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Contents

1. Standards Expected
2. Restrictions on Use
3. Personal Use
4. Breach of Policy
5. Contracts, Copyright and Licensing
6. Safe Working Practices
7. Social Networking Sites
   
   Appendix 1 - Nursery Provided Mobile Phones

1. Standards Expected

The Nursery expects that all employees will use the equipment in a responsible and legal manner.

The use of offensive, abusive or inappropriate language in email or other communications is forbidden.

Any misuse in accordance with this policy may lead to the withdrawal of facilities, and in the case of employees of the council, to disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal.

All materials stored on systems are confidential, and subject to the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998. The Nursery expects the highest standards of confidentiality to be observed. Employees should clarify with their team leaders any queries they may have as to the storage and use of information on the systems.

User codes and passwords should not be made known to other users, unless it is necessary in order to access emails when employees are on annual leave and with full authorisation by the password holder.

The deliberate use of an unauthorised code or password to access information to which the employee is not entitled may well lead to disciplinary procedures.

2. Restrictions on Use

Internet & Information systems.

The use by any person of the Nursery's internet & information systems for any of the following purposes is strictly forbidden:

• Storing, accessing or downloading, or posting to the internet (including newsgroups and other internet based forums) material that is illegal, obscene, indecent, abusive, racist, sexist, libelous, in breach of copyright, defamatory or otherwise inappropriate;
• Transmitting, receiving, copying or storing digital media (including software, music, video etc) except for legitimate business purposes in a way that complies with the copyright and licensing regulations in Section 5;
• The playing of computer based games, access to chat rooms or similar personal entertainment;
• Personal use during working hours (The internet can be used during breaks as long as access complies with above restrictions).

NOTE: If an employee inadvertently visits an internet site which might constitute a breach of any part of this policy, they should immediately inform their line manager.

2.1 Messaging (email, telephones, mobiles, fax, SMS etc

The use by any person, of the Nursery or Council's communication and messaging systems for any of the following purposes is strictly forbidden:

• Accessing or transmitting, illegal, obscene, indecent, abusive, racist, sexist, and libelous, in breach of copyright, defamatory or otherwise inappropriate material;
• Sending anonymous messages;
• Sending messages, which are seen as harassing or bullying another person;
• Use of message attachments to perform downloads of, or store restricted material and digital media.

3. Personal use

Internet and information systems are provided for work purposes and their use for work must always take precedence. Some personal use will be allowed, subject to the following:

• Any personal use should be in the employees own time, that is before or after working hours, or during lunch breaks;
• All personal use shall be conducted in accordance with the restrictions in Section 2;
• The employee will declare any personal use which incurs additional cost to the Nursery and will reimburse as appropriate ( e.g. printing off of material from the internet);
• Trivial joke messages and downloads can block the Email boxes and waste staff time must be avoided.

3.1 Telephones

The private use of telephones and faxes will be subject to the following:

• Incoming and outgoing calls should be kept to a minimum (mobile or land line);
• Outgoing private calls should, wherever possible, be made during non-working time;
• It is the responsibility of the employee to maintain a record of all calls made on the Nursery's land line and repay all costs;
• Calls should be made using feature net, wherever possible;
• Private calls to adult lines, or to transmit or receive offensive, abusive, sexist, racist information is prohibited.

3.2 Messaging

The Nursery's (Council's) messaging systems (email, SMS) are primarily for business use, occasional and reasonable personal use will be allowed subject to the following:

• Any use does not interfere with the performance of the employees duties;
• All personal use must comply with the standards and restrictions set out in 2,3 and 4;
• Outgoing private messages, wherever possible, be made during non-working time.

4. Breach of Policy

Failure to comply with this policy:

1. May result in legal claims against employee and Nursery or Council;
2. May lead to the withdrawal of the facility; and
3. May lead to disciplinary action being taken against the employee, up to and including dismissal.

