Lost child - report to Ofsted?

[HoneyPancakes]

Yesterday I picked a six year old child up from school, and in the few minutes it took to greet the older children he lost sight of me, thought we'd gone without him and headed off to find us. His loss was recognised within those couple of minutes but it was thirteen minutes before he was located, safe and well, half way between school and my house.  There are no roads to cross luckily and the path is busy with other school families, but the 'what-ifs' are horrifying.   I followed my procedures, and I've written up the report, but my sleep deprived brain won't let me find out if I have to tell Ofsted or not?  It's not in my procedures which makes me think not, but I feel like I should.  

Any support gratefully appreciated. 

Honey

 

[FSFRebecca]

Oh HoneyPancakes, what a nightmare - you poor thing, what a scary thing to have happened. I have quickly found this advice from Devon LA which is easy to understand. The significant events that need to be notified are ones which are  "likely to affect suitability of the early years provider". I would say your incident doesn't affect your suitability. However, I would be telephoning my local advisory team to ask them. Personally, I would phone Ofsted and make them aware and tell them what you have done and what you have put in place to ensure that it doesn't happen again - even if they don't need to know it will show how diligent you are and will be helpful if there is a subsequent complaint.

Try not to be too hard on yourself - we all have moments like this and all we can do is take stock, review everything, retrain if necessary and then move on. No harm came to the child and he was sensible enough to start making his own way and didn't go off anywhere else. I would also be revisiting the stranger danger and 'safe place' themes with the children too.

I'm sure others will come along and say something helpful that I've forgotten. 

Sending positive thoughts your way

[HoneyPancakes]

Rebecca thank you.  I do wish Ofsted had an online way to report.  The time on the phone reporting anything to them is seriously not in the best interest of children.  

H  

[FSFRebecca]

3 minutes ago, HoneyPancakes said:

Rebecca thank you.  I do wish Ofsted had an online way to report.  The time on the phone reporting anything to them is seriously not in the best interest of children.  

H  

You have 14 days to make the notification - so you could wait until you feel less 'scrambled' by the situation, maybe?

[Stargrower]

I don't have anything to add to Rebecca's good advice but wanted to say I hope you're ok.  A few years ago we had a bit of a miscommunication between a parent and practitioner which made us think we had a lost child.   It turned out he wasn't lost at all, he just hadn't come in but it was such a horrendous feeling.

Hope you have a relaxing weekend!

 

[HoneyPancakes]

Thanks so much Stargrower.  I'm actually fine, if tired.   Parents are great.  This is their fourth child with me, so we've known each other for over ten years - all somewhat quirky children.  If he were with mum he would have walked all the way back while she was still chatting at the school gate.  Have demobbed with the school who have been great.  Yet again, a very long standing relationship.  But all that is beside the point, there's a principal at stake, and we never know who else is watching, so need to be above board.  I do have a bit of a reputation for quirky kids, and this is some of the difficulty that comes with the territory.  

Thanks again for your concern.

Honey

[BedfordBoroughNicolaM]

I would notify Ofsted- great that all your paperwork is in place, but we had a similar situation in our LA where someone else notified Ofsted anonymously and that then triggered an inspection....

[sunnyday]

Hi Honey - I would contact Ofsted if I were you - they will just talk through what happened and what you have put in place to ensure it won't happen again and look at your record of events at your next inspection 

Take care - we are all only human and mistakes happen x

[louby loo]

Sounds like you're well organised.  I'm another that would notify ofsted, talk it through and tell them what you've put in place to stop it happening again.  xxx

[GFCCCC]

I would also notify ofsted. We have a simple form which we've designed that we use to inform them of any incident, even if we're not obliged to, it makes sure we're covered if anything comes of it (like if the child mentioned at school next week and they decided to contact them!) We email the form to them and ask in the email for them to acknowledge receipt. If they want to ring and ask us questions, they can do - if not, we're covered. 

[Mouseketeer]

5 hours ago, Stargrower said:

I don't have anything to add to Rebecca's good advice but wanted to say I hope you're ok.  A few years ago we had a bit of a miscommunication between a parent and practitioner which made us think we had a lost child.   It turned out he wasn't lost at all, he just hadn't come in but it was such a horrendous feeling.

Hope you have a relaxing weekend!

