📱 School Staff Mobile Phones: Balancing Safety and Safeguarding

In recent months, while delivering first aid courses across various educational settings, I’ve noticed a growing trend of policies prohibiting staff from carrying personal mobile phones during the school day. This is particularly common in early years settings, though it exists across all age ranges.

Policies restricting mobile phones often stem from safeguarding concerns. Misuse, distractions, or breaches of privacy are valid reasons for such rules. However, a blanket ban can conflict with the nuanced demands of emergency preparedness, sometimes even undermining a school’s first aid protocols.

The Case for Mobile Access

Every setting is unique, but consider a large primary school on a summer day, where children are playing at the far end of a field, 100 meters from the main building. One child experiences their first allergic reaction to a wasp sting and begins struggling to breathe. This child isn’t known to have severe allergies, so they don’t have an auto-injector available. In such a case, the response is clear: don’t move the child, call 999, and follow the call handler’s instructions.

The most effective way to do this is for the nearest staff member to use their mobile phone, placing the call on speaker to follow the call handlers instructions while assisting the child. A policy restricting mobile phone access could result in critical delays, potentially costing lives. While such incidents are rare, high-profile cases like the death of five-year-old Benedict Blythe in 2021 remind us of the stakes.

The Problem with Personal Mobile Phones

Staff personal mobile phones undeniably pose challenges in schools. More trivially, the buzzing and beeping of notifications can distract staff, disrupting teaching and learning. While they might be used professionally to set reminders of a break duty or the need to set homework, misuse, such as checking social media is common. More concerning are cases where personal phones have been used to inappropriately photograph or film students, posing severe safeguarding risks that can be as harmful as a dangerous accident involving first aid.