Suncream!

[Guest]

It is that time of year again, when the letters go out to remind parents that their children need sun hats and cream on. However what do we do with the children who stay all day?

 

One setting says we are NOT allowed to put it on the children and have sent out letters to that effect. We, on the other hand, have sent out consent forms giving us permission to help the children apply their own cream themselves. (well, that is the idea, we have alot of very white slippery children at the moment)

 

what is your policy?????

[Guest]

I used to ask permission when registering a child, I'd ask whether we could use our own suncream as well as parent supply.

 

See attached reg form permission page. (also located in resource library)

 

We would encourage children to apply their cream, but help to ensure full coverage, we re applied every 2 to 3 hrs if child was in all day, depending on how hot it was, water play etc.

 

Peggy

blank_registration_forms_1_.xls

[hali]

we ask parents to put it on before they come top nursery only do a 2 1/2 session so lasts for that amount of time

[JacquieL]

If our children are half day then the parents are responsible for putting sun cream on the child- if they are full day care then the parents provide the cream and staff put it on the children at lunchtime, and no staff or parents have a problem with this. Staff wear gloves when applying it and parents provide the cream for their own child.

[dublinbay]

Our parents are asked to apply suncream before coming to the session. There are always some who forget and we can only apply suncream to a child with their own supply in a named bag.

[Shiny]

We don't apply suncream as we are only 2 3/4 hour sessions + lunch club. It would be a nightmare if we had to though as we have 36 - 40 children per session!!! It would take an age!!!!

[Inge]

agin sessional so only half days and we have a very shady cool garden..we apply for one child who needs it for medical reasons, parent supplies and permission given.

 

but if we had to apply I would ask for parents to supply for own child as allergy can happen very quickly even if a child has been using it for a while.. this happened to a pertnt at home and the child ended up in casualty because of this, and it was a product supposed to be suitable for children etc etc and parent had used it before , so if there is a reaction in our care it is parent who has supplied the product.

 

Think it all depends on circumstances, amount of time spent outside at what time etc etc.. dare I say...perhaps a risk assessment....

 

Inge

[Guest]

well I don't know what to do now! We're a big foundation unit - we don't allow nursery children to bring any in - advising parents to apply. What about Rec children? At the moment they're allowed to apply it themselves if they bring it in but my daughter is in the unit and has millions of allergies - gut feeling is I need to rethink as I'm concerned children could apply themselves and probs happen? Any guidance anywhere? I've trauled the statutory framework - nothing as far as I can see. Help!

[Guest]

We request that parents apply before bringing children to the setting. For those attending all day we have sent out a letter informing parents that we buy a high factor, sensitive sunscreen which will be applied to their child after lunch. Parents can opt out of this arrangement if they wish. Only one so far has sent in their own cream, so far, so good.

 

Suncreams in bags are not so good, we had an incident last year when a child squirted herself in the eyes with her cream, so we always check bags for creams as the children have free access to their bags.

[Guest]

We had a 2 children last week-one suddenly allergic to the sun and the other developed a reaction to suncream applied by mother before the session-a good brand Amray solar (sp).We ask for cream applying before session and a named hat.We have a box of nursery hats by the door and children (and staff!) are not allowed out without one.We are 2 1.2 hrs sessions so it works for us.

[Guest]

We too ask for parents to apply suncream before our sessions (2.5hrs) and we have to trust they have have done so.

I was chatting with colleagues yesterday, as we are under the impression that we could not apply suncream because of the misinterpretation of 'touching' the child. Can anyone point me to the direction where it actually states this somewhere or has it evolved from rumour?

I can't seem to find any written evidence that states we can't apply suncream. (although we don't)

[Guest]

We too are sessional and have asked our parents to apply before we open. It causes no end of stress to the parents who all think their children don't need it as we are only there in the morning. One parent who consistently makes out we are making a fuss over nothing was proved wrong last week when she herself got sunburnt while her child was with us. Hopefully we have converted that one. What annoys me is that just as we have started to get our parents into the routine the weather changes and that is it for the summer!

