FILMING & PHOTOGRAPHY STATEMENT

Last updated November 2024

The 1851 Trust works with children and families as part of its activities. These include Roadshows, School Assemblies and Outreach Events. This policy statement applies to all staff, volunteers and other adults associated with The 1851 Trust.

The purpose of this policy statement is to:

• protect children and young people who take part in the 1851 Trust’s services, 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
• to 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 across the UK. 

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 the children and young people who engage in our activities, 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 carers 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.

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

• always asking for written consent from a child and their parents or carers before taking and using a child’s image
• 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 

Photography and/or filming for the 1851 Trust’s use

If we hire a photographer for one of our events, we will seek to keep children and young people safe by:

• providing the photographer with a clear brief about appropriate content and behaviour
• ensuring the photographer wears identification at all times
• informing children, their parents and carers that a photographer will be at the event and ensuring they give written consent to images which feature their child being taken and shared
• not allowing the photographer to have unsupervised access to children

If consent to take photographs is not given

If children, parents and/or carers do not consent to photographs being taken, we will respect their wishes. We will agree in advance how they would like to be identified so the photographer knows not to take pictures of them, and ensure this is done in a way that does not single out the child or make them feel isolated. We will never exclude a child from an activity because we do not have consent to take their photograph.

Storing images

We will store photographs and videos of children securely, in accordance with our safeguarding policy and data protection law. As such;

• we will keep electronic images in a protected folder with restricted access
• we will not store images of children on unencrypted portable equipment such as laptops, memory sticks and mobile phones.