Lost, missing, late or not collected child Policy

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Policy Statement:

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The care of your child is paramount and I always have plans and risk assessments in place to ensure that they remain with me and are safe.

 

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Procedure:

 

Before going on an outing I will risk assess the area we are visiting.

On rare occasions children can become ‘lost’ in busy places and therefore as a responsible childminder I have written a procedure that will be followed in the unlikely event of this happening.

 

I will immediately raise the alarm to all around me that I have lost a child and enlist the help of everyone to look for them

If it is a secure area such as a shopping centre, I will quickly alert the security staff so they can seal off exits and monitor the situation on any CCTV

I will provide everyone involved in the search with a description of the child.

I will reassure the other children with me, as they may be distressed

I will then alert the police and provide a full description

I will then alert the parents of the situation

I will inform CIW

 

I take precautions to avoid situations like this happening by implementing the following measures:

 

Ensuring the children hold my hand or the pushchair whilst we are out

Avoid going to places that are overcrowded

On outings the children wear wristbands with my mobile number on them

I teach the children about the dangers of wandering off and of talking to strangers.

 

If a child is not collected within 30 minutes of their contracted collection time, and I have not been informed of the late collection, I will try calling the parents’ contact numbers. Then I will try the emergency contact numbers.

During this time, I will continue to safely look after the child.

I will continue to try the parents’ contact numbers and emergency numbers, but after a responsible amount of time –1 hour- from the original agreed collection time, unless another collection time has been agreed, I will then tell the local authority duty social worker.