Three Gables Nursery
Policies and Procedures
Three Gables Nursery
Policies
Nursery Name: - Three Gables Day Nursery
Nursery Proprietor: - Leona Grafham
Nursery Manager: - Claire Stokes
Address:- Three Gables Day Nursery,
2 Snowdon Road
Westbourne
Bournemouth
BH4 9HL
Date of Policy: - August 2015
Introduction / Page 4Safeguarding children
Safeguarding and promoting children’s welfare / Page 5
Children’s rights and entitlements / Page 7
Safeguarding children and child protection
(Including managing allegations of abuse against a member of staff) / Page 9
Preventing Extremism and Radicalisation Safeguarding / Page 15
Looked after children / Page 16
Infant safe Sleep / Page 19
Confidentiality and client access to records / Page 22
Information sharing / Page 24
Uncollected child / Page 27
Missing child / Page 29
Supervision of children on outings and visits / Page 32
Maintaining children’s safety and security on premises / Page 33
E-Safety / Page 34
E-Safety Incident Log / Page 39
Making a complaint / Page 40
Parent Partnership
The role of a Key person and settling in / Page 43
Parental involvement / Page 45
Working in partnership with other agencies / Page 47
Equality of opportunity
Valuing diversity and promoting equality / Page 48
EAL-English as additional language / Page 51
Supporting children with special educational needs / Page 55
Achieving positive behaviour / Page 57
Promoting health and hygiene
Animals in the setting / Page 63
Sun-smart Sun / Page 64
Administering medicines / Page 65
Managing children with allergies, or who are sick or infectious
(Including reporting noticeable diseases) / Page 69
Nappy changing / Page 74
No smoking / Page 75
Food and drink / Page 76
First aid / Page 79
Suitable People
Employment
Employment and staffing
(Including vetting, contingency plans, training and development) / Page 80
Induction of staff, volunteers and managers and Student placements / Page 82
Suitable premises, environment and equipment
Health and Safety
Risk assessment / Page 84
Health and safety general standards / Page 85
Health and safety risk assessment template / Page 89
Fire safety and emergency evacuation / Page 90
Fire safety risk assessment template / Page 92
Recording and reporting of accidents and incidents
(Including procedure for reporting to HSE, RIDDOR) / Page 93
Food hygiene
(Including procedure for reporting food poisoning) / Page 95
Basic kitchen opening and closing checks template / Page 97
Organisation
Administration
Admissions / Page 98
Documentation
Children’s records / Page 99
Provider records / Page 101
INTRODUCTION
Our policies and procedures help us provide outstanding quality provision. They do this by making clear to all of our Early Years Educators and parents, what sort of setting we are and what has to be done to make this happen.
Safeguarding and promoting children’s welfare
We as the provider must ensure we safeguard and promote the welfare of the children at Three Gables. We promote the good health children, take necessary steps to prevent the spread of infection and take appropriate action when they are ill. Children’s behaviour must be managed effectively and in a manner appropriate for their stage of development and particular individual needs.
Suitable people
We also ensure that all adults looking after any child or children, having unsupervised access to them are suitable to do so. All of our Early Years Educators working with the children have appropriate qualifications, training, skills and knowledge. Staffing arrangements are organised to ensure the children’s safety and to meet all needs of the children.
Suitable premises, environment and equipment
Outdoor and indoor spaces, furniture, equipment and toys are safe and suitable for their purpose.
Organisation
We plan and organise our nursery environment to ensure that every child receives an enjoyable, challenging, fun-filled learning experience that is tailored to meet their individual needs.
Documentation
We maintain all records, policies and procedures required for the safety and efficient management of the setting, ensuring we meet the needs of children.
As a provider we comply with all of the statutory guidance and welfare requirements and this was taken into consideration when putting our policies and procedures into place, as well as the Early Years Foundation stage.
SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN AND PROMOTING CHILDRN’S WELFARE
We follow the legal frameworks under the:
Children Act 1989
Currently provides the legislative framework for child protection in England. Key principles established by the act include:
· The paramonut nature of the child’s welfare
· The expectations and requirements around duties of care to childr
Children Act 2004
Strengthensthe 1989 Act. Encouragespartnerships between agencies and createsmore accountability. Part three of the Children Act 2004 applies solely to Wales.
· Creates the post of Children's Commissioner for EnglandPlaces a duty on local authorities to appoint a director of children’s services and an elected lead member for children’s services, who is ultimately accountable for the delivery of services.
· Places a duty on local authorities and their partners (including the police, health service providers and the youth justice system) to co-operate in promoting the wellbeing of children and young people and to make arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
· Updates the legislation on physical punishment (section 58) by limiting the use of the defence of reasonable punishment so that it can no longer be used when people are charged with the offences against a child of wounding, actual or grievous bodily harm or cruelty. Therefore any injury sustained by a child which is serious enough to warrant a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm cannot be considered to be as the result of reasonable punishment.
Safeguarding Vunerable Groups Act 2006
Establisheda single body to make decisions about individuals who should be barred from working with children and to maintain a list of these individuals.
Protection of Freedoms Act 2012
Merged the Independent Safeguarding Authority with the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB)to form a single, new, non-departmental public body called the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).
Children and Familes Act 2014
Introduced a number of reforms including the following provisions:
· Encourages ‘fostering for adoption’ which allows approved adopters to foster children while they wait for court approval to adopt.
· Introduces a 26 week time limit for the courts to decide whether or not a child should be taken into care. In some cases, this limit may be extended by eight weeks.
· ‘Staying put’ arrangements which allow children in care to stay with their foster families until the age of 21 years. This is provided that both the young person and the foster family are happy to do so.
