The Non-collection of Children Policy
Introduction
In the event that a child is not collected by an authorised adult at the end of a pre-school session, Crowthorne village pre-school puts into practice agreed procedures. These ensure the child is cared for by an experienced and qualified member of staff who is known to the child.In the event that a child is not collected by an authorised adult, we will ensure that the child receives a high standard of care in order to cause as little distress as possible. We inform parents/carers of our procedures so that, if they are unavoidably delayed, they will be reassured that their children will be properly cared for. Back to top
Procedures
1. Parents of children starting at the pre-school are asked to provide specific information which is recorded on our Registration Form, including:· Home address and telephone number
· Place of work, and telephone number [if applicable]
· Mobile number [if applicable]
· Names and addresses and telephone numbers of adults who are authorised by the parents to collect their child from pre-school.
2. On occasions when parents or the persons normally authorised to collect the child are unable to, please let us know. If we do not know this person a pass word will be agreed between the parent/carer and the supervisor.
3. Parents are informed that if they are not able to collect their child as planned, they must inform us so we can begin to take back-up procedures. We provide parents with our contact telephone number. We also inform parents that ? in the event that their children are not collected from preschool by an authorised adult and the staff can no longer supervise the child in our premises ? we apply our child protection procedures as set out in our child protection policy.
4. If a child is not collected at the end of the session, we follow the following
procedures.
· Parents/carers are contacted at home or work;
· If this is unsuccessful, your contact person will be contacted;
· All reasonable attempts are made to contact the parents/carers, for example another member of staff will visit the child?s home;
· The child stays at pre-school in the care of two fully-vetted staff until the child is safely collected;
· The child does not leave the premises with anyone other than named by the parent/carer;
· If no-one collects the child and the premises are closing, or the staff are unable to stay any longer, we contact our local authority social services department and inform Ofsted;
· A full written report of the incident is recorded; and
· Depending on circumstances, we reserve the right to charge parents for the additional hours worked by our staff. Back to top