[Beau]

You might find this useful.

[dublinbay]

Very useful Beau, thank you.

[Guest]

Thanks Beau

I Knew someone would know where to look. But the question still remains- Where does it say that we can/can't apply suncream?

[Buttercup]

I dont think it does.

 

we are a pre school open allday. I encourage parents of children who come for just the am or pm session to already apply cream before their child comes. Children who come all day must bring their own that has already been tried to reduce the risk of allergies. I would be very cautious about using a bottle provided at playgroup. we do get permission to apply suncream but must be provided by parent.

 

This week we have had parents forget and have had to keep some children in because it got quite hot. How is it going to work with eyfs saying provide a free flow of outdoor and indoor play when guidelines say keep them out of sun between 11 an 3 we have alittle bit of shade but not whole garden.

 

this is a tricky subject

good luck my biggest problem is parents

 

angela

[Guest]

Cannot help as to where it states that suncream cannot be applied but .....

 

I work in a Reception Class and letters have been sent home requesting that all children have suncream applied before coming to school.

 

It is made clear that staff are not allowed to apply suncream and children will not be allowed out in the hottest part of the day without cream.

 

However it also states that "should they wish to do so, parents may send in named suncream for the children to apply.This will remain the responsibility of the child but will be 'supervised' by an adult"

[Beau]

There is no rule that says sun cream can't be administered by staff members. Once again this is something that gets bandied about without any real grounding.

 

You need to decide as a team what is practical for you, the setting you are in and the children who use it. I would say that the children's needs must be at the forefront of all policy making and this should be considered first. You need to balance out the risk of allergies with the very real risk of, not just a child suffering from painful sunburn, but the long term health implications of the damage to the skin.

[Guest]

SO, it is another early years myth!

 

But as you say Beau, it is up to the professionals working with the children to decide what is best for those children in their care.

 

We have decided to ask parents to apply before school and send in own, named bottle for children to be helped to apply during day. Plus a consent form so that we can help the children if necessary.

Hopefully we have covered most eventualities!

 

Better do a risk assessment, just in case. LOL! What a palaver!!!!!

.

[Guest]

There is no rule that says sun cream can't be administered by staff members. Once again this is something that gets bandied about without any real grounding.

 

You need to decide as a team what is practical for you, the setting you are in and the children who use it. I would say that the children's needs must be at the forefront of all policy making and this should be considered first. You need to balance out the risk of allergies with the very real risk of, not just a child suffering from painful sunburn, but the long term health implications of the damage to the skin.

 

 

I agree. Where possible children should come to school/pre-school with suncream on, but we all know that some will not have any or adequate sun protection. When presented with this problem, my first thought is always how can I minimize this risk for the child. Sun cream is a clear winner every time.

[Lucy P]

We are open 7.30 - 6.00 and the majority of children attend for a full day.

 

Each child brings in their own bottle of suncream which is applied by staff wearing polythene gloves, 2 - 3 times daily

[Guest]

on inital infomation sheet parents are asked to sign if the child isn't allergic

 

we are a full day care which has been open for 20 years we have had no complaints from OFSTED

 

we ask parents for £5 for each child and if they want to supply their own they can

 

and we put cream on without gloves

[Guest]

We are a sessional group with children from 2. We ask parents to apply suncream but they also provide cream in the child's bag. We have signed permissions to allow us to put the child's own cream on if we feel it is needed. Some children have fairer skin, protection can be reduced after playing in water etc. As others have said, surely the most important thing is that the child is protected. I think that to expect a young child, even reception age to apply their own cream effectively without an adult being allowed to touch them is unrealistic. We have never had any problems when we have applied cream to the children.

 

Sally

[Guest]

My understanding is that if we do note apply suncream then we are failing in our duty of care by exposing children to the risk of sun damage. With increasing rates of skin cancer and the reality that much of initial skin damage is done during childhood I think we have to take our responsibility very seriously and re apply at lunchtime.

