We work as registered child carers as we love caring for children and supporting their development, however, it is our chosen profession and business. Like you, we too have bills and expenses to meet each month and therefore require a regular income.
To save any embarrassment on either side, we would be grateful if you could ensure that you are prompt in paying your monthly/weekly fees.
We ask that fees are paid either monthly or weekly, and that they are paid in advance. A receipt will be provided, detailing the relevant dates your payment is covering.
If you are unable to pay the full fees on the agreed payment day (as per your contract), then we require notice of 24 hours before payment is due, advising us when we will receive your fees. If we do not receive notice, then there will be a charge of £5 per day, for every day full payment is late. There will be no exception in this, as we feel that 24 hours is more than fair, and the minimum notice to which we are entitled.
We budget our finances (eg standing orders, direct debits etc) according to when we expect to receive payment from parents. Please don’t think that it won’t matter if you don’t pay us on time, pay us only pay part of the fees due, or that one day won’t make a difference, as we could be relying on your money to cover an important bill. If you pay by cash, we may not be able to get to the bank to withdraw funds (if we indeed have any) and if you pay direct into our account, we may have organised our standing orders according to the day we expect payment. We are not a nursery and therefore just one person, let alone two or three (which has happened in the past) really affects our budgeting. Also, please remember, our only source of income is the fees we receive from parents for the childcare service we provide. Whenever contracts are agreed or renewed, parents are given the opportunity to choose their preferred payment day, we do not stipulate the day to parents. Therefore we would appreciate you paying your fees on the day you have chosen and in the morning if paying by cash.
Sick Child Policy
We
appreciate that, as a working parent, you need to be able to go to work,
however if your child is unwell then they will be better cared for in their own
home with a parent. We are happy to care for children with minor coughs and colds, but will not care for children who are very
unwell, infectious or running a high temperature.
Any
child who is persistently coughing and/or sneezing, and is at an age where they
are unable to cover their mouth, will not be able to attend. We have a duty of care to other children and to ourselves
and in this situation we would not be able to stop the spread of infection.
If
your child is poorly, unable to join in with our activities and is generally
‘not themselves’, please keep them at home.
If
your child is seen by a GP and is diagnosed with a
viral infection and is not given antibiotics, this does not mean that your
child is well enough to attend our setting. A viral infection is just as
contagious as a bacterial infection, however the only reason you have not given
antibiotics is because they are unable to kill viruses. Most GP’s will advise
anyone with a viral infection to drink plenty of fluids, rest and take pain
relief to keep symptoms down.
If your child has had
diarrhoea or sickness in the last forty eight hours please do not bring them,
but call and let us know. This is to
prevent the spread of infection to the other children in our care, and to
ourselves, as stomach bugs are highly contagious. If we are ill, then we are unable to provide
a service, thus inconveniencing other parents and losing our income for the
days we are unable to work. If your
child is of school age, then the same principle applies even if you choose to
let them return to school. We will not
be able to take them to or collect them from school until 48 hours has
passed. This is to protect the very
young children for whom we care.
To
reiterate, please only allow your child
to return to our setting 48 hours after the last bout of diarrhoea or sickness (eg,
if your child is sick for the last time on Monday morning, please do not send
them until either Wednesday lunch time or Thursday morning. If your child is sick for
the last time on Monday evening, please do not send them until Thursday
morning). Please advise us, either by phone or text, when your child
is well and we will advise when your child is able to return to our
setting. Your honesty and integrity will
be greatly appreciated. We do
appreciate that you need to return to work and you might be finding it
difficult to find alternative childcare, but please consider the other children and parents of our setting before
allowing your child to return before the 48 hours have passed.
If
your child becomes ill in our care we will make them as comfortable as
possible, isolate them from the other children if necessary and reassure them.
We will contact you immediately and continue to care for your child until you
arrive. We feel terribly guilty for
having to call you at work but if you send your child when they are not well,
then we will call. Please do not send your child when you know
they are ill hoping that we won’t call.
It is very unfair on the other children and ourselves and is how the
children end up being ill over and over again!
In the past we have delayed calling but from now on we will have no
hesitation in doing so. A sick child is
the responsibility of a parent however inconvenient this may be as far as work
is concerned. Please do not put the onus
on us to decide if they aren’t well enough to attend, and keep your child at
home when you know yourself they aren’t well enough to be here.
We
have to go out each day to do school runs and need to consider the welfare of
all the children in our care. Please do not send your child after
‘disguising’ their illness with medicine such as Calpol, as the effects do
wear off before lunch and the child then becomes poorly again. This isn’t fair to them, or the other
children, who will have then become infected with the illness. If your child is poorly enough to need Calpol
before attending, then they should not attend until they are better.