· Introduces a single assessment process and an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan to support children, young people and their families from birth to 25 years. The EHC plan will replace statements of special educational needs.
Education Act 2002
Included a provision requiring school governing bodies, local education authorities and further education institutions to make arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
Adoption and Children Act 2002
Amended the Children Act 1989 by expanding the definition of "harm" to include witnessing domestic violence.
Children and Adoption Act 2006
Gave courts more flexible powers to facilitate child contact and enforce contact orders when separated parents are in dispute.
Children and Young Persons Act 2008
Legislated for the recommendations in the Care Matters white paper (DfES, 2007) to provide high quality care and services for children in care. It covers England and Wales (in part) and also placed a duty on registrars to notify the Local Safeguarding Children Board of all child deaths.
Boarders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009
Placed a duty on the then UK Border Agency to safeguard and promote children's welfare (section 55), bringing them in line with other public bodies that have contact with children.
Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and learning Act 2009
Legislated for there to be two lay members from the local community sitting on each Local Safeguarding Children Board.
SAFEGUARDING: - CHILDRENS RIGHTS AND ENTITLEMENTS
We promote children's right to be strong, resilient and listened to by creating an environment in our setting that encourages children to develop a positive self-image. Including their heritage arising from their ethnicity, languages spoken at home, religious beliefs, cultural traditions and home background.
We also support children to be strong, resilient and listened to by encouraging children to develop a sense of autonomy, independence, to have the self-confidence and the vocabulary to resist inappropriate approaches.
We help children to establish and sustain satisfying relationships within their families, with peers and with our Early Years Educators.
We work with parents to build their understanding of and commitment to the principles of safeguarding all of our children.
What it means by ‘to promote children’s rights and entitlements to be strong, resilient and listened to’.
To be strong means to be:
· secure in their foremost attachment, relationships where they are loved and cared for, by at least one person who is able to offer consistent, positive and unconditional regard and who can be relied on
· safe and valued as individuals in their families and in relationships beyond the family
· self-assured and form a positive sense of themselves – including all aspects of their identity and heritage
· included equally and belong in early years settings and in community life
· confident in abilities and proud of their achievements
· progressing optimally in all aspects of their development and learning
· to be part of a peer group in which to learn to negotiate, develop social skills and identity as global citizens, respecting the rights of others in a diverse world
· to participate and be able to represent themselves in aspects of service delivery that affects them as well as aspects of key decisions that affect their lives.
To be resilient means to:
· Be sure of their self-worth and dignity
· Be able to be assertive and state their needs effectively
· Be able to overcome difficulties and problems
· Be positive in their outlook on life
· Be able to cope with challenge and change
· Have a sense of justice towards self and others
· To develop a sense of responsibility towards self and others
· To be able to represent themselves and others in key decision making processes
To be listened to means:
· All Early Years Educators who work closely with the children recognise their need and right to express and communicate their thoughts, feelings and ideas
· All Early Years Educators are able to tune in to their verbal, sign and body language in order to understand and interpret what is being expressed and communicated
· All Early Years Educators are able to respond appropriately and, when required, act upon their understanding of what children express and communicate
· Respect children’s rights and facilitate children’s participation and representation in imaginative and child centred ways in all aspects of core services
SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN AND CHILD PROTECTION (Including managing allegations of abuse against a member of staff; Early Years Educator)
All Early Years Educators who work with children, parents and the community ensure the rights and safety of the children, giving them the very best start in life.
Our safeguarding policy is based on three key commitments.
Staff and volunteers
We are committed to building a ‘culture of safety’ in which children are protected from abuse and harm in all areas.
Our designated Safe-Guarding Officers are Tracy Harley and Lauren Cox. They co-ordinate any child protection issues, you can contact them in person at the nursery or call 01202 763241.
The manager will be informed of any relevant information to deal with accordingly.
Key commitment 1
· We ensure all Early Years Educators and parents are made aware of our safe guarding policies and procedures.
· We provide adequate and appropriate Early Years Educator resources to meet the needs of all children.
· Applicants for posts within the setting are clearly informed that the positions are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.
· Candidates are informed of the need to carry out ‘enhanced disclosure’ check with the Disclosure & Barring Services (DBS) before posts can be confirmed.
· Where applicants are rejected because of information that has been disclosed, applicants have the right to know and to challenge incorrect information.
· We abide by OFSTED requirements in respect of references and Disclosure & Barring Services (DBS) checks for all Early Years Educators and volunteers, to ensure that no disqualified or unsuitable person works at the setting or has access to the children.
· Volunteers never work unsupervised.
· We abide by the protection of Vulnerable Groups Act requirements in respect of any person who is dismissed from our employment, or resigns in circumstances that would lead to dismissal for reasons of child protection concern.
· We have procedures for recording details of visitors to the setting.
· We take security steps to ensure that we have control over who comes into the setting so that no unauthorised person has unsupervised access to the children.
Key commitment 2
We are committed to responding promptly and appropriately to all incidents or concerns of safeguarding that may occur and to work with our Local Safeguarding Children’s Board (LSCB).
Responding to suspicions of abuse
· We acknowledge that abuse of children can take different forms-physical, emotional, sexual, as well as neglect.
· When children are suffering from physical, sexual, emotional abuse or may be experiencing neglect, this may be demonstrated through the things they say (direct or indirect disclosure) or through changes in their appearance, behaviour or through their play.
· Where such evidence is apparent, the child’s key person makes a dated record of the details of the concern and discusses what to do with the safeguarding officers Tracy, Lauren or the Manager Claire. The information is stored securely in the child’s personal file.
· We refer concerns to the local authority children’s social care department and co-operate fully in any subsequent investigation.