Recommendation to switch off 3G/4G/5G for staff to improve safeguarding

[Mark182]

My boss has asked for advice on this :-

 

12. Communication with children

 

It has long been clear that staff should not communicate with pupils outside the context of their work. The new guidance seeks to strengthen this by adding that adults should ‘turn off 3G/4G data access on school premises’.

 

Link here

[bald_pig]

This is just some "guidance" written by a consortium.

 

I'd like them to explain how disabling 3g in school stops staff from contacting pupils outside of school hours? Are they hoping the staff forget to turn it back on?

[hardtailstar]

My boss has asked for advice on this :-

 

12. Communication with children

 

It has long been clear that staff should not communicate with pupils outside the context of their work. The new guidance seeks to strengthen this by adding that adults should ‘turn off 3G/4G data access on school premises’.

 

Link here

 

What about 2G and 5G?

 

I for one wont be turning off my data during school time, I use it to listen to podcasts (yes I can download but i dont always remember) and reply to personal emails/messages at lunch.

 

What about those schools that let staff on Wifi at schools, will they then have to revoke that access?

 

Someone obviously had a 'great' idea and now its cemented in guidance.

[FishCustard]

There was a thread about this a while ago, and I think the general consensus was that (a) it's just guidance, and (b) it clearly wasn't written by someone who had taken a risk-based approach to safeguarding/e-safety!

 

In my opinion forcing everyone to turn off mobile data is complete nonsense. We have rules that phones should not be used in classrooms/around students, and of course never used to photograph students. Staff sign to say they agree to this (and lots of other policies) when they start. I think that's as far as it needs to go.

Edited July 2, 2019 by FishCustard

[Mark182]

I'm basically going to say its not lawful, its only guidance, not from the department of education or anything and is frankly unenforceable.

[Rob_D]

I guess the question is what are they trying to achieve by this? Stop people doing things on their phones or stopping people using "unprotected" internet connections? (which IMO isn't clear in the web article)

 

Most staff (at least for us) connect their phones to the school wifi. Which means they aren't using 3/4G but can still go online and do "stuff" - Staff filtering is relaxed enough they can get to twitter/facebook and most home emails. But it is still restricted and (maybe more importantly) logged.

[DrCheese]

yea this er.. makes no real sense. I'm not exactly sure what they think turning off data on your mobile phone will accomplish.

[Mark182]

GSWP May 2019 changes highlighted.pdfthe PDF with more information

[DrBeaker]

Well....here's an interesting one.

 

Does that apply to personal staff devices who have enabled the CPOMs authentication app http://www.edugeek.net/forums/cloud-services/207698-cpoms-android-tablets.html that will need 3G/4G access?

[bald_pig]

Well....here's an interesting one.

 

Does that apply to personal staff devices who have enabled the CPOMs authentication app http://www.edugeek.net/forums/cloud-services/207698-cpoms-android-tablets.html that will need 3G/4G access?

 

No, because it's not statutory, it's "guidance" written by a consortium that thinks they know better than the government! Think of it as a suggestion, not even a helpful one for that point.

[DrBeaker]

No, because it's not statutory, it's "guidance" written by a consortium that thinks they know better than the government! Think of it as a suggestion, not even a helpful one for that point.

 

Which proves that it can be ignored due to lack of common sense and not actually knowing what they're on about.

[CHiLL]

What on Earth is that going to accomplish? How is having mobile data on during the school hours different than having mobile data on during non-school hours?

[jmak]

Stop them wasting time on Facebook?

[elsiegee40]

The guidance referred to is by The Safer Recruitment Consortium which is a partnership between four organisations:

NSPCC

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

NASS

CAPE

 

Obviously the Statutory Guidance is KCSIE. This does not make any recommendations about turning off mobile data.

 

Section 12 of the document referred to by OP says

12. Communication with children (including the use of technology)

 

In order to make best use of the many educational and social benefits of new and emerging technologies, pupils need opportunities to use and explore the digital world. Online risks are posed more by behaviours and values than the technology itself.

 

Staff should ensure that they establish safe and responsible online behaviours, working to local and national guidelines and acceptable use policies which detail how new and emerging technologies may be used.

 

Communication with children both in the ‘real’ world and through web based and telecommunication interactions should take place within explicit professional boundaries. This includes the use of computers, tablets, phones, texts, e-mails, instant messages, social media such as Facebook and Twitter, chat-rooms, forums, blogs, websites, gaming sites, digital cameras, videos, web-cams and other hand-held devices. (Given the ever-changing world of technology it should be noted that this list gives examples only and is not exhaustive.)

