Sickness & Absence Policy at Mulberry Garden

Mulberry Garden considers the health and wellbeing of the children in its care to be of paramount importance. Parents should keep their child at home if the child is unwell. It is in a child’s best interests to be in a home environment rather than at nursery with their peers.

We promote the good health of the children in our care by:

●  Asking staff and other visitors not to attend the setting if they are unwell.

●  Helping children to keep healthy by providing balanced and nutritious snacks, meals and drinks.

●  Minimising infection through cleaning and hand washing processes.

●  Ensuring children have regular access to the outdoors and having good ventilation inside.

●  Sharing information with parents about the importance of the vaccination programme for young children to help protect them and wider society from communicable diseases.

●  Having areas for rest and sleep, where required, and sharing information about the importance of sleep and how many hours young children should be having.

Our procedures

In order to take appropriate action if children become ill and to minimise the spread of infection we implement the following procedures:

●  If a child becomes ill during the nursery day, we contact their parent(s) and ask them to collect their child as soon as possible. During this time we care for the child in a quiet, calm area with their key person, wherever possible.

●  We follow guidance by Public Health England (Health Protection in Schools and other childcare facilities) on exclusion times for specific illnesses, e.g. sickness and diarrhoea, measles and chickenpox, to protect other children who attend Mulberry Garden.

●  Should a child have an infectious disease, such as sickness and diarrhoea, they must not return to nursery for at least 48 hours after their last episode of sickness or diarrhoea.

●  We inform parents if there is a contagious infection identified in the nursery, to enable them to spot the early signs of this illness. We thoroughly clean and sterilise all equipment and resources that may have come into contact with a contagious child to reduce the spread of infection.

●  We notify Ofsted within 14 days of the incident of any food poisoning affecting two or more children cared for on the premises.

●  We ask parents to keep children at home for the first 48 hours on a course of antibiotics (unless this is part of an ongoing care plan to treat individual medical conditions e.g. asthma and the child is not unwell) It is important that children are not subjected to the rigours of the nursery day when they first become ill and require antibiotics.

●  We have the right to refuse admission to a child who is unwell. This decision will be taken by the manager on duty and is non-negotiable.

● We make information/posters about head lice readily available and all parents are requested to regularly check their children’s hair. If a parent finds that their child has head lice we request that the nursery is informed so that other parents can be alerted and check their child’s hair.

Absence

Mulberry Garden must be informed of all absences (whether due to sickness or any other reason) on the first day of absence, and each subsequent day thereafter, either by phone or email. If we have not received a message from parents by 10:00 a.m. about a child we expect to be attending a session, we will phone parents. For safeguarding purposes, if we are not able to make contact with parents via any of the contact numbers provided, we will inform Social Services.

All session fees apply, regardless of absences, whether they are planned, e.g. holidays, or unplanned, e.g. illness. We do not offer ‘swap’ sessions under any circumstances. The cost per session is a fixed fee and we do not offer a reduced cost for children who are collected earlier than the end of their session time. Any cancellations of sessions must be made in writing to infomulberrygarden@gmail.com, with a minimum of four weeks' notice.

Meningitis procedure

If a parent informs Mulberry Garden that their child has meningitis, the nursery manager will contact the Local Area Infection Control (IC) Nurse. The IC Nurse will give guidance and support in each individual case. If parents do not inform Mulberry Garden, we may be contacted directly by the IC Nurse and the appropriate support given. We follow all guidance given and notify any of the appropriate authorities, including Ofsted, where necessary.

We adopt the following procedure in cases where children may need hospital treatment.

The staff member will:

●  Inform the nursery manager immediately.

●  Call 999 for an ambulance immediately if the illness is severe. They will not transport the unwell child in their own vehicle.

●  Follow the instructions from the 999 call handler.

●  Whilst waiting for the ambulance, a member of staff will contact the parent(s) and arrange to meet them at the hospital.

●  Ensure there are adequate staff available to care for the remaining children. This may mean temporarily grouping children of different ages together.

●  Arrange for the most appropriate member of staff to accompany the child, taking any relevant information such as registration forms, medication sheets, medication and the child’s comforter.

●  Remain calm at all times. Children who witness an incident may well be affected by it and may need cuddles and reassurance. Staff may also require additional support following the accident.

This policy is always reviewed after a significant incident, e.g. serious illness/hospital visit.