Parental consent not given and schoolcpisted my child's photo on social media

[Survivormummy]

Hi,
My son had achieved an award along with other children in his school. The school have posted a photograph on social media. I have not given my consent. I have court orders in place to protect my child and I from the father and his family and I have sole custody of my child. The school have been made aware of this and have access to the court documents with the permission of the court of course.
Unfortunately this is not the first time my son's picture has been posted in social media by the school. This will make it the third time. I would not have minded if the school blurred my son's face etc. The father or his family are not allowed to know the identity of the school or where we are living due to fleeing from DA and there is not contact ordered by court. What shall I do? Is this a safeguarding concern?
Over 200 people have viewed the image so far and I am fearful the father or his family have not seen it. I have only been made aware of it myself as I don't have social media otherwise I could have acted faster.
You just never know. He has relatives and friends who are familiar of the area and school. What shall I do?

I would follow up the meeting with an email summarising what was said and asking her to correct any missing "facts" and to acknowledge it is an accurate record of the meeting.
i might cc in the LA

Hi, thanks for all your advice and support. I have since attended a stage one complaints meeting with the acting head and unfortunately alot of things were revealed that are very concerning as they are related to safeguarding. As a result, I wrote a stage 2 complaints letter to the chair of governors but unfortunately, I have received a response from the vice chair of governors instead. She said that the chair of governors is not available. Is this not important?

I am shocked that there is a clear pattern that the Vice-chair of governors is minimising things. She has also spoken to the acting hedteacher. The Vice-Chair of Governors is saying that they want to do a stage one as things I mentioned were not discussed in the meeting. I have complained about the acting headteacher aswell and her comments which she stated in the meeting and her lack of safeguarding awareness as she is also the safeguarding lead.

I discovered that safeguarding incidents and the breaches which occured in the past were not logged or reported as confirmed by the acting head. The acting head put the safeguarding incidents to human error. The acting head clearly told me that this is a stage one complaints meeting as I confirmed during the meeting.

As I wasn't happy with the outcome i informed her that i will be taking it further.
I wrote a letter to the Chair of governors as the acting headteacher refused to give me the email contact for the clerk, safeguarding governor and chair of governors email details.

I took the complaint and safeguardung concerns further in the stage 2 complaints letter and wrote to the chair of governor. I am not happy with the response received from the Vice-Chair of governors. Please help.

I am just horrified tbh but no advice unfortunately.

Maybe call ofsted. Flag safeguarding. See what they say! Are they due an inspection soon? May end up with one sooner!

1. School complaint
2. Refer to data protection
3. Tell your son to refuse anyone who tries to take his photo at school going forward

https://www.gov.uk/complain-about-school/state-schools

If you look at this website it says how and when you can complain to the dfe. I'd say they are stopping you from.following the complaints procedure by making you go back a stage bit o haven't seen the procedure so you may have to jump through that hoop again.

I would say, however, it is standard practice for the chair to nominate another governor to investigate the complaint and the whole point if a vice chair is to step up if the chair is ill or on holiday. It doesn't indicate a lack of importance or something gone wrong.

Complain to the ICO yourself:

https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/

I’d also get a solicitors letter personally in the hope it will make them pay attention and stop trying to palm you off. Be clear exactly what you’re complaining about, the dates and the possible consequences.

It sounds like the school is being purposely obstructive and unhelpful. See here for complaints:

https://www.gov.uk/complain-about-school/state-schools

As this is also a safeguarding matter, I’d contact your local council for advice and to let them know too. Other children could be affected, now or in the future.

Hi OP. This is all very concerning. The school is clearly failing in this critical area, so critical that Ofsted has the power to close a school immediately if they find serious safeguarding failures. I say this with authority as a former chair of governors, and safeguarding lead governor at both a primary and secondary school.

I think you need to report to Ofsted today. The school is not taking you seriously. The safeguarding number is 0300 1131231 or enquiries@ofsted.Gov.uk. 0300 123 4666 is the Ofsted number for complaints about schools. In your position, I would phone first so that you get instant advice and feedback. All they need to know is that 1. The school has on four separate occasions published a photo of your child, which allows them to be recognised, on social media without your consent. 2. A summary of tge circumstances relating to your child's father. 3. The treatment you have received at the hands of the acting head- downplaying, lack of access to governors.