[Guest Wolfie]

I don't know if this is of any use - I've just written it for our Children's Centre. There's a good website called Sunsmart, that I used for information.

Sun_Protection_Policy.doc

[Guest]

It's interesting how some settings are very similar in their approach and others are quite different. However, underlying every approach, in every setting, is the welfare of the child.

If I was writing a policy I would consider;

The welfare of the child is paramount. (skin damage/cancer risk)

The ability of the child to take responsibility to apply own protection.

The safe guarding of staff against allegation (although I have never heard of any actual accusation in this circumstance, so very very low risk) In my safeguarding policy I would write the actions taken to prevent accusation, ie: cream applied with witnesses, and recorded by whom, when, on which children. plus asking the childs permission to touch/apply the cream.

The provision of the suncream (permission, cost, allergies, access in terms of storage, use by dates checked)

Staff training on dealing with allergic reactions.

Time taken to administer (which I would consider is similar to the time it takes all children to wash hands before eating)

The right for every child to be included in outdoor play with their peers and not to be excluded because cream is not supplied by parents.

The outdoor environment, how effectively it can / or cannot provide shade, times of use.

Sun protection clothing including hats and long sleeves / legs covered.

 

No doubt I've forgotten something.

I like Wolfie's inclusion of education within the policy, children as well as parents/staff.

 

Peggy

[Guest]

We too ask parents to sign to give permission for sun cream to be applied, staff do apply it.

We provide sun cream however if children cannot use ours then the parents must supply it.

[Guest]

Just to add further to our workload - we have a parent this year who has refused to apply suncream, allow us to apply it or use it at all. Her argument is that her child has skin complaints, the sun clears them up, she doesn't burn and the child has her skin type and finally, that her doctor told her not to use the cream because of the skin complaints! The latter we find very hard to believe. She has supplied a letter for our files explaining she will not use suncream nor give permission for it to be used and that she would not hold us responsible for the child getting sun burnt.

 

I didn't feel happy about this really and questioned our LA advisor who told us we could still be in big trouble if the child was burnt and that Ofsted would not take her letter as covering us. I agree with the advisor (that must be a first for me!) and we have tried in vain to educate mum and encourage her to discuss it again with the GP. In the end we have had to write a risk assessment which ensures the child will be brought inside if necessary. I am trying not to stress too much as the child is leaving us in 6 weeks and does not have siblings to follow. Also the child rarely chooses to go outside and does usually wears very thick, long sleeved and full legged clothes. My bigger worry is about over heating inside as the child will not shed any layers even if inside. From now on we are making our policy more strongly worded and, on advice from LA, will make all parents sign to say they agree to be bound by the policies. If the situation arises again we will then be able to say they agreed to stick to the policies in their contract, and breach of that makes it a breach of the contract.

[aan]

It is that time of year again, when the letters go out to remind parents that their children need sun hats and cream on. However what do we do with the children who stay all day?

 

One setting says we are NOT allowed to put it on the children and have sent out letters to that effect. We, on the other hand, have sent out consent forms giving us permission to help the children apply their own cream themselves. (well, that is the idea, we have alot of very white slippery children at the moment)

 

what is your policy?????

 

hi we have a policy on sun cream we ask parents to apply before arrival. we are a 3 hour session so it shoudn't need re-applying. if a parent has forgot then we do apply. ( we have quite a few, and can be time consuming but what else can we do . Let the child get burnt !! i think not ) we also keep a stack of sunhats as well.

[Guest]

hi we have a policy on sun cream we ask parents to apply before arrival. we are a 3 hour session so it shoudn't need re-applying. if a parent has forgot then we do apply. ( we have quite a few, and can be time consuming but what else can we do . Let the child get burnt !! i think not ) we also keep a stack of sunhats as well.

 

our policy is that as we offer sessional care, parents are expected to put sun cream on their child before they come to nursery, but if the child is likely to burn, or the parent wants a top up then they must provide their own, named sun cream and sign a permission slip for staff to apply the cream if necessary. We wouldn't expect a 2 yr old to put his own suncream on.