Confidentiality

Policy
Aim
To protect the child at all times and to give all staff involved clear,
unambiguous guidance as to their legal and professional roles and to ensure
good practice throughout the school which is understood by
pupils, parents/carers and staff.

Rationale
• Blakeney School seeks to put the child at the heart of the learning process and
to provide a safe and secure learning environment. It seeks to implement the
underlying principles of the Every Child Matters Agenda and to address the
issues, which may arise about confidentiality.
• It is committed to developing creative and positive ways for the child’s voice
to be heard whilst recognising the responsibility to use, hold and safeguard
information received.
• The school is mindful that it is placed in a position of trust by all stakeholders
and there is a general expectation that a professional approach will be used in
all matters of confidentiality.
• The School has a duty of care and responsibility towards pupils,
parents/carers and staff. It also needs to work with a range of outside agencies
and share information on a professional basis.
Striking an effective and professional balance between these two aims is crucial
to the success of a confidentiality policy.

Objectives:
1. To provide consistent messages in school about handling information about
children once it has been received.

2. To foster an ethos of trust within the school.

3. To ensure that staff, parents and pupils are aware of the school’s
confidentiality, policy and procedures.

4. To reassure pupils that their best interests will be maintained.

5. To encourage children to talk to their parents and carers.

6. To ensure that pupils and parents/carers know that school staff cannot offer
unconditional confidentiality.

7. To ensure that there is equality of provision and access for all including
rigorous monitoring of cultural, gender and special educational needs

8. To ensure that if there are child protection issues then the correct procedure is
followed.
9. To ensure that confidentiality is a whole school issue and that during lessons
ground rules are set for the protection of all.

10. To understand that health professionals are bound by a different code of

conduct.

11. To ensure that parents have a right of access to any records school may hold
on their child but not to any other child that they do not have parental
responsibility for.

Guidelines
1. All information about individual children is private and should only be
shared with those staff who have a need to know.

2. All social services, medical and personal information about a child should be
held in a safe and secure place which cannot be accessed by individuals other
than school staff.

3. The school continues to actively promote a positive ethos and respect for the
individual:

a) The Child Protection Officer receives regular training. The Headteacher has
ultimate responsibility for child protection.
b) There is clear guidance for procedures for the handling of child protection
incidents.
All staff have regular training on child protection issues.
c) There is clear guidance for procedures if a member of staff is accused of
inappropriate conduct.
d) Staff are aware that effective sex and relationship education which brings an
understanding of what is and is not acceptable in a relationship, can lead to
disclosure of a child protection issue.
e) Staff are aware of the need to handle all issues about different types of
families in a sensitive manner.
f) Any intolerance about gender, faith, race, culture or sexuality is unacceptable
and should follow the schools discipline policy.
g) Information collected for one purpose should not be used for another.

4. Parents/carers and children need to be aware that the school cannot

guarantee total confidentiality and the school has a duty to report child
protection issues.
5. The school prides itself on good communication with parents and carers and
staff are always available to talk to both children and parents/carers about
issues that are causing concern. The school encourages children to talk to
parents/carers about issues causing them concern and may in some cases
support the children to talk to their parents. The school would share with
parents any child protection disclosure before going on to inform the correct
authorities.

6. Parents/carers and children should feel reassured that in exceptional

circumstances confidentiality will be broken.

7. All children have a right to the same level of confidentiality irrespective of

gender, race, religion, medical concerns and special educational needs. A lot of
data is generated in schools by these categories but individual children should
not be identified.

8. The school has appointed a senior member of staff as Child Protection

Officer. Child protection procedures are understood by staff and training is
undertaken every two years for all staff.

9. Confidentiality is a whole school issue. Clear ground rules must be set for
any classroom work such as circle time and other PSHE sessions dealing with
sensitive issues such as death etc. Strategies are in place and all children are
aware of them for dealing with sensitive information which may fall outside the
boundaries of child protection procedures. School needs to be proactive so
children feel supported but information is not necessarily revealed in a public
arena. Even when sensitive information appears to be widely known it should
not be assumed by those immediately involved that it is appropriate to discuss
or share this information further.

10. Health professionals have their own code of practice dealing with
confidentiality. Staff should be aware of children with medical needs and the
class information sheet should be accessible to staff who need the information,
but not on general view to other parents/carers and children.

11. Photographs of children should not be used without parents/carers

permission especially in the press and on the internet and further details about
this are clearly stated in the School’s Acceptable (Internet) Use Policy.
12. Information about children will be shared with parents but only about their
child. Parents should not have access to any other child’s books, marks and
progress at any time, especially at parents’ evening. However, parents should
be aware that information about their child will be shared with the receiving
school when they change school. All personal information about children,
including social services records should be regarded as confidential. It should
be clearly understood by those who have access to it, and whether those
concerned have access to all, or only some of the information
Appendix
‘Confidentiality’ also refers to protecting the information we hold about the
pupils in this school and their families. All staff will endeavor to maintain
confidentiality when appropriate, for example by considering the conversations
they have about pupils and their families, the purpose of these conversations
and where these take place. All students and helpers at the school will be made
aware of this through our Confidentiality Statement (see below).

