Age Of Young People Collecting From Pre-school

[Guest MaryEMac]

Hope someone can help. I know that I have seen this discussed before but I can't find it. The other week when I was off, one of our parents sent her young brother to pick up her son. First of all she had not previously informed the group that he was collecting his nephew and the staff seemed to think that this lad was only about 12/13. He was collecting the child by himself and was walking him home. There was no known adult waiting outside the gate to accompany him. Is there stated anywhere that a young person collecting a child needs to be over a designated age? Thanks,

 

Mary

[Cait]

I'm pretty sure it's 16. I'll check the pSLA policy for you

[narnia]

I wouldn't let a child go from my care with anyone under 16.............................and I would certainly have expected to be told that someone else was collecting. If not, then I would have phoned the parent to check, but I definately would not allow them to go with a 12/13 year old,I'm afraid. I'm pretty sure cait is right, but I don't have my copy of the PSLA book to hand.

[Guest]

Hi This happened to me once. I found out that they have to be 16 even if they are siblings.

Dorinda

[mundia]

Mary what sort of setting are you in?

In my old school, we were clearly told that we could not hold onto a child who had a sibling collect. We could phone to confirm that the child had indeed been sent to collect, but could not prevent them from going. Our parents then had to sign to say that they would not hold the school responsible if they chose to send their 11 year old to collect their 4 year old.

 

Just to ask though, what if the parent of the child is under 16?

[blondie]

the youngest age is 16 - cant remember where i read it though. we had this problem a while ago as mum sent youn sister to pick up-they were about to move and mum was at home packing - i phoned mum and explained the situation and she was quite happy to come and pick up child form preschool. its a worry as what would happen if something happened to them on way home - younger child ran off/into road -would parent blame us for letting child go even though they had sent that minor to collect the child in the first place?

[JacquieL]

At school we often had parents who wanted junior children to take younger children home and we asked them to put this in writing. We never allowed anyone who was under 16 to take nursery children home and that is what we told parents.

[Cait]

I can find it in our own policy, but not found it in a PSLA one yet - anyone else find anything yet?

[Guest]

We only let nursery children go with someone 16 or over!

[HappyMaz]

Just to ask though, what if the parent of the child is under 16?

That is a really good question!

 

I had a quick look at the Statutory Framework and couldn't find anything - perhaps it would be worth asking your Local Authority (or dare I say it, Ofsted).

 

Maz

[JacquieL]

A child can go with a parent or someone who has parental responsibility, so no problems if they are under 16 in that case.

[HappyMaz]

A child can go with a parent or someone who has parental responsibility, so no problems if they are under 16 in that case.

So if the parent gave permission for a sibling who was under 16 to collect the child, that would be ok?

 

Maz

[Guest Spiral]

I wrote into our policies that children will not be released to anyone under 16, unless they are the child's parent.

 

Scary stuff, but very necessary, it really should be written down and a copy given to parents (or a poster put up).

 

Good luck,

 

Spiral.

[JacquieL]

You can't refuse a parent even if under 16 as they are the parent, but can refuse someone else under 16. If you say no-one under 16 qs your policy then that is what parents have to abide by.

[anju]

i had a similar situation of a 12 year old sibling being sent, i rang mum and she grudgingly came to collect. i have since amended the policy to say no over 16s but must check it says 'only over 16s unless it's the parent of the child'.

 

since then i had the same sibling drop the little girl off - what would you say about this? it's not ideal as what if we wanted to discuss something with the parent or send a message back, they may not get it. not sure about this one.

[Guest MaryEMac]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I think that I will be speaking to the chair of comittee and the staff team and then putting the decision into our child protection policy.

 

Mary

[Guest jenpercy]

EYFS Welfare says that children can only be colected by individuals named by the parents. Children must not leave the premises unsupervised. Then it says

 

except where there is reasonable excuse, obtaining written permission from parents where children are to be picked up by another adult.

 

Also remembering that OFSTED are red-hot on checking that all parents collecting sign the register,

 

I think I would assume that they mean that children must be picked up by an adult. Our policy is for all under 8s, they must be picked up by an adult. Parents wanting children over 8 to be collected by a child under 16, or to walk home alone (we go up to 14) must put this in writing. We don't let anyone over or under go home with an under 18 without putting it in writing.

 

you can't do anything about dropping off though.

[Sue R]

Also remembering that OFSTED are red-hot on checking that all parents collecting sign the register,

 

Is that so?? Crikey, that'd cause a real problem for us... some get all agitated if they have to wait one second to take their child! (Day nursery) Anyone else found this?

 

I used, years ago, to work in a setting where on one famous occasion a trainee (unvetted, been with the company just under two weeks) of 15 was sent to collect 6 children (unaccompanied) from a school a good 15 minutes walk away, across a major road. The Manager didn't see anything amiss

 

It wasn't long after that I left.

 

Sue

[Rea]

If a young person of 14 was to baby sit and something went wrong the parents would be held responsible. If a young person of 16 baby sat and something went wrong they would be held responsible.

I would assume the same would apply if they were collecting a child from a nursery?

I would just make everyone involved aware of their responsibilities.

[korkycat]

On our registration form we have the statement that any other named person allowed to collect child must be 16 or over. carer signs to agree this.

korkycat

[anju]

Also remembering that OFSTED are red-hot on checking that all parents collecting sign the register,

 

i have never heard of this either - anyone else do this?

[Guest jenpercy]

i have never heard of this either - anyone else do this?

 

reall we do after school and holidays and we have had several ticking-offs from OFSTED over this. They asked for time collected and LEGIBLE signature until I pointed out that as far as I was concerned, that was a contradictino in terms. If it's legible it wouldn't be MY signature, and I couldn't guarantee that I had written it. Only recently we got a ticking off because staff had signed a couple of children, none of whom was EYFS incidentally, and therefore they were theoretically outside their remit.

[HappyMaz]

In pre-school we have never been asked to get parents to 'sign out' their children, however I do remember this being mooted when I was involved with holiday activities a few years ago. Since we could potentially have had 200 children on site at any time we didn't see how we could logistically do this, and so in the end we didn't. This is going back a few years now, certainly pre-EYFS.

 

Maz

[Upsy Daisy]

As a childminder I've been told by Ofsted to keep records of arrival and collection times but they've never asked me to get the parents to sign each time.

[Rea]

Its something we used to do at playgroup years ago, everychild had to be signed in and out by the parent or adult who brought/collected, but I know they dont do it now.