🙋‍♀️Arrival & Departure Policy (inc Late/Non Collection)

This policy was adopted on 30 August 2022 and is reviewed annually

Policy statement

It is the policy of the nursery to give a warm welcome and goodbye to every child and family on their arrival and departure, as well as ensuring the safety of children, parent/carers, visitors, employees, volunteers and students. At departure, children will be collected only by their parents/carers, or by other adults with the parents/carers’ expressed consent.

Arrival and Departure Procedures

Arrival

• Parents/carers are requested to pass the care of their child to a specific member of staff who will ensure his/her safety. The arrival and departure time of each child will be recorded in our attendance book, and on the FAMLY App.

• The staff member receiving the child, immediately records his/her arrival in the attendance book and FAMLY app. Any specific information provided by the parents should be received by the staff member welcoming them and then passed onto the relevant member/s of staff.

• A member of staff will be at the Bus Garden during the main arrival and departure periods (i.e. 8am, 9am, 2:30pm to 3pm and 4pm to 5pm). At other times of the day an internally approved member of staff who will ensure that the correct procedure for recording arrivals and departures is adhered to, may be on the door to release children to parents/carers.

• If a parent/carer requests that their child be given medicine during the day the staff member must ensure that the Medicine Consent Form (that can be found here....) is completed and signed and that the medicine is stored in the appropriate kitchen/fridge.

• The member of staff receiving the medication should be responsible for administering it or should allocate a member of staff to do so in their place.

• That staff member should set a reminder/alarm and arrangements should be made for cover whilst medication is being given. Further details about administering medicine can be found in the Medication Policy.

Late Arrival

• If a child has not arrived by 9.30am, the nursery will contact the parent/carer to ask for an estimated arrival time.

• If the child arrives after the other children have gone out onto the farm, the staff will record their arrival as late in the attendance book and take the child to join their group.

Departure

• No child should be handed over to anyone other than the parent/carer who delivered the child in the morning, unless an agreement has been made at the time of child’s arrival or the parent has telephoned/emailed the nursery to make a specific arrangement and this is recorded. Should anyone other than that person arrive to collect a child, the person who delivered the child will be immediately contacted by telephone and asked their consent.

• Parents should provide the names and description of any person they may send to collect their child and always make sure that the nursery are notified on that day if a child is to be collected by someone else. The nursery will ask the parent to give the person collecting an agreed password.

• Other than the parent/s or legal guardian of the child, we do not allow anyone under the age of 18 to collect. If anyone under the age of 18 arrives to collect child, the parent/carer will be contacted.

• If medicine has been given throughout the day, the parent signs the Medicine Consent Form when collecting the child and medicine. All medicines should be recovered from the medicine box/fridge only when the parent/carer has arrived, and is handed to him/her personally.

• On departure, the attendance book, FAMLY app must be immediately marked to show that the child has left the premises, and a deduction made from the total on the board.

Late Collection

• If a child has not been collected 15 minutes after the end of the session staff member will stay with the child and occupy and reassure him/her until the parent arrives.

• The staff will contact the office asking them to contact the parent to find out why they are late and ascertain their estimated time of arrival.

• If your child attends a session that finishes before nursery closure e.g. 9am-3pm, lateness of 15 minutes or more will be charged at the hourly rate.

• Except in extenuating circumstances (which are identified at the discretion of the Operations Manager) we will charge £5 per child for every 15 minutes of lateness after Nursery closure.

Non Collection of Child

If a child has not been collected from the nursery after a reasonable amount of time 30 minutes has been allowed for lateness and we haven't heard from the Parent/Carer, we will initiate the following procedure:

• The nursery manager will be informed that a child has not been collected

• The manager will check for any information regarding changes to normal routines, parents’ work patterns or general information. If there is no information recorded, the manager will try to contact the parents on the telephone numbers provided for their mobile, home or work. If this fails the manager will try the emergency contacts shown on the child’s records

• The manager/staff member in charge and one other member of staff will stay behind with the child (if outside normal operating hours). During normal operating times, the nursery will plan to meet required staff ratios. If the parents have still not collected the child, the manager will telephone all contact numbers available every 10 minutes until contact is made. These calls will be logged on a full incident record

• In the event of no contact being made after one hour has lapsed, the person in charge will ring the local authority children’s social services emergency duty team

• The nursery will inform Ofsted as soon as convenient

• The two members of staff will remain with the child until suitable arrangements have been made for the collection of the child

• A full written report of the incident is recorded in the child’s file

Visitors

• For arrivals and departures of visitors, the appropriate records must be completed on entry and exit i.e. in the Visitors Book, and visitors must be given a clearly visible Visitor badge to wear.

• Visitors to the premises on the public footpath will be recorded on CCTV. When seen staff will radio the farm to inform everyone there are walkers, and they will be monitored by a staff member while on site.