Emerg Policy Help Please

[fimbo]

following on from the earlier post re 2 members of staff,

 

we are only allowed 2 members of staff per session (until the numbers of children increase) our sessions can have anything from 7 to 13 children.

we only have a duty parent for the last hour ( more often than not just half hour) of the session.

im trying create an emergency procedure policy -to cover what needs to be done in an emergency situation, ie accident, illness etc.

 

we are stumped as to what to do if one of us needs to administer 1st aid, or if one of us is injured or becomes ill, or if one of us need to accompany a child to hospital......the remaining children would be left with just 1 member of staff -what happens if the remaining children are also upset and distressed ?

 

how is the remaining staff member supposed to cope alone, with the children whilst trying to comfort any, whilst also call parents asking them to collect their children as the setting must close ?

 

the only commitee member who has said they could be the emergency contact person, can longer do so.....

 

how do i work this one out ????

[Fredbear]

Sorry fimbo can you just remind me how old the children are in your care and how they are split under threes over threes.

I really want to offer some advise for you but without more details i'm not sure i can.

I never allow under three staff at our setting even for our lunch club which some days was only 4/5 children for this very reason.

Its a nightmare isn't it.

[Guest]

Hi Fimbo

 

This is exactly my managers argument however feel the committee are not going to go for it no matter how much I try to push it. She said the same..who would she call in an emergncy, what about staff going to the toilet when a staff member will then be alone with the children? Think we have to use our common snse on that one.

 

Did say if emergency then would have to go through phone book of other staff and then committee. Cant think of anything else really

 

Plus..a thought...childminders are alone with children arent they?????!!! Where does it actually come from that nursey staff etc are advised never to be left alone with children??

 

And another thought...staff are left alone to take the children to the toilet and change nappies (only 2 children at a time) at my pre-school so this rule again seems to be a little over the top??

Edited March 16, 2011 by marley

[Guest]

Hi

Had a quick search on the internet and found a emergency policy that stated

A situation which may cause the setting to be outside of qualification or child to staff ratio.

If an emergency situation arose on a day where minimum staff ratios were in place and a staff member

has to leave the setting, every attempt would be made to contact the nearest available qualified relief

staff. If that was not possible then the setting would be closed and all parents contacted to

immediately collect their children. The nearest available CRB approved committee members would be

called on to accompany the remaining staff member until parents are able to collect their children. A

list of all emergency contact numbers for relief staff and committee members will be kept in the

register and the emergency bag at all times.

This policy has been adopted by Happy

[Inge]

The above is what we had...

 

we often had 2 of us.. could not avoid it, as soon as income allowed we added staff.. if we had enough in hand we also added staff, but not always possible.. must be same for many.

 

Also we added that a committee member would hold the contact details and call the parents as staff would need to be responsible for the remaining children they could not do this and all the telephoning.. to help we also had all parents mobile/ phone numbers on a mobile phone and we could then send a bulk text message to all at the same time... this was in addition to the call... sometimes text message worked better than a call for contacting parents..

 

hope is that we would never need to use it.. and never did.. but made all parents aware that we needed them to collect promptly in such circumstances.

[fimbo]

many thanks - really helpful ideas -i should be able to go back to the commitee with a draft policy.

Bridger -all children are over 3 (at the moment).

the comment re the staff /loo made me chuckle...very often get to the end of a session realising im actually desperate for a pee !! my mind must block it until im able to go lol !!

[Guest]

I can understand some settings not being able to afford more than two staff and the policies quoted above seem reasonable. However if a member of staff had to accompany a child to hospital in an emergency you would need to consider your setting's circumstances as to how that would work in reality. In my setting I know for a fact we could not guarantee to be able to have a CRB checked committee member on site before the ambulance left, or to have all the parents at the setting by that time either. That would leave one member of staff alone with the children which may be over ratio and certainly leaving the staff member at risk. Very difficult situation I know especially in these financially difficult times.

[Guest]

Hi

I think in which case Holly Im sure OFSTED would understand in those exceptional circumstances. Thing is you would be having to do a report for OFSTED anyway.

Surely it would be ok as you waited for someone else to arrive or were waiting for parents to come and pick their children up.

[Guest]

Possibly you are right. I'll deny that if my committee said I said it! It's so difficult to factor for something like this as it may never happen too. And I guess if you asked Ofsted directly the answer would be something along the lines of "we refer you to the EYFS and you need to risk assess it" ie not an answer really.

[Guest]

Have you tried colleges for apprentices ? Very often they have trainees who want a placement and this would give you an extra pair of hands.

[Guest]

Possibly you are right. I'll deny that if my committee said I said it! It's so difficult to factor for something like this as it may never happen too. And I guess if you asked Ofsted directly the answer would be something along the lines of "we refer you to the EYFS and you need to risk assess it" ie not an answer really.

 

 

so true Holly!!!

[Guest jenpercy]

so true Holly!!!

 

I do know that for after school clubs, OFSTED have said that ratios need not be strictly observed during breaks etc.

 

The bigt no-no is being alone with one child. Being on your own with several is unavoidable.

[Fredbear]

Why can't you just have the b....y money to provide what you know is best practice, oh it makes me so cross when i know of groups like yours and many others that are so struggling or deciding to close because of finance.

You can be as prudent as you like but if you live in a village area and do not have the uptake of large amounts of children does that mean these children are not entitled to care and education as anyone else.

Sorry little rant over and ducks.

[Guest]

We have found that an all parents text is very useful in similar situations (e.g. when we had to close for snow).

 

If you can set up your setting mobile to send an instant SMS to all parents, hopefully some could rush in and support you.

 

I appreciate how difficult this is for you. I think there should really be a requirement for government to fund 3 staff minimum for all early years settings.