It
is a requirement that Ofsted are notified of any food poisoning affecting 2 or
more children looked after on the premises.
Also, Ofsted must be notified if any child contracts meningitis or any
other notifiable disease (identified as such in the Public Health Control of
Disease Act 1984).
Please appreciate that
we have this policy to protect all children in our care, including our own, not
to purposefully inconvenience parents or to try and have a quiet day!
We
will contact you if one of our own children is not well, inform you of the
illness/symptoms and if we are able to work. This then allows you to make an
informed decision as to whether to bring your child or not.
If
you have any concerns regarding this policy please contact us.
Siobhan and Chris Raby16.10.06 reviewed 6/8/07, reviewed 14.12.07, 21.9.08, 25.9.09, 8.9.10, 5.12.10, 13.9.11, 11.3.12
Addendum to Sick Child Policy
To provide clarification to parents with regard to how long a child should remain at home (if indeed at all) with common illness/infections. Please refer to the following list:
DIARRHOEA AND VOMITING
48 hours from LAST episode of diarrhoea or vomiting
FLU
Until recovered
CHICKEN POX
5 days from onset of rash
COMMON COLD
Children can attend our setting as long as they are well. Please do not send your child if they have a temperature or are feeling unwell. If they begin to show symptoms of feeling ill whilst in our care, we will contact you to collect them.
COUGHS
Children can attend our setting as long as they are well. Please do not send your child if they have a temperature or are feeling unwell. If they begin to show symptoms of feeling ill whilst in our care, we will contact you to collect them. Chest infections are very infectious.
GERMAN MEASLES
5 days from onset of rash
HAND FOOT AND MOUTH
Children can attend our setting as long as they are well. Please do not send your child if they have a temperature or are feeling unwell. If they begin to show symptoms of feeling ill whilst in our care, we will contact you to collect them.
IMPETIGO
Until lesions are crusted or healed
MEASLES
5 days from onset of rash
RINGWORM
Until treatment commenced
SLAPPED CHEEK/FIFTH DISEASE
Children can attend our setting as long as they are well. Please do not send your child if they have a temperature or are feeling unwell. If they begin to show symptoms of feeling ill whilst in our care, we will contact you to collect them.
CONJUNCTIVITIS/ANY EYE INFECTION
The Health Protection Agency does not recommend a particular length of time for a child to be kept at home with conjunctivitis/eye infection, but we have spoken to a G.P. regarding this infection, and he advised that children are no longer infectious after 48 hours of treatment.
HEADLICE
If you are aware that your child has headlice, we would appreciate you letting us know, so that we can inform the other parents to be alert for signs on their children.
MUMPS
5 days from onset of swollen glands
THREADWORMS
If you are aware that your child has threadworms, we would appreciate you letting us know, so that we can inform the other parents to be alert for signs on their children.
TONSILLITIS
Children can attend our setting as long as they are well. Please do not send your child if they have a temperature or are feeling unwell. If they begin to show symptoms of feeling ill whilst in our care, we will contact you to collect them.
We are aware how hard it is to get time off to care for your children if they are ill. However, as I’m sure you will agree, a child who is ill is best cared for at home.
We also need to consider the rest of the children in our care. When a child is ill, it means one of us has to stay with that child, leaving the other adult with the rest of the children, which may compromise their care.
Please also be aware that if Chris or I contract an illness, then we would be unable to care for any of the children and would have to close until we were well.
Medicine Policy
If your child has a self-held medication please obtain an additional one for us to be kept at our home. Older children can easily forget to bring home an inhaler. What could be a simple puff of Ventalin then turns into a major incident and a trip to the hospital. If your child has acute allergies and carries/needs an epi pen, please discuss the matter with us. We may need additional training to administer these forms of medication.
If your child needs to take medication prescribed by a doctor, please discuss this with us. We will need you to sign a permission form. When a child is prescribed antibiotics they will be asked not to attend for 48 hours in case they react to the medication, and, when applicable, to prevent the spread of an infection to others.
All medicine given to us to administer must be in its original bottle/container and not decanted. It must have the manufacturers guidelines on it and if a prescription medication the details from the Doctor/pharmacy.
It is recommend that childcare practitioners do not administer non-prescription medication, eg Calpol, and most nurseries and childminders adhere to this. The theory behind this being that, if a child needs medication, then they are too ill to be in a childcare setting. However, we understand that your child may be teething or may have been unwell the previous day and you want to send some medicine just in case they start to feel unwell again. We accept that this may happen but, if we do need to administer the medicine and your child is ill, we will contact you to collect him/her.
We will record all medication administered in our book and request a parental signature at the end of each day.
Please do not leave any medication in your child’s bag without letting us know.
If you have any concerns regarding medication please do not hesitate to discuss them with us.