You can follow up with an email over the next few days, editing the posts you have made here. They will take you seriously as there is a risk not only to your child but to all children at the school. I would check with them whether you need to inform the LADO (local authority designated officer) or whether Ofsted will do that.

There has been a data breach as they have shared without your permission an image that enables your child to be identified so you could inform the ICO but it's not the ICO that will result in the action you need.

This is appalling 😳
Sorry I don't have any advice.
What about the safeguarding lead at the school or the local authority?

Many schools have an opt out policy rather than an opt in one. Just get the school to fix it

I just don't understand why they must put everything on social media. Before that I used to wonder why they took photos all the time. Not necessary.

PS it was the failure of the school in Berkshire to log safeguarding incidents in the required manner that led to the school being rated Inadequate by Ofsted and the suicide of the head teacher Ruth Perry. The education provided was good but safeguarding was a limiting judgement. Note that it was the record keeping that fell short, not the processes in place to keep the children safe.

OP, please report this to Ofsted, this is an appalling breech of safeguarding. The school should have strict procedures for making sure this doesn't happen.

When I worked in a school any event or trip that photos would be taken, the staff would be provided with lists of which children did not have photo permission and could not be included in any pictures.

In a primary school, if the class teacher is taking photos regularly then they should know off by heart which children shouldn't be included, and be able to work around it so that the children concerned are not singled out or feel excluded.

This is awful. Don’t be too worried about the Chair not being around, it’s a voluntary role so they may be on holiday, busy at work etc. The vice can and will do what’s needed. Make sure you/they follow the complaints policy to the letter. Be clear about what outcome you want although they won’t tell you if staff have been disciplined, just that their policies have been followed. I’m a vice chair of a secondary btw and have dealt with complaints.

If I was in your position, I really would consider changing schools, this one really isn’t managing this safeguarding issue properly at all.

I'd report it to the governors. I'd report it to the LA. I'd also report it as a GDPR breach.

@Survivormummy I was thinking about your issues today.

My school phoned to ask about putting a picture of my child in a programme for the school play. Apparently I hadn't ticked either option and they needed to check.

I had ticked for my other kids but they didn't just assume it. And that's for a hard copy to be given out to parents and possibly grandparents as we were limited to two tickets each.

Schools should absolutely take this seriously.

I am not one to complain lightly but in this case I'd be taking it higher. It's simply not good enough.

As this has happened so many times before you can assume the school don't care. Only way to stop them in their tracks is to take legal action against the Head and deputy. Inform your L.E.A and inform them that you are not letting the matter drop.

I'd also do a subject access request. I'd ask for all correspondence relating to you and your child.

LA or Academy CEO if it's an Academy.

Thanks for adding.

Wowww I can't believe it. That's appalling!

Well, she is right in that it is human error, but in that case the school should be doing everything in their power to ensure that such errors , both for you and for others, do not occur again.

I suggest that today you send an email to the head, cc the Chair of Governors, your child’s teacher , and the safeguarding lead if different. In the email write all that has happened in the past with names and dates, and all that happened happened in the meeting ,including her responses etc then say that you want assurances that the “ human error” issue will be dealt with through immediate staff training. Ask for confirmation of this, and the date when it is planned to take place. Suggest that in future this forms a part of school staff training policy and that the training is scheduled to be repeated at the start of every school year to ensure that all new staff are fully aware.Say that if required you will be willing to come to talk at the initial training and explain (in general terms) why it is so important. Finally say that you are taking the opportunity ton reiterate that no pictures or videos of your child taken by staff members, parents, or outside agencies can be used on any internal social media, or published outside the school on any platform, and that your child can not be named or identified in any way that connects him to the school or locality.

https://www.gov.uk/report-teacher-misconduct

That might put a banger under them

I hope you got it sorted. That is appealing behaviour by the school