parents who live apart and where their partner's address is not to be shared?

[coolhands]

seperate houses; dad still has 'parental responsibility'. But how do we stop staff phoning dad inadvertently as you can still see his details. Dad should not be contacted, and the new (mother and pupils address) is not to be given to dad.

 

Anything I can do in sims?

[howartp]

seperate houses; dad still has 'parental responsibility'. But how do we stop staff phoning dad inadvertently as you can still see his details. Dad should not be contacted, and the new (mother and pupils address) is not to be given to dad.

 

Anything I can do in sims?

 

Nobody should be able to ring up a school, parent or otherwise, and ask for the address of a student so that shouldn't be an issue.

 

Re the numbers, put a note on Dad's phone number saying "Do not ring" and quick note saying "Dad on for reporting only; do not contact".

[CHiLL]

Firstly, staff are made aware of it via an announcement in briefing and the pastoral/HoY year are specifically told. We also use the notes field in SIMS to emphasise this, though don't rely on staff to read it. As for SIMS, I think we would only list Mum's contact details in section 4, with Mum's details specified as the home address in section 5. Dad's details are then added as an extra entry in section 5, including phone number. The parental salutation is specifically set to mum only.

[coolhands]

yes we had note in box DON'T CONTACT FATHER....etc but a teacher didn't see it and phoned dad, so wondered if I could hide dad's contact details from staff!

[jmak]

Get advice from someone in authority. My understanding is that if a parent has parental responsibility and there is no court order, then the "absent" parent has the right to the same information and contacts (wellbeing of the child, parents evening, school letters, school reports).

 

It's not unheard of for parents going through relationship breakdown to be vindictive against the other parent. I'm not suggesting that's what's happening in this case, just that there are processes to be followed.

 

I have had a situation where office staff were instructed to respond with delaying tactics if a particular parent or anyone enquiring about a particular child turned up while someone else contacted the police on a special number by prior arrangement. However, this had to be documented and agreed with the police and was temporary while awaiting a court order. You can't just set it up because one parent makes an accusation against the other.

[Boredguy]

seperate houses; dad still has 'parental responsibility'. But how do we stop staff phoning dad inadvertently as you can still see his details. Dad should not be contacted, and the new (mother and pupils address) is not to be given to dad.

 

Anything I can do in sims?

 

In cases like this, we have in big capital letters in the notes section not to contact X and a brief reason like court order etc. As far as I know, no-one has ignored this information so our staff seem to be behaving

[bobsmith]

Dad should not be contacted, - where did this directive come from? If it's not a court order then it's invalid.

 

If dad doesn't want to be contacted then delete his phone number.

 

I never rely on staff reading notes added to the record - if someone does miss the notices it's probably not gonna cover you when a complaint is made.

[elsiegee40]

Dad should not be contacted, - where did this directive come from? If it's not a court order then it's invalid.

 

that is taking the thread off topic.

 

A school has a situation where a parent must not be contacted. Let their SLT/DSL deal with whether that is valid.

 

The IT role in this is to try to ensure the system is as idiot proof as possible so mistakes are less likely.

[SJT]

You could, perhaps save 'Do Not Phone' in place of the number and add it to the notes area?

[psydii]

As per Chill's description, though we limit announcement to "teachers of".

 

+1 for the "Do Not Contact" or functional equivalent in the Notes field. If there is a court order or similar, the instruction is to contact Head of Year or CP Team before making contact.

 

Process requires staff to get contact info from SIMS and nowhere else.

 

Somebody not following the process can still stuff it up though.

 

Contact with some parent is handled by the admin team, who create bespoke reports/letters. This is safer than keeping their details in the usual places in SIMS. If the data isn't linked in SIMS accidents can't happen. They keep a record of this with the CP/Safe Guarding team.

[bobsmith]

Sorry - was coming from a Data Manager's point of view - and I have to ask those questions - IT simply isn't the solution to every problem. Sometimes it's the process that's the solution instead.

[coolhands]

You could, perhaps save 'Do Not Phone' in place of the number and add it to the notes area?

Hi all - the above worked, thankyou. That way we still have the number, but in the phone number box it shows 'do not phone'.

ta!

[Primus]

that is taking the thread off topic.

 

A school has a situation where a parent must not be contacted. Let their SLT/DSL deal with whether that is valid.

 

The IT role in this is to try to ensure the system is as idiot proof as possible so mistakes are less likely.

 

It's a valid contribution - I was only following orders isn't the best response. If you know something shouldn't be done you have an obligation to raise it.

[SJT]

Glad to hear it, I used to work in School and that's what we did, just wan't sure if it was technically the right thing to do....