signed terms and conditions, the child’s days and times of attendance, a record of the child’s fees, any fee reminders, or records of disputes about fees.

· Child’s development, health, medical needs, and well-being – information gathered via the enrolment form when the child starts at SEN Space and any information added afterwards.

· Any additional focussed intervention provided by our setting (e.g., support for behaviour, language, or development needs plan) and records of any meetings held.

· Welfare and child protection concerns – including records of all welfare and protection concerns, and our resulting action, meetings and telephone conversations about the child, a Health and Care Plan and any information regarding a Looked After Child.

· Dates and times of attendance.

· Accident and incident reports.

 

 

Procedures

 

· Children's records, as outlined above, are kept both electronically and on paper, depending on what is most appropriate and necessary. In all cases, the records are kept securely and are only accessible by a member of SEN Space staff or, on request, the parent of the child.

· Any paper records that are held by staff during a session (e.g., contact details) are locked securely overnight.

· Shared electronic folders are shared only with SEN Space staff.

· If a child attends another setting, we establish a regular two-way flow of appropriate information with parents and other providers. Where appropriate, we will incorporate comments from other providers, as well as parents and/or carers into the child’s records.

· We may be required to hand children’s personal files to The Early Years Team as part of an inspection or investigation process. We ensure that children’s personal files are not handed over to anyone else to look at.

· Parents have access, on request, to the files and records of their own children, but do not have access to information about any other child.

· Our staff will not discuss personal information given by parents with other members of staff, except where it affects planning for the child's needs.

· Our staff induction programme includes an awareness of the importance of confidentiality in the role of the key person.

· We retain children’s records for three years after they have left the setting; except records that relate to an accident or child protection matter, which are kept until a child reaches the age of 21 years or 24 years respectively. These are kept in a secure place.

 · Other than when sharing with other agencies or professionals, with parental consent, staff never share any information about a child outside of the organisation or save electronic files in any location other than the secure shared folders.

 

 

Record Retention Periods

 

Records are retained either in paper or electronic form, depending on what is more practical and secure. All retained records are held securely and can only be accessed by SEN Space management.

 

 

 

Policy Review

 

Last reviewed: September 2023 by Vikki Benton

Next review date: 30th September 2024