Prior Injury Form

[Running Bunny]

Just when I thought I was winding down for Christmas, I arrived to this query this morning...

 

Ofsted have requested that a provider has a 'prior injury' form to run alongside incident forms and Child Protection procedures. The idea being that parents report any injury that may have occured at home that may have an impact on the child's behaviour or may raise concerns at nursery i.e. bumped head the previous night and had to go to A&E, big bruise on leg as child fell off bike etc. It can also be used by staff to record injuries that are noticed and have not occured at nursery (possibly leading to CP issue)

 

Does anyone have this in place?

 

Also, there appears to be a 'catch 22' with what to record and how open to be with parents, particularly around Child Protection. If parents are allowed to see whatever records are kept on their child, can CP issues override data protection and can access be refused?

 

Any ideas/thoughts? THANK YOU!

[Guest]

Hi Running Bunny,

In my preschool if a child arrives with a mark / injury / information from parent of any other kind such as received good or bad news we write it in our incident file, writing parents message word for word whilst parent is there and get them to sign it.

I worry that if you have too many different places to record things then you may miss on links between different incidences / events. Well that is my rationale for writing everything in one book. Each page is seperate and it is kept confidential on a need to know basis with regard to staff knowledge.

As for child protection versus data protection, I believe that we work "in partnership" with parents, to ensure the best care and safety of their child. I always explain my child protection procedures on my home visits prior to the child starting. If I have a concern / disclosure which occurs during the session, I write it down and inform the parents when they come to pick up and get them to sign the report. If I am concerned that informing the parent could affect the childs safety then I would phone the ACPC and discuss this with them and take their advice whether to inform the parent or not.

I think parents should always have access to records kept about their child unless it contravenes the childs safety. The child's safety is paramount and working with parents, in the majority of cases, ensures the child is well cared for.

 

Peggy

[Inge]

Like peggy, we too write it in our incident/aaccident file, differnt page for each child so it is confidential and we or parent fills it in and it is signed by the parent. We too feel that oo many places to record things and it can be 'lost' or incidents are not linked together.

 

Data proection...Again advice from peggy is similar to what we do, contact if we believe a CP issue for advice, otherwise speak to parents and have them sign to say we have shown them the record.

 

( done the contact for advice a couple of times, once was Ok, and advised speak to parents, and other time ended up with social services coming immediately and being there to see parent when child was collected, ended up in case conferences and lots more besides, since then have erred on side of caution and tend to ask for advice.)

 

Inge

[hali]

we have individual forms for parents to fill in that are then placed in the childrens file......