This is the policy that causes perhaps the greatest concern and needs the most explanation, especially since the consent form has now been reduced to two lines at the end of the medical form. The RFU consent has two aspects:

1. Personal Photography: Rugby is played in open spaces often on public pitches and the RFU cannot be held liable if images are taken without parental permission and find themselves in the public domain.

2. For Publication: The RFU reserves the right to take photographs of players “in play” and use these for its own publicity of the game and their events.

Granting consent for this is one of the RFUs terms & conditions and we have to have signed consent or we cannot permit members to play. However, signing this does not waive either the RFU or Wortley RUFC’s duty of care to safeguard the children in our care.

There are two possible subjects in two possible circumstances:

1 Pictures of your own child / children or pictures of somebody else’s child

2 Action shots of the skills in play and portrait shots of individuals or groups of players

The Wortley Policy has to agree with the RFU policy as we are affiliated but we can refine the detail a little to our particular circumstances.

Personal photography:

As a club, we accept that we cannot police the touchlines and prevent all photos being taken and it would not be desirable if we could. However, that does not absolve us from a duty of care.

“Action shots” being taken by excited parents of their own children while “in play” is clearly an innocent undertaking but clearly are going to contain more than just their own child in frame. This is much the same as photographs taken at a child’s birthday party or school trip.

Club Policy “anyone taking photos of a game or a practice session should be challenged by any club member, parent or official, to explain who they are photographing and why.”

The attitude of the club will depend very much on the context and the motivation.

As a club we hope and indeed insist that one member would respect another members wishes and concerns which is to say: If you want your child’s image however accidentally captured, deleted from another member’s camera, the club would insist that your wish was upheld as a term of membership.

Portrait shots:

Team photographs:

Kids love a team photo and parents love to take one. If a parent doesn’t want their child to be in a team photo that’s fine, we respect that of course. We respectfully ask that parents who don’t want their child in a team photo declare so at the outset and prevent their child from joining the photograph. It is rather hard to airbrush a child out (but not impossible if it came to it) after the event and there is no opportunity to retake after the event.

Individual portrait shots:

There is no circumstance when a child may be photographed individually, out of play, by anyone other than their own parent or guardian.

Publicity Photography:

RFU photography: At present all our games are arranged individually, ad hoc between like minded clubs so there is not an issue of an official RFU photographer appearing and taking photographs. As the club progresses though and enters regional tournaments or a league than this is a possibility parents will have to reconcile in the future. Individual signed consent would be obtained for the occasion or parents would always have the option to opt out. Participation in an RFU event would not be conditional on giving consent so you would always have both options.

Wortley RUFC Photography: We have used action photographs in the past. The club website has some open to viewing by members of the club only. These have been photos taken by parents at a match or fun day and are seeking to share them with other parents associated with the club. These are not broadcast.

When the club seeks to use action photographs for its own publicity – either in the website or other medium eg Barnsley Chronicle it may obtain photographs from parents, or may appoint an “official” photographer for an event. However so the photographs are obtained, they will not be published without the express written consent of the parent of all children that can be identified in the photograph. That consent will state explicitly the use to which that photo can be put e.g. appearance in chronicle, use for poster in Thurgoland school and not allow us to use it any time or for any purpose.

Club Policy: Consent for photographs to be used for club publicity will be assumed to be denied unless it is given by parents in writing for individual projects and the limits of that consent specified
Wortley taking portrait photographs: Should the club wish to do this either in team groups or individual photographs it could only happen if a parent had consented, the parent was present and a permission form signed to stipulate where and how and for how long an image could be used. This has occurred already with the RugbyForce weekend with a Wortley team photograph appearing on the IRB rugby force website