Mobile phones and cameras in nursery: your policy

The EYFS does not ban mobile phones in nurseries. It requires your safeguarding policy to include how mobile phones, cameras and other electronic devices with imaging and sharing capabilities are used in the setting (paragraph 3.6 of the group and school-based framework, 3.7 of the childminder framework). What you decide is up to you, but you must decide it, write it down and make sure everyone follows it.

“Devices with imaging and sharing capabilities” covers more than phones: smart watches, tablets, cameras, and anything else that can take a photo or send one. Inspectors will expect your staff to be able to tell them what the rule is.

What most settings decide

Almost every nursery policy lands in the same place, because the risks are the same everywhere:

• Personal phones and smart watches stay out of the rooms. They are kept in a locker or the office, switched off or on silent, and used on breaks away from children.
• Photos of children are taken only on devices the setting owns. Never on a personal phone, even to send to the setting later. Once a photo is on a personal phone, nobody can check it has been deleted, and a lost phone becomes a data breach.
• There is a way to be reached in an emergency. Staff give family the setting’s landline, so nobody needs their own phone in the room “just in case”.
• The same rule covers everyone. Students, agency staff, volunteers, contractors and visitors, not only employed staff.

Some settings allow smart watches with their camera and messaging switched off. That works only if somebody can check it, so many treat watches exactly as phones.

What your policy should cover

Section	What to write
Who it applies to	Staff, managers, students, volunteers, agency staff, visitors, contractors and parents
Which devices	Phones, smart watches, tablets, cameras, and any other device that can take or send images
Where personal devices are kept	A named place away from children, and when they may be used
Setting devices	Which devices staff may use for photos, where they are kept, and who checks them
Photos and videos	What they are for, where they are stored, who can see them, and when they are deleted
Outings	Which phone goes, who carries it, and that it is for emergencies
Emergencies	How staff can be reached, and how they contact parents or emergency services
Parents at the door	Whether phones may be used in the building, and never to photograph other children
Events	Whether families may film performances, and asking them not to post other children online
Breaches	That a breach is reported to the designated safeguarding lead and may be a disciplinary matter

Link the policy to your photo consent arrangements, because what a device may be used for depends on what each family has agreed to.

Setting devices need rules too

A setting tablet is safer than a personal phone only if it is managed:

• Locked with a passcode, and not taken home.
• Signed in as the setting, not as a member of staff’s personal account, so photos do not sync to anyone’s own cloud storage.
• Cleared regularly. Photos are moved to the setting’s secure storage, or deleted, and not left in the camera roll for months.
• Checked. A named person looks at what is stored on each device on a regular schedule.
• Accountable. If several people use one device, you need to know who took which photo.

Childminders

The requirement applies to childminders too. The difference is that the setting is a home: your own phone is usually how parents reach you. A childminder policy normally covers where your phone is kept while children are awake, what photos you take and on which device, where they are stored, when they are deleted, and whether assistants and household members may use devices during the day.

Checklist

• The safeguarding policy says how phones, cameras and other image-taking devices are used.
• Personal phones and smart watches have a named place away from children.
• Photos of children are taken only on setting devices.
• Setting devices are locked, stay on site, and are cleared and checked on a schedule.
• Staff family members have the setting’s number for emergencies.
• Outings have a named phone and a named person carrying it.
• Students, volunteers, agency staff and visitors are told the rule on arrival.
• Parents know the rule for drop-off, collection and events.
• Every member of staff can explain the policy if an inspector asks.
• Breaches go to the designated safeguarding lead.

Where Coat Peg fits

Coat Peg is built for a setting device that stays in the room. Staff sign in with their own PIN on a shared device and hand over in a tap, so every post records who took the photo. Each photo has its location data stripped on the device before it is uploaded, is shared only with the families the post is for, and is checked against each child’s photo consent, including photos already posted when a family changes its mind. Nobody needs a personal phone in the room to share a child’s day.