It is the policy of our childcare facility to ensure the collection of children is conducted in a safe manner. Children may only be collected by the person(s) named in the child’s registration form. Parents must notify staff if their child is to be collected by an unnamed person(s). Parents should ensure that children are collected on time and under no circumstances will children be brought home by a staff member.
No one under the age of 18 will be permitted to collect a child. The centre closes at 6pm; and all collections should be done by 5.45pm to allow staff time to finish by 6pm.
Persistent late collection may be subject to additional late charges to cover costs and possible termination of the Childs place after fair warnings have been given.
Please bear in mind that the facility’s insurance policy covers children on site - during operational hours i.e. from 8 a.m. up to 6p.m. It is incumbent on both parents and staff to mitigate risk by adhering to collection/drop-off procedures within operational hours.
If a child is not collected, the parents/guardians will be called. If the parents/guardians are unreachable the emergency contact will be called. Staff will remain on the premises and care for the child until they are collected. If a parent/guardian/nominated person turns up to collect a child in an unfit state, the child will not be released. Another parent/guardian/nominated member will be called to collect the child. If the person deemed unfit to collect the child causes any disturbance, the guards may be called. The child will be cared for until they are safely collected. The welfare of the child will remain a priority. .
Procedure for pick up and collection of school aged children
- Children will be collected from the local national school door by one of our childcare staff.
- The school-aged children, schoolteachers and childcare staff are aware of the after-school assembly point near the school door.
- Staff will be at the assembly point before children leave classrooms. One staff member will collect no more than 12 children on their own.
- If there are more than 12 children to be collected at a single school pick up, a ratio of 1;12 will be applied.
- Staff will have a full up-to -date list of children to be collected with them at collection point.
- Each child will be counted before the group leaves the school grounds.
- If there is a child missing the staff member must clarify with a teacher at school that the child is not present at school.
- Children will walk across to the after-school service as it is within the same campus as the school.
- Our current insurance covers this transportation method. Children will be guided safely to the after-school service door by the childcare staff member on duty.
- The rules regarding safe school pick-ups will be communicated regularly to school aged children.
- School aged children will enter the building in an orderly manner.
- Any children booked into afterschool who do not attend the local national school within our campus must be dropped off to the after-school service by a parent/guardian or named person.
- Collection time for afterschool children is encouraged between 5pm and 5.45pm. During this period the door will be opened and guarded by one of our childcare team.
- The door will not be left unattended during this time.
- All children will be handed over to parents/guardians/named person as they arrive.
- They will also be signed out on a role book at this time.
- If a parent wishes to collect their child outside of this timeframe, they can call the service to arrange for their child to be brought to the door by a childcare worker.
- This information is communicated to all involved.
- If a non-authorised person arrives to collect a child, the parents must be called and spoken to before the child is released.
- The parent will be asked to add the unnamed person to the authorised collectors list.
- They may also be asked to send an email giving us permission to release the child to the person including a photo and name of the person if they are unknown to childcare staff. ID may then be requested.
Contact Information If you require further information regarding this policy contact:
Name Lorraine Casey, Business Manager
Phone number 094 93 70833
Email; glornanog@gmail.com
Date this policy was created Sept 2008
Date the policy is reviewed May 2022
Date this policy will be reviewed May 2024