to think that you should get permission to use a child for a college assignment?

[HoneyPablo]

I work in a nursery and am key-person for a child with global developmental delays, currently receiving portage and further involvement with other agencies.
A member of staff is doing a course and asked if she could have a copy of the report from the portage service to use in an assignment.
Fine, I said, as long as you have permission from child's parent.
She stormed off and later told me I need to grow-up
So, as parents, would you like it if confidential information was given to a member of the staff to use in their assignment without your permission?
I know I wouldn't if I hadn't given my permission first. But would probably be ok if I was asked.
AIBU?

I forgot to add though, she had to change his name.

I don't think that this is research but more a piece of work that calls for 'a critical intervention or planning' (for a service user). or to look at the assessment, planning, intervention, delivery of services. If it is for an NVQ 3 or above.

This may be similar to a SW BA. As long as the student (even if an exsisting staff member) is normally privy to that document or knowledge, it is done in a way that will not breach confidentiality, then permission is not needed.

The assessor will judge the document/information used and will have already explained how identities should be protected. This also teaches what information is on a 'need to know basis', as schools are not always told all of the information held by SS.

If permission was always needed then there would be cases of students not being able to meety the criteria, where the placement isn't statutory.

OP surely you have a manager that this should have been requested from?

Birds read the OPS message of 18:55

she also states in another message- IIRC - that this student would NOT normally have access to this document.

"If permission was always needed then there would be cases of students not being able to meety the criteria, where the placement isn't statutory." - student's wouldn't meet the criteria if they didn't do the hard work involved getting the right permissions! The correct use of data is also part of good professional practice!

Haven't read the whole thread but DS (3) was the subject of a student's college project at his nursery - he is seeing a SALT and I think she needed an example of liaison with an outside agency. Anyway, DS' key carer asked my permission beforehand and I was also asked to sign the back of the photos of DS that she wanted to use. I happily gave my permission but I think I would have been concerned had I not have been asked.

I'm shocked that she thought it was OK to use the child without permission, and I'd be taking that up with the head of nursery so that confidentiality is respected. It should be written policy.
As for her bing angry about your refusal..WTF?
LTC, I'm a teacher and a student mentor, and in my school we would insist on parental agreement.

I was asked for permission by a staff member to use dd for a case study as part of a course they were on. I was happy to let them do this and was even given a copy of the notes that were written.

I would be furious though if I discovered that my child's confidential records were being handed over without permission for someone's own personal use.

Legally permission was not required on the PGCE/other education courses I did but it was essential that the children used couldn't be identified so names etc had to be withheld or changed to something non-identifiable (child a for example). However and leaving the legalities aside common courtesy would be to ask first, as we were all encouraged to do.

legality and good ethical practice are not always the same thing penguin - and what is important in good practice in professions dealing with the use of data relating to real people is the notion of "informed consent". If information is gathered and stored for one purpose then it is not good practice to assume it can be used for another purpose. A parent would usually assume that information about their child is stored at the nursery / school to ensure those dealing with their child have all the information they need. They will not assume that data is available to people outside of the institution, consent must be obtained for that.

it is not enough to change names etc in this situation as there are too many variables that would identify the child in question, e.g. the name of the student, where they did their placement, age of child, specific diagnosis etc. It certainly doesn't seem like the student concerned has enough skill or awareness to be able to sufficiently disguise the information to pass ethical scrutiny.

lovingthecoast "Booboostoo, that's interesting. In the case of student teachers, they never need the info for the direct benefit of the child. Well, perhaps to inform better planning but it is mainly used for their own professional reflection and to better improve their practice."

That is not necessarily a problem in iteself. It can be perfectly acceptable to carry out research for teaching purposes, otherwise how would any student learn, but of course it depends on the research. The less risk of harm to the subject the easier to justify research which benefits others (students, other subjects, society), the greater the risk of harm to the subject the greater the need to benefit the subject herself.

In this case the risk of harm was relatively small, but the measures which would need to be taken to minimize it very easy (consent and anonymity) so there is no reason to waive those requirements. As part of student training it is also important to get students to understand why respect for consent and confidentiality are important even in the relatively less important cases.

If ANYONE used my dc with SN as a case study without my permission, I would be extremely angry. It is up to ME if my dc is used as a case study - not anyone else.

OP - YANBU.

YANBU
One of the staff at DS's pre-school asked me if it would be okay for her to use my son in one of her assignments as she was doing it on language problems. She would never have not asked as it is not part of the daily pre-school life and she is not DS's key worker.
I said yes, was more then happy but can't say I would have been very happy had she not asked and I had found out after the fact or by accident.

YANBU there is a world of difference between using a child as a case study, and as happens in PGCEs most of the time writing about a child amongst others all suitably anonymised.
I have been asked on a couple for occasions for my child to be used by staff in their coursework, and would expect always to be asked if more than a few details about the child were going to be used, or in depth study made.

