Late and Uncollected Children Policy

In the event that a child is collected late or not collected by an authorised adult at the end of a pre-school session, Heavitree Community Pre-school puts into practice agreed procedures. These ensure the child is cared for safely by an experienced and qualified practitioner who is known to the child.

Procedures

• Parents of children starting at the pre-school are asked to provide specific information which is recorded on the appropriate forms, including:
  

• home address and telephone number 
  

• place of work, address and telephone number (if applicable)
  

• mobile telephone number (if applicable) 
  

• names, addresses and telephone numbers of adults who are authorised by the parents to collect their child from pre-school
  

• Information about any person who does not have legal access to the child.
  

• On occasions when parents or the persons normally authorised to collect the child are not able to collect the child, the details of the person who will be collecting their child will be recorded. We agree with parents how the identification of the person who is to collect their child will be verified.
  

• If a parent will be unexpectedly delayed they should telephone the pre-school to advise the staff of what is happening, so we can reassure the child.  If possible, parents should arrange for their representative to collect their child and advise us who it will be. 
  

• If a child is not collected within 15 minutes of the end of the session, we follow these procedures: -
  

• all reasonable attempts are made to contact the parents/carers at home or at work
  

• if this is unsuccessful, the adults who are authorised by the parents to collect their child from pre-school are contacted
• the child stays at pre-school in the care of two fully DBS checked workers until the child is safely collected
  

• the child does not leave the premises with anyone other than those authorised by the parent
  

• If after 45 minutes, the child has still not been collected and no contact has been made with a parent or other representative then the pre-school will call the Duty Officer at the Social Services Department for advice. Ofsted and our Early years consultants Worker will also be informed.
  

• If we have any cause to believe the child has been abandoned, we contact the local authority children’s social care team:
  If the children’s social care team is unavailable [or as our local authority advise] we will contact the local police
• Circumstances will be documented as appropriate.
  

• depending on the circumstances, we reserve the right to charge parents for the additional hours worked by our staff.
  

• If contact cannot be made with social services the police will be called.