A Gloucestershire residential college has stopped using “intrusive” body-worn cameras and removed a CCTV camera that pointed at a girls’ bathroom after concerns were raised with Ofsted.
Inspectors visited Hartpury College’s residential provision in November, dropping its rating by two grades from ‘outstanding’ in February 2019 to ‘requires improvement’ after noting several safeguarding issues in a report published last week.
The watchdog labelled the use of CCTV in communal areas of the accommodation and body cameras worn by residential staff as “intrusive” explaining that it “fails to respect and protect the privacy of students”.
The report said that surveillance is used to gather evidence for when incidents happen, but found that “in one accommodation block, the CCTV points at the entrance to the girls’ bathroom”.
