Uncollected Children Policy

[beth1]

I went into work (preschool setting) for 10 minutes to collect something for me to complete my college work. Well I decided to stay for end of session songs, telephone went off about a place in preschool this was after 12.00 pm, I got of fthe telephone to find out that a child had not been collected. I must have known that something was going to happen today.

 

So we rang up mum twice and then grandma who said she will keep trying the number too. Well grandma decided to come across (40 mins away) to collect the child, the child got collected at 1pm.

 

Now this is where I need some help, it turned out we had no uncollected child policy and did not know what to do. 3 staff members (not including myself off duty) stayed, 1 staff member was about to go and drive upto mum's house to fetch her down. Grandma turned up anyway.

 

I am going to ring up my advisory teacher for some advice.

 

BUT

 

I was going to ask should we charge mum for the hour if so how much?

 

AND

 

Has anyone got a copy of this policy for me to look at?

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Beth

[Guest]

Hi there,

Have attached our Non-collection of children policy for you which is taken from the PLA. It is very drastic and involves calling your PLA rep and Social services as last resorts, but it also says that at last 2 members of staff known to the child must stay on the premises as well. We hoped that as we are attached to a school the child could stay in school as the teachers are there long after we are gone but Ofsted say it must be two Pre-School staff. As most of our staff have their own children to pick up from school and look after this could be difficult.

Non_collection_of_children_policy.docx

[beth1]

Thanks for the information rjgmummy, just had a quick look at the policy looks well presented and clear instructions for any member of staff to implement.

 

 

Beth

[Guest]

I guess ours is a PLA one too as reading the one from poster 2 was like reading ours! I think the part about reserving the right to charge is good as that way you can decide not to charge in events of circumstances beyond the parent's control. I know I have read a recent thread about non-collection of children but I can't remember whether it was on this site. If it is there were other examples I think.

[Inge]

Think this is the one referred to above.

 

we charge by the 15 mins for late collection, and state this in policy and remind in newsletters etc when needed, also have a form to complete giving date and time, what time child should have been collected, staff present, what we did , who was contacted, at what time, telephone numbers called and time of this as well as what was said if we spoke to someone.

What time the child was collected , by whom, and at bottom state how much is owed (if anything) and get parent and staff to sign this when collected.

we do this because we had an incident which was investigated by Ofsted as part of a complaint (not upheld because we had all this info at hand!) it also gives everyone a clear outline of what to to in what order and when, we used our policy as the guidelines.

 

late collection

 

Inge

[Deb]

Anybodyelse having difficulty opening rjgmummys attachment? I get a 'file conversion' message and end up with gobbledygook.

 

I have had quite enough of computers today. Having spent ages trying to print something from a printer that I had printed with only this morning! Argggg...

[Inge]

No deb, not tyhe onl;y one, find previous explanation from Steve here

 

Seems it is a wrd 2007 document .. I still cannot open it even with the solution given by Steve in other post. Looks like we may miss out on some items posted from now if we dont have correct version of word.

 

Inge

[Inge]

gosh my spelin or is it tiping!!

[Deb]

Thanks Inge for pointing me in the direction of Steve's post - will take a look.

 

Not sure if it's your spilling or tiping - or just the worms coming ouwt rong!

[HappyMaz]

Looks like we may miss out on some items posted from now if we dont have correct version of word.

So long as people remember to save their documents in the older version before they upload, it will be fine.

[Lyanne]

Hi there,

Have attached our Non-collection of children policy for you which is taken from the PLA. It is very drastic and involves calling your PLA rep and Social services as last resorts, but it also says that at last 2 members of staff known to the child must stay on the premises as well. We hoped that as we are attached to a school the child could stay in school as the teachers are there long after we are gone but Ofsted say it must be two Pre-School staff. As most of our staff have their own children to pick up from school and look after this could be difficult.

 

That's interesting, we always said 2 members of staff & reserve the right to charge for the 2 members of staff in 15 minute incremements - and at their hourly rate which proves expensive as it's the more senior staff who stay.

 

But last time we had Ofsted, the inspector said we could have only 1 stay as it's after hours.

 

We do always have 2 though. We're lucky in that we're on the site of the primary school where 3 of us have children & 2 others don't have (young) children. So at least 2 stay while someone goes & gets our children from school, then we stay with our children till the child goes. And my childminder brings my son home, so I'd phone her to bring him to preschool instead.