 

Staff should not request or respond to any personal information from children other than which may be necessary in their professional role. They should ensure that their communications are open and transparent and avoid any communication which could be interpreted as ‘grooming behaviour’

 

Staff should not give their personal contact details to children for example, e-mail address, home or mobile telephone numbers, details of web-based identities. If children locate these by any other means and attempt to contact or correspond with the staff member, the adult should not respond and must report the matter to their manager. The child should be firmly and politely informed that this is not acceptable.

 

Staff should, in any communication with children, also follow the guidance in section 7 ‘Standards of Behaviour’.

 

Staff should adhere to their establishment’s policies, including those with regard to communication with parents and carers and the information they share when using the internet.

 

The notes say

This means that adults should:

[emoji830] not seek to communicate/make contact or respond to contact with pupils outside of the purposes of their work

[emoji830] not give out their personal details

[emoji830] use only equipment and Internet services provided by the school or setting

[emoji830] turn off 3G/4G data access on school premises

[emoji830] follow their school / setting’s Acceptable Use Policy

[emoji830] ensure that their use of technologies could not bring their employer into disrepute

[emoji830] not discuss or share data relating to children/ parents / carers in staff social media groups

 

This means that education settings should:

• wherever possible, provide school devices such as cameras and mobile phones rather than expecting staff to use their own (e.g. on school trips)

 

I cannot see where they got turning off mobile data access on the premises from. It about as useful as recommending that the family computer is kept in a public place. [emoji849] Apart from this, the guidance is sound from the point of view of protecting the children and from the point of view of staff protecting themselves from allegation.

 

Use of personal mobile devices by staff should be part of the School’s AUP and all aspects should be considered. @esafety_officer, aka KCC’s Rebecca Avery, and her team have put together a detailed analysis of the implications of KCSIE with updates for 2018 and will no doubt update it for the newest version shortly.

 

AUP templates and guidance with questions that schools and governors should be asking themselves before use have also been created and can be found here

Edited July 2, 2019 by elsiegee40

[jthompson]

It's not been thought through enough. The only reason you'd actually suggest people turn off mobile data on school premises is if you were quite happy for 'unofficial' communications to take place, provided it only happens offsite. Which would be ludicrous.

 

Other measures make "turn off 3G/4G data access on school premises" utterly redundant in the context of safeguarding, imho.

[theeggmaster]

We've just had some recommendations through from our LA to improve safeguarding. One of the recommendations is to get staff to switch off their 3G/4G/5G data on their phones to improve safeguarding. I've been asked why this would help, and the only thing I can think of is so that any use of data on mobiles goes through the school BYOD system where it will be filtered and monitored. Can anyone else think of any other reasons for this recommendation?

[PotNoodleTech]

How can disconnecting yourself from your phone carriers data dervice, actually improve safeguarding?

 

Will turning your phone off completely then improve safeguarding even more?

 

in that case. Why not turn all the electronic devices off in the school, that must improve safeguarding even more????!!

 

This is one of the stupidest things I've seen in a while!!!

Edited July 4, 2019 by elsiegee40

[FN-GM]

I can't work out how that would help either!

[mavhc]

Giving people rules without saying why is very silly, you'd think people involved with schools would know how to teach

[dmj]

The only vaguely logical thing I could think of is if the phones themselves are compromised and it might lead to a data leak if the internal network wasn't very secure ?

I don't think they would be assuming the onsite staff are abusers who are consciously uploading childrens data. Turning off 3/4G wouldn't prevent that in any case.

[theeggmaster]

The only vaguely logical thing I could think of is if the phones themselves are compromised and it might lead to a data leak if the internal network wasn't very secure ?

I don't think they would be assuming the onsite staff are abusers who are consciously uploading childrens data. Turning off 3/4G wouldn't prevent that in any case.

 

The language mentions adults, not just teachers, so in the context of outside agencies not taking pictures and uploading them using 3/4/5G, then that makes sense. Less so for teaching staff.

[Roberto]

Surely this is unenforceable anyway.

 

Mr Nefarious P. Villain will ‘forget’ to do this whenever he is trying to do something wrong.

 

Honest people will honestly forget... or have a real need to be urgently contactable (family member seriously ill, for example).

[FishCustard]

Surely this is unenforceable anyway.

 

Mr Nefarious P. Villain will ‘forget’ to do this whenever he is trying to do something wrong.

 

Honest people will honestly forget... or have a real need to be urgently contactable (family member seriously ill, for example).

 

Exactly. This guidance is knee-jerk nonsense untethered to reality.

[hardtailstar]

The language mentions adults, not just teachers, so in the context of outside agencies not taking pictures and uploading them using 3/4/5G, then that makes sense. Less so for teaching staff.

 

They can still upload pictures once they have left site and turned on 3/4/5G....

[dmj]

It's got to be incase the phones are compromised I think