Developing a great reputation can take years to build but seconds to destroy.

Online reputation management and protecting your brand are important considerations for all types of business. Independent schools are no exception. Indeed, it can be a major influence in securing financial revenues, attracting the best teachers and students, and most importantly safeguarding pupils at schools.

It’s great to have a reputation management plan in place to handle an issue but far better to be proactive in preventing one. In today’s digital age, news is instantaneous with the ease of publishing to social media meaning it can be distributed to a wide audience at a keystroke. As beneficial as that can be, it’s also extremely detrimental if that news is negative. Today’s students are particularly tech savvy and likely to be inquisitive about their teaching staff. A naïve post, even if made years ago, can cause a school’s reputation to be severely tarnished and parents will expect background checks to have been undertaken. 

The Statutory Guidance under KCSIE guidelines sets out the legal duties schools must follow to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people under the age of 18 in schools and colleges.

The Department for Education (DfE) provided the following guidance:

“As part of the shortlisting process, schools and colleges should consider carrying out an online search as part of their due diligence on the shortlisted candidates.” 

The Independent Schools Inspectorate has stated:

“Where the guidance states schools should do something, this should be followed unless the school has a good reason not to.”

Clearly, to ignore the advice is indefensible putting students at risk, in addition to causing reputational damage that can take years to repair. It’s also best practice to extend that guidance to existing teachers, board members and support staff. Indeed, recent cases from the Teacher Regulation Agency (TRA) demonstrate the need for more rigorous social media checks with many of the complaints pertaining to social media use. It’s clear the language and imagery used in many of the TRA cases could have been identified and highlighted as a risk using our social media check solution.

Why choose Social Media Check?

Your reputation could be threatened or damaged, potentially taking years of time and effort to rebuild.
Undergoing a Social Media Check provides protection from reputational harm and ensures values and cultures are maintained.
Dr Danny Doyle, CEO, Cardinal Newman Trust

With multiple schools in our Trust, we needed a quick, cost-effective and compliant procedure to conduct on-line checks of candidates. Social Media Check’s automated solution has been very effective. It is quicker and more comprehensive than a manual check, with results often delivered in under an hour.
Debbie Duggan, Operational Resources Director, The Two Counties Trust

At the Link Academy Trust, we have used the services of Social Media Check for almost two years now and have found them to be super-efficient with the turnaround time for checks. Reports are informative and we feel it does exactly what is required in line with KCSIE best practice.
Sue Howard, HR Operations Manager, Link Academy Trust

Hiring the right employee is critical and reviewing their social media profiles is becoming a standard part of the hiring process. Undertaking this manually can be fraught with dangers which can be avoided with an automated social media check.
Lyndsey Worthington, HR Lead, The King’s School

With the changes to the KCSIE guidelines, we needed an efficient, cost-effective and compliant way to conduct online checks. Manually checking is time-consuming and can find characteristics irrelevant to a hire. Social Media Check’s automated solution reduces the risk of subjectivity and unconscious bias and its ease of use and comprehensive reporting has enabled us to realise operational efficiencies in our recruitment process.
Gail Murphy, Operations Manager, Lumen Learning Trust

First Federation Trust having been using the social media check package for the past 18 months and we are very happy with the service.  It has been an invaluable tool in our recruitment process, in line with keeping children safe in education.  The portal is easy to navigate, and the comprehensive reports come back very quickly. We would highly recommend socialmediacheck.com to other schools.
Gemma Thomas, Recruitment & Training Officer, First Federation Trust

At Equals Trust we have been using Social Media Check for around a year now and it has been easy to implement. The checks are turned around quickly and efficiently and it gives us peace of mind that we are following the recommendations in KCSIE whilst reducing our risk of unconscious bias. The service we have received is great and we appreciate the certificate produced as evidence for our school SCRs. We definitely recommend social media check to other Trusts and schools.
Tara Cook, Head of HR, Equals Trust

When we first learned of the change to KSCiE with regards to completing online checks for all new employees we were concerned, particularly as an expanding MAT, how we would carry these out for all our new employees. Social Media Check has been a lifesaver and has helped us to ensure our Safer Recruitment processes are fully compliant.
Andrea Sweeney, HR & Recruitment Manager, Corpus Christi Catholic Academy Trust

Unlike other providers, we do not use human researchers to trawl through an individual’s social media history where subjectivity can influence a recommendation.

A technology solution to a social media check is more efficient, thorough, reliable, objective and consistent than a manual check. An online search often provides an incomplete picture and, more importantly, can be uncompliant and, in some cases, unlawful in discovering protected characteristics – such as age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage, pregnancy, race, religion or belief, and sexual orientation.

As a consequence, manual searches are fraught with dangers. Have you?

  • Ensured you’re checking the right individual? – same name but wrong profile.
  • Mistakenly identified characteristics not relevant to a hire? – unlawful and costly.
  • Avoided unconscious bias and subjectivity? – through human intervention.
  • Gained consent of the individual? – enabling a collaborative and compliant approach.
  • Calculated the true cost of the time taken? – An automated search saves time and money.
  • Created an auditable report? – providing a defensible position.

Employers can work in a collaborative way with candidates to ensure posts that could cause embarrassment are edited or deleted. In some cases, where findings are of a serious nature, it would deem the candidate unsuitable to work with children.

An SMC search is not restricted by a timeline, subject to our fair usage policy. Historical posts are often the ones that can catch people out. Other providers costs are often based on 3 or 5 years of history.

KCSIE refers to incidents or issues that have happened and are publicly available online. With SMC, you have the flexibility to opt for public only or public and private posts as your search criteria. 

Whilst maintaining private accounts is recommended for teachers, private is often not what it seems i.e. can you be sure that a friend hasn’t screen grabbed a post and shared it publicly.

In our experience, most online searches relate to social media platforms, although SMC can provide adverse media search if required.

SMC searches against ten risk categories with the option to include client keywords that might be relevant to a particular school such as its name.

Our interactive report is available to view within sixty minutes, saving you valuable time and resource. Its unique carousel format enables you to quickly and easily assess the online behaviours of an individual against any of the risk categories. You can then decide if an individual is aligned with the values of your organisation.

The total number of posts analysed on each platform with first and last post timelines helps with the decision making.

A certificate with summary of findings can be stored for any ISI inspection.

To undertake an SMC check, we only require an email address. The consent process is simple and quick for an individual and SMC never has sight of social media passwords. Our solution (including hosting services and software) complies with the most stringent data security legislation (ISO27001) to ensure that data is safe. All data that is submitted, processed, controlled and reported is encrypted as standard and we do not use data for anything except the report.

Reports that are agreed to be stored on UK based data centres are kept for 1 year before being archived in an encrypted format.

As some providers are US based, it’s important to check that your data is not being held outside of the EU.

Safeguard children in education

Don’t take the risk with your reputation or the safety of your pupils.

Contact us for a demonstration of our Social Media Check solution or a free trail report for your school.