Seperate Baby Room

[Guest nadzy]

Hello!

 

I'm the manager of a nursery that has a separate baby unit. The problem I'm facing is that at around 12pm all the babies are sleeping and it's time for staff lunches. Due to the baby room being a separate building it proves to be very tricky to keep two members of staff in there when all the children are asleep. We have come up with a solution of having a video and sound monitor on so only one member of staff needs to be in the room while the other goes on lunch (the other end of the camera is with me in the office) however I'm not sure if this is enough safeguarding or if two members should be present even though all children are asleep.

 

Does anyone have a similar situation and can give me any feedback?

[woodlands1997]

I visited a nursery recently where the babies were put upstairs to sleep with a baby monitor and no one with them at all - they had recently had an ofsted inspection and told this was fine and got outstanding! I was really surprised as we definitely don't do this and I didn't think it would be remotely allowed!! How far away is the building, it sounds like you've thought it through and as long as you're in the office to keep an eye and could get there fast - I can't see why it would be a problem? How many babies are there though, just thinking ratio wise if one staff member on there lunch?

[SazzJ]

I used to work in one where they did similar.

 

My only concern would be do staff stay in site for lunch? What about Health and Safety? If you were to have a fire, can you get them all out safely?

 

As long as your near by then it's ok as long as you can prove what steps you have taken xx

[SazzJ]

Supposedly ratios differ when sleeping - not convinced this is 100% true but maybe someone can verify it. At least this is what I was told in previous setting

[Guest]

I would most def. have 2 staff, for all the above reasons, fire, safe guarding etc

[Guest nadzy]

Thanks for the response. I didn't take into consideration a fire hazard. If there was a fire and I had 2 babies sleeping there would need to be 2 members of staff to evacuate them. For that reason alone I will keep 2 members of staff in there and if that is not possible then at least I or my Deputy can cover.

 

Once again, thank you for the feedback!

[SazzJ]

It's one of the issues I tried to raise with a previous employer who took no notice. Didn't help that children were fastened into triple buggies either which didn't fit through the door either x