Information about the Education and Training Inspectorate’s External Communication Policy
Through the channels of face-to-face interactions, social media and the ETI website, we embrace the opportunity to communicate the outcomes of inspection, the nature of our work and the changes that we introduce as a consequence of our consultation and review processes. We welcome feedback, ideas and engagement from all of our stakeholders and will engage where possible, and where it is appropriate to do so, with the aim of helping to achieve our mission of ‘promoting improvement in the interest of all learners’.
The ETI does not respond to direct enquiries via our Twitter or Facebook accounts. If you require a response, please contact us at ETI@education-ni.gov.uk’ for general/inspection enquiries or ETICommunications@education-ni.gov.uk for communication related information.
We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. By using our website and social media channels you agree to the terms of this Policy.
For users
Tweets on @ETI_news, posts on Facebook @ETInews and items on the ETI website will provide alerts and links to the following:
- inspection and evaluation reports;
- new or updated inspection guidance and other content;
- effective and/or innovative practice, including examples related to departments for whom we provide inspection services;
- current consultations;
- parental questionnaires;
- press releases;
- photographs or video clips from events;
- speeches; and
any other content we consider appropriate which we may repost or retweet provided it is relevant to education and/or public health in Northern Ireland.
How will we manage our presence on social media?
If you follow us on social media, we do not automatically follow back. We will use hashtags and mention other Twitter and/or Facebook accounts where appropriate. This may, for example, include schools or other educational and training organisations which display effective practice or particular innovation in their teaching. Being followed, using hashtags or mentioning other accounts does not imply endorsement of any kind. In particular, to maintain our impartiality and objectivity, the ETI cannot endorse any commercial products.
We will retweet, like, follow, or re-post where the content is considered useful or interesting but, again, this is not an endorsement. We will update and monitor our social media accounts during normal office hours, Monday to Friday. Twitter and/or Facebook may occasionally be unavailable and we accept no responsibility for our lack of service due to any downtime.
When making announcements, we will communicate first via the ETI’s website and social media when we think that this is the most appropriate approach. Where appropriate and necessary, we will subsequently communicate directly with organisations.
Where we can, we will point followers to additional information already in the public domain.
Social media activity may include the use of photographs or video clips taken by the ETI at events. Attendees at events will be advised via the invitation and/or at the event that participants may be filmed and/or photographed by the ETI. Photographs or video clips may be made available on the ETI website, Twitter and/or Facebook accounts. For additional information, refer to the Internal Guidance for Publishing on the ETI Social Media Platforms. It should be noted that the ETI cannot control how online images may be used by others. Participants are requested to inform the ETI in writing (e.g. via email) in advance or on the day of the event if they prefer that their image is not captured and every effort will be made to accommodate this. To support this, we encourage anyone who does not wish to be photographed to verbally inform the photographer at the event, and where possible, refrain from entering a shot being taken including standing in the background.
External presenters should note that it is their responsibility to ensure that permission for the use of images of staff and pupils or other members of the school/organisation community is sought prior to the presentation and should not be reproduced for distribution at the event. External presenters will be asked to provide permission for their personal images to be used on the ETI social media and website.
Information on your rights under the Data Protection Act 2018 can be found on the Information Commissioner’s Office website at:
The Department of Education’s full Privacy Notice is available on the Department’s website at: https://www.education-ni.gov.uk/department-education-privacy-notice
We are unable to reply to messages received via social media. However, emerging themes or helpful suggestions posted on the ETI social media platforms may be shared with the relevant colleagues or departments. The ETI communicates through a range of media, including the ETI website: www.etini.gov.uk, e-mail, a range of publications and dissemination events. Direct enquiries should be forwarded to Inspection Services Team: ETI@education-ni.gov.uk or 02891279726.
When you ‘like’, ‘share’ or ‘comment’ on one of our posts, you should be aware that this will be publicly available. If you post publicly on social media, we may share/retweet/re-post your post with our followers. Usernames of our followers are publicly available on our social media channels.
We may also receive information about you from third parties such as other social media users if they mention you, tag you or share a photo of you. When we upload content to social media we may also tag and share photos and content.
We may use analytics or third parties to analyse our social media channels for trends, insights and engagement.
You may unsubscribe/unfollow us at any stage.
We will not comment on the details of an inspection (or any kind of inspection activity) of a specific organisation.
We expect our users to offer us the same level of courtesy that we offer them, so we have a short set of 'house rules':
- all users must comply with the social media platform’s Terms of Use as well as these house rules;
- you are wholly responsible for any content you post, including content that you choose to share;
- we will block users or ignore posts that we feel are inappropriate; and
- we will report and seek to remove any social media profiles that are set up using the ETI or departmental imagery without permission.
We will report users to the associated social media platform, and/or the Police Service of Northern Ireland, who direct messages at us which we believe:
- bully, harass or intimidate any individual or organisation;
- are unlawful, libellous, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually oriented or racially offensive;
- are deceptive or misleading;
- infringe or violate someone else's rights;
- violate the law;
- violate any intellectual property rights;
- discuss ongoing legal proceedings;
- are spam (persistent negative and/ or abusive tweeting/posting in which the aim is to provoke a response);
- advertise products or services;
- are irrelevant or off-topic;
- are disruptive; or
- are repetitive.
We will also remove, block, report or ban any user who:
- encourages others to post such messages;
- uses offensive images as their profile picture; and
- has an offensive user name.
The ETI is politically neutral and will not engage in online debates or support/comment or like campaigns which have not been devised by the ETI or DE, nor do we comment on, like or repost articles from mainstream or alternative news outlets.
Social media accounts are not a point of contact for media enquiries, which should be directed to the ETI Communications team in the first instance. We do, however, reserve the right to comment on inaccurate coverage or comment.
We reserve the right to modify or change these conditions at any time.
Other ways of contacting us
General enquiries
Inspection Services TeamDepartment of Education
Room F29
Rathgael House
Balloo Road
Rathgill
Bangor
BT19 7PR
Telephone: 028 9127 9726
Email: eti@education-ni.gov.uk
Media enquiries/ Press office
Our presence in the media is managed by the Department of Education’s press office on our behalf Email: DE.DEWebMail@education-ni.gov.uk
Complaints: /publications/complaints-procedure-and-standards-complaint-handling
Freedom of Information requests: /managing-information