 

We had this with siblings a few years ago, parent brought both in, both registered but didn’t say a word to anyone that one of them wasn’t staying, an horrendous 10 minutes trying to contact the parent who was oblivious to the panic caused ...that was a lesson learned.

try not to dwell on it hopey, you could use this form, click through the page links in the left to see if you think it fits.

https://ofstedonline.ofsted.gov.uk/ofsted/Ofsted_Early_Years_Notification.ofml

 

Edited September 28, 2018 by Mouseketeer

[HoneyPancakes]

On 28/09/2018 at 16:38, Mouseketeer said:

We had this with siblings a few years ago, parent brought both in, both registered but didn’t say a word to anyone that one of them wasn’t staying, an horrendous 10 minutes trying to contact the parent who was oblivious to the panic caused ...that was a lesson learned.

try not to dwell on it hopey, you could use this form, click through the page links in the left to see if you think it fits.

https://ofstedonline.ofsted.gov.uk/ofsted/Ofsted_Early_Years_Notification.ofml

 

Who knew this was there?!  Thanks so much!!  You are a complete champion Mouseketeer.

[lsp]

Hi Honeycakes.  We have had a situation with a missing child. Parents were very supportive.  We read and reread the EYFS Framework. We finally phoned Ofsted who to be fair were not very supportive with their advice. It is basically your decision whether you think it is reportable incident  but, if you make the wrong decision and they find out, you are in breach of regulations.

I  made a report over the phone.  I also reported it to our Early Years team and LADO.  Anyway, we had a visit from Ofsted within a week I think.  They spoke to me as Manager and read all the incident reports. They read all the relevant policies,  my evaluation of the incident, my action plan of changes that we had already put in place to ensure it 'couldnt' happen again. She said that the incident breached safeguarding regulations as we had failed to keep children safe. 

We had a full ofsted inspection a few months later where they looked into the changes we had made. We were due anyway but it was all good.

It was a truelly awful time.   The only good thing was  child was ok and parents were supportive. Staff moral was rock bottom for many months. 

[HoneyPancakes]

Well I wrote up my report using that Ofstedonline site before realising that it was primarily for Early Years.  While I am an Early Years provider,  the child in question was a six year old.  Not sure if I did it properly, but I've done the best I can.   Feeling increasingly anxious about it.   Thanks again for support and information.

Honey

[FSFRebecca]

10 minutes ago, HoneyPancakes said:

Well I wrote up my report using that Ofstedonline site before realising that it was primarily for Early Years.  While I am an Early Years provider,  the child in question was a six year old.  Not sure if I did it properly, but I've done the best I can.   Feeling increasingly anxious about it.   Thanks again for support and information.

Honey

Have you had any support from your local authority?

[sunnyday]

23 hours ago, HoneyPancakes said:

Well I wrote up my report using that Ofstedonline site before realising that it was primarily for Early Years.  While I am an Early Years provider,  the child in question was a six year old.  Not sure if I did it properly, but I've done the best I can.   Feeling increasingly anxious about it.   Thanks again for support and information.

Honey

Honey - I'm sorry to read that you are feeling increasingly anxious and can completely understand why - however, you have done the right thing in my humble opinion in reporting this to Ofsted - they are, in my experience keen on providers being proactive when there is any problem/issue

Take care x

[HoneyPancakes]

On 30/09/2018 at 15:13, Rebecca said:

Have you had any support from your local authority?

I haven't asked Rebecca.   Time is a good healer and I'm thinking all will be well.   Just heard Ofsted are hot in my area so expecting the call any day one way or another.   Hoping that they're concentrating on previous 'Good' providers and will leave me alone for a bit longer.  Thanks for maintaining an  interest. H 

[HoneyPancakes]

On 01/10/2018 at 14:49, sunnyday said:

Honey - I'm sorry to read that you are feeling increasingly anxious and can completely understand why - however, you have done the right thing in my humble opinion in reporting this to Ofsted - they are, in my experience keen on providers being proactive when there is any problem/issue

Take care x

Thanks Sunnyday.  That's what I'm hoping.   Feeling better a few days down the track. Have been having a second drinkie with dinner  though.  

[lsp]

Hi HoneyPancakes.  Interested to hear whether you had any feedback from Ofsted about the incident?

[HoneyPancakes]

Not heard a whisper.  Shhhh!