Collection & Lost Child Procedure

St James Cottage will do all in our power to look after and supervise children whilst in our care.

Collection of Children

All parents must complete a registration form before their child starts at the organisation giving three emergency contact telephone numbers, which must be kept up to date.

Parents must also state in writing who is to collect the child after each session and inform us if there is to be any change in advance.

Parents who in an emergency telephone to indicate a change to the collection arrangements and who intend to nominate a person other than those on their registration form will be asked to provide a password known to them and the collecting person. This will be authenticated on that person’s arrival and then, as an additional check, the parent/ carer will be telephoned and asked to authenticate the collecting person by voice recognition. Only in these circumstances will the child be released.

Updating information on the registration form: it is essential that important information on the registration form be kept up to date.

Parents must inform the organisation in writing immediately of any important changes to:-

·         domestic arrangements which could affect collection of the child e.g. a court order in respect of the residence of the child or who the child is able to have contact with.

·         parental responsibility agreement and legal access to child by other adults

·         home/ work /mobile telephone numbers for all three people.

these details need to be amended on the registration form as they occur.

Non Collection of Child

It is essential that children be collected promptly after each session. In the unlikely event that a parent is more than half an hour late, all contact telephone numbers will be tried and if this fails then the Team Leader will wait a further 1 hour with the child . If there is no other contact, we will contact Social Services duty help line.

Lost Children Procedure

The staff must ensure that remaining children are adequately staffed and then remaining staff should search the surrounding area immediately. The road outside should be checked next as well as adjacent houses. If the child cannot be found at this point, then telephone calls will be made, first to the parent and thereafter to the police.

Please refer to the Outing and event policy for lost child policy on that occasion.