Photo policy statement 

HM Ducks (as The Duckling Craft Co.) works with children and families as part of its activities. These include parties and community events.

The purpose of this policy statement is to:

- protect children and young people who take part in our events and activities, specifically those where photographs and videos may be taken

- set out the overarching principles that guide our approach to photographs/videos being taken of children and young people during our events and activities

- ensure that we operate in line with our values and within the law when creating, using and sharing images of children and young people

Legal framework:

This policy has been drawn up on the basis of legislation, policy and guidance that seeks to protect children in England. Summaries of key legislation and guidance is available below:

- online abuse

- child protection

We believe that:

- children and young people should never experience abuse of any kind

- we have a responsibility to promote the welfare of all children and young people and to take, share and use images of children safely

We recognise that:

- sharing photographs and films of our activities can help us celebrate the successes and achievements of our children and young people, as well as provide a record of our activities and raise awareness of our organisation

- the welfare of the children and young people taking part in our activities is paramount

- children, their parents and carers have a right to decide whether their images are taken and how these may be used, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation

- consent to take images of children is only meaningful when children, their parents and guardians understand how the images will be used and stored, and are fully aware of the potential risks associated with the use and distribution of these images

- there are potential risks associated with sharing images of children online. More information about this is available here

We will seek to keep children and young people safe by:

- always asking for written consent from a child’s parents or guardians before taking and using a child’s image or video

- explaining what images will be used for, how they will be stored and what potential risks are associated with sharing images of children

- making it clear that if a child or their family withdraw consent for an image to be shared, it may not be possible to delete images that have already been shared or published

- changing the names of children whose images are being used in our published material whenever possible (and only using first names if we do need to identify them)

- never publishing personal information about individual children and disguising any identifying information (for example the name of their school or a school uniform with a logo)

- making sure children, their parents and carers understand how images of children will be securely stored and for how long (including how we will control access to the images and their associated information)

- reducing the risk of images being copied and used inappropriately by:

          o only using images of children in appropriate clothing (including safety wear if necessary)

          o avoiding full face and body shots of children taking part in activities where there may be a heightened risk of images being misused

          o using images that positively reflect young people’s involvement in the activity.

- ensuring everyone involved in our organisation knows the procedures to follow to keep children safe.

Storing images:

We will store photographs and videos of children securely, in accordance with our safeguarding policy and data protection law. No hard copies will be kept, and electronic images will be kept in a protected folder with restricted access on Google Drive, on which they are stored in secure data centers (please see their privacy policy here). Images will be stored for a period of 5 years before being removed from storage.

We will never store images of children on unencrypted portable equipment such as laptops, memory sticks and mobile phones. If photos are taken on portable devices, they will be moved to secure online storage and deleted from the device before the end of the party or event.

Contact details:

If you have any further questions or concerns, or would like to request erasure or the cease of use of an image or video of your child, please contact parties@hmducks.co.uk