I'm a bit surprised at the nursery manager "not wanting to get involved" surely she should be "involved" in one of her staff having an unprofessional attitude to being given correct advice.

Just to clarify; I think if I was going to do a case study on one particular child or had a student who was going to do so, then I'd consider it good practice to request permission.

I suppose my answer was based on the fact that that rarely happens with teachers/student teachers. It is more that they would refer to a child anonomously and discuss how they are best meeting that child's needs. So there may be 6 children in a Y4 class on SA+ and the student teacher produces a reflective assignment of how they have met the challenges of these children both individually and in terms of the whole class. In order to complete such an assignment and indeed meet the needs of the child in the first place, the student is often given access to confidential reports relating to these children.

I have never considered this a breach of confidentiality as I've always considered the student teacher as part of the team helping to facilitate the child's learning. Clearly some parents are shocked and offended by this and I apologise for that but IME, it is common practice.

Getting parental permission was drilled into me the first time I started a childcare course. I always ensure I have permission, it's disrespectful not too and this worker is unprofessional to the extreme!

I have worked in playwork and in schools. I have recently been involved in teacher training. I am absolutely certain that I would have been required in any of my posts to obtain parental permission to use a child as subject of coursework, research or a case study. Even if it wasn't what I had been taught is ethical, it's just common good manners to do so.

When my son was at nursery we had a written letter from a sixteen year old student asking for permission to use information about my son in a college project. She was learning how to assess children's development as part of her NVQ level 2 childcare qualification. We were delighted to be able to help her. She had to compare and contrast the development of my son with other children who were developing normally and look at what provision needed to be made to include my son.

I think its common decency to ask the parents.

at my sons school and pre-school they ask parents permission, infact i was asked last week if i would mind if ds4's key worker used him as a case study type thing for a college assessment she was doing, i said not a problem, but she asked politely and was clear about confidentiality etc.

ditto at the boys primary it has strong links to a local UNI and as such we get lots of students, either volunteers or doing training etc and they ALL ask permission, even when it is all to be annonymous and we are given the option of withdrawing our children from certain activities they will be doing etc. i have always said yes as they have to learn! and i think my kids gain from it anyway, ditto at childbirth i have had student drs and midwives present, but in each case i was asked beforehand and it was all made very clear to me what i was agreeing to etc, that is good practise imo and i wouldnt be very happy to find out after the even that my child had been involved in something like this and my consent not asked.

When I was a student we always had to get the parents permission. We also had to use pseudonyms

Wow what ever happened to that thing called the law. Specifically, the legislation called the Data Protection Act....

I recently completed the Foundation Degree of which you speak! It was drilled into us that you must ask the parents' permission. Not sure if that's 'the law' but it's certainly ethical, good practice and downright polite. Wouldn't like to think of any child being used as 'material.' As for her telling you to 'grow up', well, niiiiice lady is all I can say

So are some posters suggesting that a student teacher requests permission from all parents in each class? I ask because a final practice student will be required to keep a log and they regularly make notes about a good number of the students in the class. I have always suggested they use the child's number in the register and they keep a copy of the register so they know who they have referred to. They do not hand the register in at the end so anyone reading their log sees only a number and cannot identify any one child.

I'm also interested as to whether parents object to student teachers having access to confidential materials as part of their placement? Should schools seek permission for this? What about when a new Ed Phych comes in or a newly appointed social worker? Or ofsted inspectors? I'm asking a genuine question btw as I'm very interested to know how parents feel about this?

lovingthecoast: no, because individual children would not be identifiable as no specific characteristics would be referenced.

In the case in OP, she was hoping to use a child with a specific diagnosis, and discuss issues arising from that diagnosis. Aside from the ethical issues, if that child were the only one with that condition then s/he is potentially identifiable to anyone who knew the author's place of work. This may also be legally actionable.

I still haven't given her the report and she hasn't asked me again, nor has she asked the parent for permission yet. I would give her the report if she had asked for permisssion today.
I understand about professional development and have helped lots of students over the years. We always have students in the nursery, from school age doing childcare to student EYPs. They all do obversations on the children and I certainly don't have a problem with that. It's the fact that my colleague fails to see why she should ask for permission from the child's parent. This really concerns me, actually, as it displays a real lack of respect for the child as an individual and her family.
I am wondering if I should contact somebody at the college. I am a student at the same place. I really don't want to get her into trouble, but I know that the college emphasise the importance of getting parental permission.
I also feel unsupported by my manager, as it was her that suggested my colleague use the report in the first place. Although she told me that she also said that the staff member should get permission first- I have no way of knowing if she actually did or is just saying she did to cover her own back, as she knows I am in the right.

Thanks for replying, Meditrina! Specific characteristics are often discussed such as children with additional needs. But no child is ever referred to by name. Though, of course, if a course tutor wanted to I suppose they could in theory identify certain children as there may only be one child in that class who has an asd or is under SS.