Question
Q – “I have a nursery policy that no staff members can accept or add children’s parents/carers on social media. In the past I have used disciplinary action when they have ignored this. How do other settings deal with this?”
Answers
A – “This is an interesting article exploring practitioners and parents being friends on social media http://www.earlyyearscareers.com/…/early-years…/ ”
A – “I think it depends! If the practitioners knew the parent outside of work personally or not. I keep my work and private lives separate! But I did know a few parents before nursery and this is ok in my eyes!”
A – “I agree that as a professional we should not be friends with parents as this is surely a brioche of our jobs..early years teachers aren’t allowed to be friends with parent so why should early years practitioners be different especially as we always want to be seen as having the same skills as early years teachers. I used to work at a setting where we had to admit if we were friends with any parents that we knew from the setting and how, then we had to sign a disclaim to cover confidently. My current setting has there own Facebook page for updates and activities so parents are encouraged to friend that Instead of staff”
A – “The problem we face is that we are based in a small town where everybody knows everybody else! The majority of our staff also live in the town and are therefore friends with most of the parents. We have a social media policy….the staff are allowed to be ‘friends’ with parents although if they bring the nursery into disrepute then action will be taken”
A – “I think it it a tricky one, I am friends with parents I know outside of school before their children started and one of the children in my class is my sisters nephew so I have been friends with his parents well before he was even born. I wouldn’t friend any parent I only know through school and those I am friends with we only discuss normal every day things you would talk to a friend about and not mention anything to do with school. It is something that is hard to make a decision on and you need to go with your policy but it is something you need to be careful with and make sure nothing about your setting or any child within the setting it talked about over social media.”
A – “I’m friends with some of my parents on here. The issue you have is if your friends with a work colleague who then as a child that attends the setting do people then befriend them. My managers are also friends with me and other within my setting so are aware able to see what is being said. Although we aren’t friends with them for that reason.”
A – “Just out of interest – would you then discourage a practitioner from friending a local minder who picks up children from your nursery or pre school. Or would you disallowed staff members from friending staff at other settings children attend? Both scenarios risk a breach of confidentiality or bringing your setting into disrepute.”
A – “We have a social media policy in place which covers this, if they ignore they will face disciplinary action. It’s such a fine line between being friendly with parents and being friends you have to be careful.”
A – “In Scotland it’s part of our sssc codes of practice that you are not allowed to have any apartments from nursery on social media weather you knew them before or not”
A – “I don’t think you can dictate to staff who they are friends with. You can remind them that if they do have parents on there that they must be aware of their statuses, photos, etc. There is an option where you can hide your posts from chosen people, staff can accept a request and then exclude them from getting their info on their news feed, you could suggest that?”
A – “Our social media policy specifies that staff must not actively follow parents who are social media friends while their children attend with us. They must unfollow, but do not have to unfriend. In a close-knit village this seems to work. The question is, how is this policed – should the Manager ‘friend’ everyone to check the policy is being adhered to?”
A – “All practitioners say the same thing they knew them before,
which me personally don’t see any need what’s so ever in having parents on your social media list, you have to have that boundary between workers and parents…..”
A – “You can still be friendly to a parent inside your setting, where you should be don’t need to go the extent of having them on facebook it can cause all kinds of problems…”
A – “I can’t see why you would want to be friends with and have parents access your personal page if not good friends. If good friends then you might as well say you can’t text or see them in case you speak about child/setting. I think social media policies should include not being able to talk about setting/children in general in a degrading manner (I.e those little **** at work today or slagging off team/management) as well as specifically (named).. or be able to post photos etc of setting/children (but most have a no phone/photo policy anyway). Confidentiality policies should cover not talking about children outside of setting known or not. Find it strange that someone would add a parent they wasn’t good friends with and talk about their children – simple to say “you’ll have to catch me at work to talk about that” and “I can’t talk out of work, confidentiality, but you can talk to me at work about it…”
A – “agree but if your child goes to that nursery where u work and your friends with your child’s friends parents I see no issue as surly parent to parent interaction is important as most have friendships for years Thru the children long past nursery . I did find parents would see me at my daughters friends party and expect me to look after their kids in my own time I don’t add parents now no kids by kids anit at place I work now but sometimes it is difficult especially if the child goes there because u know the parent”
A – “So when my son was in my setting, i couldn’t be friends with my own work colleges? Social media is personal life and work is separate. You should adhere to your professional code of conduct, and this is not exclusive to social media.”
A – “I’m am friends with a few of the parents due to knowing them before hand and also babysit their children”
A – “What happens in your free time is just that, our only policy for disciplinary is if they bring the setting under distribute or make reference to it. We do however ask parents not to request staff to be friends at induction but that is so staff are not put under pressure to”
A – “If I did not know the parents outside work I wouldn’t add them I think that’s a fine line that should not be crossed”
A – “I have worked in settings where this is against the policies and would get disciplinary action for being social media friends with parents of children in setting. I know of other settings where nursery practitioners are social media friends with parents and it is fine the management would be aware and it’s not against policy or anything.”
A – “At my last nursery we had parents night out where staff and familiar parents went out and we had each other on Facebook but other nurseries I’ve worked in you’ve not been allowed to have any parents on social media”