Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will give an update on her progress of appointment of an expert advisory group for the development of CCTV guidance for the early years sector.

The ‘Early years foundation stage’ statutory framework requires early years providers to have safeguarding policies that address the use of mobile phones, cameras, and other electronic devices with imaging and sharing capabilities. Decisions about installing and using CCTV are for individual providers, subject to safeguarding and data protection requirements.

As part of the department’s ongoing review of safeguarding requirements in early years settings, an expert advisory panel will be appointed to inform sector guidance on the safe and effective use of digital devices and CCTV within safeguarding. This guidance will consider whether CCTV should be mandated and will set out best practice, technical advice and clear expectations.

The department is working at pace to establish the expert advisory panel and ensure we have the most suitable experts and groups represented to ensure that the guidance is high quality and evidence informed. We will provide more details in the coming weeks.