Information and Records
Stepping Stones Day Nursery must maintain records and obtain and share information with numerous people including parents and carers, other professionals working with the child and the police, social services and Ofsted as and when appropriate. This is to ensure the safe and efficient management of the setting and to help ensure that all the individual needs of the children in our care are met.
It is statutory that:
- Stepping Stones records the following information for each child in their care: full name; date of birth; name and address of every parent or carer who is known to the provider (and information about any other person who has parental responsibility for the child); which parent or carer the child normally lives with; and emergency contact details for parents and or carers.
- Stepping Stones enable a two way flow of information with parents and or carers and between providers, if a child is attending more than one setting.
- Stepping Stones endeavours to incorporate parents and carers comments into their children’s records.
- Records must be easily accessible and available.
- Confidential information and records about staff and children must be held securely and only accessible and available to those who have a right or professional need to see them.
- Stepping Stones ensures that all staff understands the need to protect the privacy of the children in their care as well as the legal requirements that exist to ensure that information relating to the child is handled in a way that ensures confidentiality.
- Parents and carers must be given access to all records about their child, provided that no relevant exemptions apply to their disclosure under the Data Protection Act 1998.
- Where the child may be at risk from harm the DPA sets out specific exemptions under which certain personal information, under specific circumstances be withheld from release.
- Records relating to individual children must be retained for a reasonable period of time after they have left the provision.