Bath Junior Gateway E-safety Policy

 

This policy and the procedures that it underpins apply to all staff, including senior managers and committee members, paid staff, volunteers, students and anyone working on behalf of Bath Junior Gateway Club.

​

• To protect children and young people who receive Bath Junior Gateway Club’s services and who make use of information technology (such as mobile phones, games consoles and the internet) as part of their involvement with us;

• To provide staff and volunteers with the overarching principles that guide our approach to e-safety;

• To ensure that, as an organisation, we operate in line with our values and within the law in terms of how we use information technology.

 

We recognise that:

​

• the welfare of the children/young people who come into contact with our services is paramount and should govern our approach to the use and management of electronic technologies;

• all children, regardless of age, disability, gender, racial heritage, religious belief, sexual orientation or identity, have the right to equal protection from all types of harm or abuse;

• working in partnership with children, young people, their parents, carers and other agencies is essential in promoting young people’s welfare and in helping young people to be responsible in their approach to e-safety;

• the use of information technology is an essential part of all our lives; it is involved in how we as an organisation gather and store information, as well as how we communicate with each other. It is also an intrinsic part of the experience of our children and young people, and is greatly beneficial to all. However, it can present challenges in terms of how we use it responsibly and, if misused either by an adult or a young person, can be actually or potentially harmful to them.

 

We will seek to promote e-safety by:

​

• appointinge-safety coordinators – Michelle Saunders and Jack Hill

• developing a range of procedures that provide clear and specific directions to staff and volunteers on the appropriate use of ICT;

• supporting and encouraging the young people using our service to use the opportunities offered by mobile phone technology and the internet in a way that keeps themselves safe and shows respect for others:

• supporting parents and carers to do what they can to keep their children safe online and when using their mobile phones and games consoles;

• incorporating statements about safe and appropriate ICT use into the codes of conduct both for staff and volunteers and for children and young people;

• developing an e-safety agreement for use with young people and their carers;

• use our policy to deal firmly, fairly and decisively with any examples of inappropriate ICT use, complaints or allegations, whether by an adult or a child/young person (these may include breaches of filtering, illegal use, cyberbullying, or use of ICT to groom a child or perpetrate abuse);

• informing parents and carers of incidents of concern as appropriate;

• reviewing and updating the security of our information systems regularly;

• providing adequate physical security for ICT equipment;

• ensuring that user names, logins and passwords are used effectively;

• ensuring that the personal information of staff, volunteers and service users (including service users’ names) are not published on our website;

• ensuring the images of children, young people and families and used only after their written permission has been obtained, and only for the purpose for which consent has been given;

• any social media tools used in the course of our work with children, young people and families must be risk assessed in advance by the member of staff wishing to use them;

• providing effective management for staff and volunteers on ICT issues, through supervision, support and training;

• examining and risk assessing any emerging new technologies before they are used within the organisation.

 

Monitoring and Review

​

Michelle Saunders and Jack Hill (Leader and Deputy) are responsible for monitoring the effectiveness of this policy. This policy will be reviewed every 2 years. Updated in August 2018. Next update 

​

​