The boundaries of confidentiality are in place to keep the information of children, parents, carers, and the members of staff confidential.
It is the responsibility of all the members of staff to keep the records of children and staff members, which contains personal information safe and confidential. This information should not be shared with other agencies and people unless it is essential. If sharing personal information is needed in order to protect a child then it should be shared on a ‘need to know basis. This means that the information should only be shared with people or agencies who are supposed to know it and who can play an important role in the protection of children.
All the computerized records should be secured and have a password on them. Contact numbers of the parents of children and the photographs of children should not be kept on personal mobile phones.
Schools, nurseries, and early years settings have policies and procedures in place which must be followed to keep children and other people safe. Sometimes some unsuitable and unsafe people get into the childcare profession and cause harm to children. Like the case of Vanessa George, who was a nursery nurse and she abused children by taking their inappropriate pictures while changing their nappies and sent them to pedophiles. If the nursery’s policies of mobile phone and intimate care had been followed then this would not have happened.
If a practitioner finds out that a member of staff is abusing children or a child makes allegations about another member of staff then this situation should be handled with care and there should be policies in settings to deal with allegations and disclosure.
References
- NSPCC – Child Protection System
- Child Law Advice – Confidentiality
- Gov.uk – Working Together to Safeguard Children
- Care Inspectorate – Confidentiality in Policy and Practice
- Department for Education – National Minimum Standards for Childminding and Day Care
- UK Parliament – Children Act 2004 (Part 5)
