Explain the Importance of CONFIDENTIALITY AND DATA PROTECTION
Define Data Protection Act 1998
It is a law that protects personal privacy and upholds individuals’ rights.
It applies to anyone who handles or has access to information about individuals. The Act also gives rights to the people the information is about. By law, everyone in the workplace must follow the rules set out in the Act and help protect individuals’ rights.
It is important to maintain confidentiality on a childcare setting in order to respect individuals in your care and their families.
Records that I will need to keep are
Parents’ contact details and emergency contact; like their names, address contact phone number, fees, and hours of care.
GP’s contact
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Data protection is a very important piece of legislation that was brought into power in 1998, because it has been designed to prevent confidential and personal information being passed on to other people and any relevant companies without a person’s consent. This also means that any information that is stored of children should be kept in either a password protected or lockable location.
As a childminder, if I stored any personal details about other people on my computer or any digital format (including smartphones and photos on digital cameras), I would probably need to notify the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) that I was a "data controller" for data protection purposes.
The ICO is the UK's independent public body set up to promote access to official information and protect personal information. The ICO enforces and oversees the Data Protection Act 1998.
Since 2008, as part of the Early Years Foundation Stage, childminders in England have been expected to keep more detailed records about individual children’s development and it is likely that if you keep these on a computer, you will need to register as a Data Controller with the ICO. If you are in any doubt about whether you will need to register,
The Importance Of Confidentiality & Data Protection For a Home Based Childcare Service
In order to run a childcare service there is a need to retain a large amount of information on each child.
The Data Protection
With the Data Protection Act (1998), the nursery has to control and protect the handling of the personal information of children and parents. Recklessness and naivety can cause personal information being let out into the public eye. Staff writing down children’s or their parent’s personal details or opinions can end up open to public view. This can be minimised by making sure all data is
Data Protection Act 1998 – gives individuals the right to know what information is held about them, and those that processes personal information must comply with eight principles, which makes sure that personal information is fairly and lawfully processed; processed for limited purposes; adequate, relevant and not excessive; accurate and up to date; not kept for longer than is necessary; processed in line with your rights; secure; not transferred to other countries without adequate protection;
Practitioners have a legal duty of confidence with regards to person information that they hold about children young people and their families. Any information you receive about young people and their families. In my work setting information should only be shared with professionals, all information child protection records should be kept securely. These are kept behind the manager’s desk on a tall shelf so that children can’t access them. Personal information should only be disclosed to third parties such as social services after obtaining the consent to who the information relates to in some child protection matters but it may not be possible to obtain consent. The data protection act 1998 allow allegation without consent in some circumstances for example to detect and prevent crime, to apprehend prosecute and offender.
Confidentiality applies to the children act in many ways it protects children and young peoples information from being put into the wrong hands although the children act does state that the person can obtain the information being held themselves as because of data protection you have the right to access your own files.
The data protection act- the data protection act is legislation put in place to keep personal data confidential. It can promote anti-discriminatory practice as it can stop people finding out information about individuals that the individual wants to stay private. E.g. phone numbers and addresses. These would need to stay private so people don’t find out where you live or what is wrong with you.
The Data Protection Act 1998 is a piece of legislation which defines the law on processing data of people living within the United Kingdom.
Adults who work with children and young people will come to know most of the personal information like date of birth, address and contact details and also sensitive information like behavioural issues, some medical information, family background, whether parents are divorcing and so on. It is the responsibility of the adult to keep this information confidential. They must protect the identity of the child they work with and that of their families and carers. They must do everything in their power to protect the privacy of every child and adult.
II. Have the necessary information of the children in my care beliefs, views and preferences recorded safety
Information Commissioner’s Office (2012) Introduction to The Data Protection Act 1998. [Online] Available from: http://www.ico.org.uk/~/media/documents/library/Corporate/Research_and_reports/ico_presentation_EVOC_20120528.ashx [Accessed: 11th October 2013]
The main points of legislation and procedures covering confidentiality, are that confidential documents/records should only be accessed by the appropriate people, except where a child /pupil is potentially at risk. Information should only be shared if previously agreed, for example, parental consent which involves parents signing a consent form.
This act applies to all organisations that process data relating to their staff and customers. It is the main legal framework in UK that protects personal data. The act contains 8 data protection principles which are:
The Data Protection Act 1998 defines UK law on the processing of data on identifiable living people. The act contains eight principles, which all organisations processing personal information must conform to, these are:
In my position as a family partner, my duties involve helping families, assessing their needs, completing goals, and exploring options to resolve situations that are triggering for them. To do so, I have to obtain personal information that is often sensitive and complex. Families are often afraid of sharing some information, because they fear it could lead to their children being removed from home. The organization I work for, focuses on strengthening care givers’ ability to care for themselves and their children. Our main goal is giving caregivers the opportunity to learn new skills and be the best they can be, while respecting their autonomy.
Legal Issues – The Data Protection Act 1998 is the act to control how your personal information is used by organisations, businesses or the government. All businesses, organisations and even the government must abide by this Act so that personal information must be used lawfully and fairly this means that everyone who has access to your personal information must use it for limited, specifically stated purposes and must inform the corresponding person of how his/her personal information is going to be used.
The information that educators gather should be kept confidential and only used for child’s learning and development, that is the reason the Code of Ethics is very important in early childhood education services “to enhance the protection of children and those who work within the service”. (National Working Group, 1994).