Personal Hardware Policy

[fairm010]

I am trying to find a policy that staff will sign accepting all responsibility for personal hardware in school.

 

Do you lot have one of these and is it worth having?

 

Matt

[elsiegee40]

You mean accepting liability for their own devices rather than those owned by the school? Our staff handbook simply says something along the lines that "personal possessions, including electronic items, are the responsibility of the owner. The school accepts no liability... "

 

There is no requirement to bring personal items into school by staff. Using personal cameras and phones for taking photos is banned. We don't have a network capable of BYOD.

 

Having taken legal advice for my governor school, a school only gets on dodgy grounds if they require staff or students to use their own devices. If the use is required, the school cannot deny all liability for the security/safety of the device.

Edited January 14, 2014 by elsiegee40

[fairm010]

You mean accepting liability for their own devices rather than those owned by the school? Our staff handbook simplu says something along the ljnes that "personal possessions, including electronic items, are the responsibility of the owner. The school accepts no liability... "

 

There is no requirement to bring personal items into school by staff. Using personal cameras and phones for taking photos is banned. We don't have a network capable of BYOD.

 

Having taken legal advice for my governor school, a school only gets on dodgy grounds if they require staff or students to use thir own devices. If the use is required, the school cannot deny all liability for the security/safety of the device.

 

Cheers Elsie,

 

We don't require them to use their own devices but are happy for them to if they choose, they are all supplied with laptops. What we want to avoid is a situation where perhaps their own device is damaged and they claim the school has liability for it.

 

I wondered if anyone in the geekverse has a policy outlining this. I may draw up my own if not.

 

Matt

[elsiegee40]

From our handbook

 

"Personal electronic devices and other valuables are brought into school at your own risk. The school does not accept liability for the safety or security of personal items. Staff are reminded that electrical items must be PAT tested for safety by the caretaker before they can be used in school and that photographs may only be taken using school cameras. Personal equipment may only be connected to the IT network with the permission of the Network Manager."

 

Having a separate policy for every issue like this is overkill. I am a Chair of Governors and there are far too many policies without inventing more... they all have to be adopted by the governors and reveiewed by the governors every year or 2 years. Incorporate this into an existing policy if at all possible (plea from the heart )

[fairm010]

Cheers Elsie, appreciate that.

 

Have drawn this up to staff to sign when I allow them onto the network.

[FN-GM]

Is this really an IT issue? Im sure the vast majority of staff have a mobile phone with them in school. Surely the same disclaimer would apply to that, or any other items including non electric items.

[elsiegee40]

Is this really an IT issue? Im sure the vast majority of staff have a mobile phone with them in school. Surely the same disclaimer would apply to that, or any other items including non electric items.

 

Not really @FN-GM... but you know how it is with electrical items!

[FN-GM]

Ours are covered under the usual "we take not responsibility for personal items blah blah..."

[fairm010]

Is this really an IT issue? Im sure the vast majority of staff have a mobile phone with them in school. Surely the same disclaimer would apply to that, or any other items including non electric items.

 

100% Its not but to my knowledge we have nothing backing ourselves up in case. Because they are "using it for school" they may try it whereas mobiles are not used for school.

[john]

 

Having a separate policy for every issue like this is overkill. I am a Chair of Governors and there are far too many policies without inventing more... they all have to be adopted by the governors and reveiewed by the governors every year or 2 years. Incorporate this into an existing policy if at all possible (plea from the heart )

 

Fully Agreed it took me hours to read through all the blasted policies we were reviewing and adopting, one of them was about 50 pages long and a small font I think we had about 50 to sort one meeting as loads came up for review and re-adoption fortunatly most hadn't changed or were just LA ones and we adopted LA without too much concern just filling the blanks in for "school name" "heads name" etc...

[fairm010]

Here is what we've drawn up. Its less of a policy, more of an agreement staff sign when I put the WPA code into their tab so they know were on their case!

 

Matt