COUNCIL bosses remain under fire from an angry East Ayrshire parent over an alleged breach of data protection involving the unauthorised publication of a picture of a child.

A probe was launched by East Ayrshire Council (EAC) in January after a complaint claimed the picture of the child had been published by the authority on social media without the parent's permission.

According to the original complaint the child was pictured online on three separate occasions without consent.

Parents and guardians of pupils are required to sign consent forms saying whether or not they want their child's image published online.

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This led to the parent reporting EAC to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), who are the governing body dealing with Data Protection protocols.

According to the complainer, the ICO said that the council had been "negligent" in allowing the child's image to be published on social media.

Council bosses say that procedures have been put in place to ensure something similar does not happen again.

The authority said the ICO was satisfied with the council's assurances.

But the parent accused EAC of having a "cavalier attitude" towards the situation, added that the "the ICO’s response to me said that EAC had been ‘negligent’".

The parent continued: "I do feel that they’re [East Ayrshire Council] still trying to fob us off and being too blasé about the position they’ve put us in."

Another concerned parent added: "You want to have trust that your child is going to be safe at school and nothing about them will be shared without your consent.

"I get that it can come down to human error, but sometimes that excuse is not good enough.

"You don't know what kind of people are online and can be looking at your child's picture being shared when you didn't want it to be."

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East Ayrshire Council's Chief Education Officer, Linda McAulay-Griffiths said that "an investigation was undertaken regarding this incident and the findings have been shared with the family concerned".

Ms McAulay-Griffiths added: "A photograph was posted for a short period of time of a school event that inadvertently included a pupil in the background.

"Procedures at the school have been reviewed to prevent this occurring again. The Information Commissioner’s Office were notified and they were satisfied that procedures at the school were being reviewed to prevent further human error.

"I’d like to reassure all parents and carers, and indeed the wider general public, that we do have appropriate arrangements and policies in place for managing social media across all our council services - including education - to ensure the safety and privacy of those involved."