Child Protection:
Staff should have a full awareness of the well being of all children in their care. Staff should be vigilant in observing children’s physical, emotional and social behaviour and bring to the attention of their supervisor any concerns. Child protection guidelines are made available to all staff and you should update yourselves by reading this information. By implementing good practice within the nursery setting, staff will not be left alone with children for any length of time. Normal good practice is that staff ratio guidelines are maintained enabling high supervision at all times.
Any concerns regarding change of children’s behaviour/appearance will be discussed with the supervisor and owner of the nursery and investigated. Parents are encouraged to share with us any significant changes in home life, which could affect a childs behaviour. Parents will be the first point of reference although in any serious suspicious circumstances we would refer to the Social Services Department. All such investigations and discussions will be treated in the strictest confidence and will be shared with only those persons who require to be involved. The keyworker would also be included, but each individual case would be treated on its own circumstances and other staff members would be informed if appropriate. We will update staff with training opportunities in order to keep staff alert and up-to-date with current child protection procedures.
When any worrying changes are observed in a child’s behaviour, physical condition or appearance, a specific and confidential record will be set up, this record will be kept quite separate from the usual on-going records of children’s progress and development. The record will include, in addition to the name, address and age of the child to, timed and dated observations, describing objectively the child behaviour/appearance, without comment or interpretation, where possible, the exact words spoken by the child together with the dated name and signature of the recorder. These records will be kept in the separate file and will not be accessible to people in the nursery other than the parents, owner, supervisor and keyworker or other staff members if appropriate. Hopscotch follow the local authority guidelines. Confidential records kept on children about whom the nursery are anxious will be shared with the Social Services Department if the nursery feels that adequate explanations for changes in the child’s condition have not been provided.
In the event of an allegation related to child protection against a member of staff then the following procedure needs to be followed:
1) The staff member would be prevented from caring for the children subject to a full investigation.
2) A meeting between the management staff member and their representative.
3) A meeting between the management and the person making the allegation.
4) Contact and inform our local authority London Borough of Sutton Social Services and Ofsted.
5) Subject to the results of the investigation the appropriate disciplinary action would be followed.