Best Practices for Creating a Child Story Book

As your book may contain personal information about a child, and potentially other children, it should be created with privacy, safeguarding, consent and the child’s best interests at its core.

Put the child at the centre

• Make the journal about their experiences, memories and achievements.
• Consider what the child would want to see, keep and look back on when they are older.
• Use positive, respectful and age-appropriate language.
• Avoid including information that could embarrass, stigmatise or potentially distress the child in the future.
• Where appropriate, involve the child in choosing photographs, captions and the cover.

Keep personal information to a minimum

• Only include information that genuinely adds to the memory.
• Avoid unnecessary details such as:
  • Full names of other children
  • Exact addresses
  • School names or locations
  • Other placement addresses
  • Phone numbers or email addresses
  • Dates of birth
  • Detailed information about family circumstances
  • Information about health, trauma, social care or legal proceedings
• Be particularly cautious with captions: a seemingly innocent caption can reveal considerably more information than the photograph itself.

Think carefully about captions

A useful test is:

“Would I be comfortable with this sentence being read by the child, their future self, or someone who should not know the details of them?”

Treat photographs as personal data

• Assume that identifiable photographs of children are personal information.
• Before uploading an image, ask: Who can be identified, and does the memory book need this image?
• Avoid photographs that reveal sensitive information through the background — for example, school signs, house numbers, addresses, name badges or documents.

Take extra care with photographs of other children

• Check your organisation’s photography/image guidance and any permissions that may apply.
• Where possible, choose photographs where the foster child is the main focus.
• If other children are clearly identifiable, consider whether you have the appropriate permission to include the image.
• If you are unsure about a particular photograph, consider choosing another image or cropping the photograph where this still keeps the story meaningful.
• Keep the focus on capturing positive memories while being respectful of the privacy of everyone pictured.

This is practical guidance rather than legal advice. Please check with your organisation’s own safeguarding, photography, information-governance and data-protection policies, and any requirements from the relevant local authority.