Confidentialy and Data Protection
Task 3 links to learning outcome 1, assessment criteria 1.3.
• Confidentiality and data protection are vital when running a home based childcare service. Write an explanation of the importance of both.
Confidentiality
The definition of ‘confidential’ is;
1. Done or communicated in confidence; secret.
2. Entrusted with the confidence of another: a confidential secretary.
3. Denoting confidence or intimacy: a confidential tone of voice.
4. Containing information, the unauthorised disclosure of which poses a threat to national security.
Tassoni.P states that confidentiality is;
‘Not sharing with other people or passing on personal information about the families you are working with , except when it is in the child’s best interest to do so.’
(Tassoni.P, 2010).
As a childminder you will have access to information about the children in your care and perhaps members of their family which will be considered to be confidential. This means that there are only certain people who need to know this information and nobody else should have access to it. Those people are the parents of the child, myself as a childminder, in some cases the child themselves will be aware also. From time to time I will have to work with regulatory bodies and people from social services or the police. In these instances it will be my responsibility to share this information and help them as I can, always with the best interest of the child in mind.
Tassoni.P believes that
‘All early years practitioners working with children have to be aware of child abuse and consider their own role in protecting children’ (Tassoni.P et al, 2005)
As a childminder it will be my responsibility to make sure that any confidential information about any children in my care is locked away in a safe place and that I am the only person who has access to the key.
I will need to be aware of the following;
• The Law
• Signs and symptoms
• How to respond to a child when he/she discloses
• Confidentiality and data protection are vital when running a home based childcare service. Write an explanation of the importance of both.
Confidentiality
The definition of ‘confidential’ is;
1. Done or communicated in confidence; secret.
2. Entrusted with the confidence of another: a confidential secretary.
3. Denoting confidence or intimacy: a confidential tone of voice.
4. Containing information, the unauthorised disclosure of which poses a threat to national security.
Tassoni.P states that confidentiality is;
‘Not sharing with other people or passing on personal information about the families you are working with , except when it is in the child’s best interest to do so.’
(Tassoni.P, 2010).
As a childminder you will have access to information about the children in your care and perhaps members of their family which will be considered to be confidential. This means that there are only certain people who need to know this information and nobody else should have access to it. Those people are the parents of the child, myself as a childminder, in some cases the child themselves will be aware also. From time to time I will have to work with regulatory bodies and people from social services or the police. In these instances it will be my responsibility to share this information and help them as I can, always with the best interest of the child in mind.
Tassoni.P believes that
‘All early years practitioners working with children have to be aware of child abuse and consider their own role in protecting children’ (Tassoni.P et al, 2005)
As a childminder it will be my responsibility to make sure that any confidential information about any children in my care is locked away in a safe place and that I am the only person who has access to the key.
I will need to be aware of the following;
• The Law
• Signs and symptoms
• How to respond to a child when he/she discloses
Bibliography: Data Protection Act 1998 Tassoni.P et al, 2005, NVQ Level 3 Children’s Care, Learning and Development, Heinemann Educational Publishers. Tassoni.P et al, 2010, Level 3 Diploma Children and Young People’s Workforce Candidate Handbook, Heinemann.