5. Contracts, copyright and licensing

5.1	The Nursery, its staff and other authorised users will use all systems in a way that complies with all legal requirements regarding copyright, contracts and licences.
5.2	Employees must seek advice from ICT support before proceeding with software installation.
5.3	All electronic messages are regarded as having the same legal status as other written and signed documents. They are legally binding on the Nursery; therefore care should be taken with the content. Employees should not overstep their delegated powers by committing the Nursery to any transaction they are not authorised to enter into.
5.4	The copying of any documents, and their subsequent use, must comply with laws of copyright, licensing and the ownership of intellectual property.
5.5	The use of electronic facilities for the purpose of orders for work, goods and services for the Nursery should have regard to Financial regulations. Verbal orders shall be kept to a minimum and shall be confirmed no later than the next working day on official written order marked accordingly. In the same way electronic orders should be followed by a hard copy official order form so that an adequate record of the transaction is available.
5.6	All the material stored on the Nursery's systems are the property of the Nursery and should not be used by any individual for any purpose other that legitimate Nursery / council business.

6. Safe Working Practices

Mobile Phones

The increasing use of mobile phones as cameras means that it is difficult to control photographs being taken for purposes other than legitimate Nursery use. The Nursery therefore bans the use of mobile phones by Nursery users in all children's areas of the building.

Employees are not permitted to take mobile phones into children's areas and must keep them locked away until breaks, when they can be accessed away from the children's play areas.

Any photographs of children taken for curriculum, record and any other legitimate purpose must be taken on one of the Nursery’s cameras and uploaded on to one of the Nursery's computers, then deleted from the camera.

Parents must give permission for the taking and storage of photographs and must be given access to any photographs taken of their child, with the option to remove any from file if they wish.

7. Social networking sites

Social networking sites are popular and their use now common, however the information discussed on these sites can have confidentiality / privacy implications and so in order to ensure that both employees of the Council and Nursery, Nursery users, and the work of the Nursery are not compromised, the following rules and guidance apply.

Employees should not establish or seek to establish social contact with parent users of Nursery services. Employees are strongly discouraged from allowing access to their face book site from parent users and where they may request to be 'friends' they should be politely refused on the basis of this policy. Parent users are allowed access this policy on request.

In general situations and where parents may already be personal friends of an employee, the employee must not discuss or disclose any information / images on the networking site which may identify  a colleague or child or any information confidential or otherwise appertaining to the Nursery and colleagues.

Where an employee of the Nursery (or permanently based at the Nursery) encourages or allows Nursery user access to their personal networking site  and information / images on that site , identify  colleagues, children /other Nursery users, or the Nursery, disciplinary action may be taken in respect of that employee.

Appendix 1 - Nursery Provided Mobile phones

Mobile phones are provided for staff who undertake home visits, each family support worker is assigned a phone and one phone is available for Nursery staff who are making pre admission visits. Users of mobile phones must comply with the restrictions outlined in the general policy and procedure - use of electronic equipment.

All staff are reminded that it is illegal to use a mobile phone whilst driving and an individual could be prosecuted for doing so. Therefore staff members are instructed NOT to use the mobile phone whilst driving. The Nursery will accept no responsibility for any staff members who are prosecuted for using mobile phones whilst driving and will not pay fines or support staff who are found liable.

Phones must be used for work purposes only, that is:

• Emergency phone calls;
• Back to base checking in/out;
• Work related messages to other staff members or families.

On issue, phones to be signed for and where the phone is no longer needed must be handed in.

It is the responsibility of staff members to:

• Ensure that phones are kept safe, e.g. not left in cars;
• (If the phone is a  top up and not Family Services Contract) Ensure that when a top up is needed admin staff are alerted in good time;
• If a phone is lost or damaged, it is the staff member's responsibility to replace it;
• If a phone is stolen as a result of a staff member's negligence, the staff member must replace the phone.

When assigned a Phone it must not be used by anyone other than named person.

Collectively the top ups will cost the Nursery a significant amount of money annually and so all calls must be kept to a minimum.

Calls cost 15p for the first min and 5p each minute after that, text messages 3p per message (so texting is cheaper where staff just want to send an I'm OK message).

The number of top ups used by each phone will be monitored and any excessive use will need a satisfactory explanation, otherwise staff may be charged.

Phones on a Family Services contract will be recharged to the Nursery on a monthly basis with a breakdown of calls and therefore monitored in the same way.

End