Collection Of Children

[dottyp]

On Friday a Father of a 2yr old came to collect her at close of session. No staff had ever seen

him before and the mother had not notified us that morning. It was a very

difficult situation, as although the child obviously responded well to him when he arrived, she would not say

who he was! We phoned 'mum' to confirm it was 'Dad' who was collecting today but she was extremely put

out that we'd phone to check. Her response was 'well it's her Dad, so I didn't think I needed to mention it

this morning!' On reflection, does anyone have a 'collection' policy they would be willing to share

to avoid any future problems or would it be sufficient to just write out our procedure checks and add it to

the policies

 

dottyp

[Inge]

we had a policy or if I remember correctly we had it as part of our parental agreement that they all signed before the child started with us.

 

 

think we said it was part of our child protection procedures that only the named person on the signing in form would be allowed to take child home, and it this changed the parent must ring us to let us know or sent a note with the new person collecting which we then kept. I also think our did stipulate that this was even if other parent was the one collecting we would telephone for confirmation if needed.

 

Our parents never objected to this and we often called mum when dad came, sometimes even when we knew the dad, they found it quite amusing, but always said they understood and were pleased we took so much care of their children..

 

we had a signing in sheet where every day we asked them to say who was collecting , if they were unsure they would put both parents down or sometimes both and grandparent.. we always checked this at collection time...

 

may sound over the top but with children from local refuge attending we had to be extremely careful who collected, so we made it a rule for all.

 

if I find the wording I will return , but cannot find it at the moment..

 

Inge

[Inge]

sorry, so good I said it twice , and I have no reason why it happened

 

so edited it out!

 

 

 

Inge

Edited November 9, 2009 by Inge

[Guest]

You would have thought the mum would have been praising you for being so careful!

 

Anyway, we have a similar system to Inge, a sign in sheet where we put details of whether children are staying for lunch and who will be collecting them. We would expect parents to phone if this were to change although I'm not sure we have that written anywhere.

[Guest]

Hi, we have had similar situations in the past so now cover every eventuality because as you say it's embarassing. We have a signing in sheet which the parents signs and puts who will collect. We also have parental responsibility on the registration document, who can collect, a password in case of a new person collecting. Our parents now accept that we will phone and check who someone is. At the end of the day, you know you did your job right, you would have worried if you hadn't. Hold your head up for good practice!

[dottyp]

Thank u all for your good practice and reassurance! I am going to add 'child collections' to the next newsletter

so all parents are aware of the correct procedure.

 

dottyp

[bugbabe]

In our admission forms carers fill in those with parental responsibility and other adults who may collect the child. Other than this carers are asked to ring us to confirm if anyone else is collecting their child. Then and only then will we let the child off the premises

 

You are to be comended for your actions, they were totally correct in my opinion

Edited November 9, 2009 by bugbabe