State-of-the-art digital safeguarding software developed for EYFS learning journal

In today’s society, where the physical, emotional and digital safeguarding of children is at the forefront of every parent’s mind, it is vital that safeguarding not only starts at home way before they begin school, but that the responsibility also lies with early years childcare providers.

New EYFS software – designed to help settings do just that – is being launched later this month. Developed and designed by market leader Parenta, ‘Footsteps 2’ is an online EYFS assessment tracker and learning journal which addresses the issue of digitally safeguarding young children by using facial detection technology when uploading images – not only automatically identifying and tagging children, but more importantly, blurring out the faces of those not tagged within an image This will enable children within our care system to also benefit from this software that information can be shared with carers and caseworkers.

Daniel Gooding, Head of Information Solutions at Parenta said; “This new technology is a game changer in the early years education software market. New ‘smart’ tagging and blurring technology means children not tagged in the photo are automatically blurred out. All children can be tagged, but when observations are sent to individual carers, only the relevant faces will show, supporting safeguarding regulations within settings and complying with the new GDPR requirements. This is going to open up a whole new world for practitioners, giving them greater flexibility when recording observations and peace of mind when thinking about safeguarding.”

The new software retains all the features of the original Footsteps but gives extra flexibility with the children’s EYFS learning journey. Observations, reporting and screen switching are easy to use; and the software can be used on a variety of electronic devices. New features help provide users with a better overview of each child’s development throughout their time at the setting. Observations and comments can be reviewed by all users, making communication between users easy and workload is significantly reduced so that staff in a setting can spend more time with the children and less time staring at a screen.