Confidentiality Statement:
Teachers talk about their job constantly. Conversations at breaks and
lunchtimes are often about school, individual children and their families.
We ask that such conversations are regarded as confidential.
Similarly, the work, progress and behaviour of individual children is a matter
of fact for the teacher, the child and the parents of the child. Any comments
made by students about a child, or an incident at school may be misinterpreted
and lead to misunderstandings.
Small incidents are dealt with in school and should end there. More serious
incidents will be discussed, in confidence, with parents. We feel sure you will
understand the need for such confidentiality on school matters. As a student/
helper in the school we ask that you respect confidentiality on such matters to
avoid misunderstandings and upset.

Record Keeping
The school shall keep the following records:-

• Pupil Education Records

• Pupil Admission Documents and Personal Information

• Personnel Records

• Financial Records

• Curriculum Policy Documents

• Non-Curricular Policy Documents

PUPIL EDUCATION RECORDS

Keeping, Disclosure and Transfer
The school shall keep and update curricular records on pupils, covering their
academic achievements, other skills and abilities and progress in school. (This
may well include summative records, formative records, examples of work,
copies of reports and profiles, SATS results) Other material, although not
mandatory may also be recorded. The curricular record, together with this
additional material will comprise a pupil's educational record.

Confidential reports (e.g. from Social Services, Psychological Reports etc.) must
be kept separately from the above general information.
Pupils' educational records (except for exempted material as specified on DES
Circular 17.89) shall be disclosed on request to parents within the time specified
by the statute in force at the time, and to schools considering a pupil for
admission or following a request from another school after transfer.

The school shall provide an opportunity for the correction of inaccurate

educational and personal records. Governors shall consider appeals against any
decision by the Headteacher or any teacher with delegated authority to refuse
to disclose, transfer, copy or amend a pupil's record.

PUPIL ADMISSION DOCUMENTS

The School shall keep admission records specifying any information required
by the LA, School Governors or DFE relating to pupils on roll at the time. These
shall be kept up-to-date and amended as and when pupils join or leave the
school, providing that the keeping of such information does not contravene any
law or statute in operation at the time.

PERSONNEL RECORDS
The School shall maintain records of personnel relating to their qualifications,
experience, length of service, salary levels. Performance Management
statements shall be the property of the employee and shall not be maintained
with the above records and shall not be used in any way other than at the
request of, or with the permission of the employer. A single copy of
performance management may be kept securely in the Headteacher’s office.
Records of performance management statements shall NOT be kept on
computer disc or system.
Application forms of applicants (and references) for vacant posts will be kept
securely in the school office until an appointment has been made. Following a
successful interview the successful candidate's application and references shall
be forwarded to the LA personnel department and the others kept for no less
than six months securely within the school with access by the Headteacher
only. Any copies of these applications shall be destroyed following a successful
appointment.

References for staff within the school for posts outside it shall be kept securely
by the Headteacher and shall not be kept with the personnel records in
Paragraph 1 of this section.
FINANCIAL RECORDS
Records of the school's financial controls and budget shall be kept in accordance
with current DFE and LA regulations and shall be made available for inspection
by the proper authorities under those statutes and regulations.

CURRICULUM POLICY DOCUMENTS

Documents which describe the schools policies on areas, subjects of the
curriculum, topics, schemes of work etc. shall be maintained up-to-date and
available for inspection by authorised persons (e.g. parents, advisors,
inspectors, governors etc.). The Headteacher will maintain a master copy of
each document in safe keeping and available for inspection by authorised and
appropriate personnel.

NON-CURRICULAR POLICY DOCUMENTS

Documents which describe the school's policies on non-curricular matters as
required by the Governing Body, Ofsted, LA or DFE shall be prepared,
maintained and kept up-to-date and made available to authorised persons as
required. A list of the required policies shall be made available also and up-
dated as appropriate. These policies shall include the Ground Rules of each
committee of the Governing Body as they exist at the time.

Destruction of Documents
1.1
The attached document sets out the policy and principles which are to form the
Blakeney Primary School Retention, Disposal and Destruction Guidelines.

1.2
Where appropriate, existing countywide policy has been adhered to – particularly in
the area of Financial Records and audit requirements. Where there has been no specific
legislative requirement for the retention or disposal of records, advice has been sought
from the County Archives on best practice.

1.3
Much of the paperwork relating to Child Care is statute based and the retention
periods quoted are legally required.

1.4
Where records are archived electronically, the same retention periods apply as if they
were paper based records.

1.5
Individual records may be retained longer, with the specific approval of the Director of
Children’s Services

1.6
Once case files are closed, they should be retained for up to 12 months within the area
offices and then archived.
1.7
Before they are archived, all files should have a destruction date clearly marked on the
front cover and contain a tracking sheet. Archiving should be done in accordance with
the procedures available from the Archive Service, using the correct paperwork
available from Records Management.

Definition of “closure”:

1.8
For the purposes of this document a case is closed when all resources (including
allocated social workers) provided by the Department have ceased and where no legal
case reasons apply.

1.9
Documents of particular worth, interest or value may be of further interest to the
County Records Office. A schedule of documents should be notified to the County
Records Officer one month prior to destruction (this does not include personal records)

Destruction of files
1.10
All records are to be destroyed by shredding when the retention period has expired.