Get the right policy to protect families in a childcare setting
Get the right policy to protect families in a childcare setting
It is important to have and maintain the confidentiality policy in a childcare setting for the protection of children their families and the staff. It is important that information stored or discussed that is about anybody attending the setting is not for public discussion.
As information about children's families is essential for the care of the child, parents / guardians need to be able to trust the setting and to do this a confidentiality policy is put in place, for this all parents, guardians, students etc are made aware of the policy and principles to this. Parents are informed that they have access to the information held in the childcare setting about their child at anytime and also have knowledge that the documents that relate to their child being kept in a secure location within the setting.
It is against the law to share information as it is everyone's right to privacy to make sure of this the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA 1998) is enforced. The importance is that the parents are happy with the policy and it assures them that their information is safe throughout the day due to protection from laws and policies and this covers for all staff and child minders. Under no circumstances do staff or students discuss individual children with other parents / carer's / guardians etc.
Both the setting, the staff and the parents work together and follow the policy to assure each other that the beat is being done for each individual child, that their best interests are looked after and that it protects the families, staff and children by law to keep them and their information safe.