Safety

If your child has an allergy, diagnosed by a medical professional, we ask that you inform us of this as soon as possible. Their allergy should be recorded in the ‘allergy’ section of your child’s profile on Famly. If your child has a dietary requirement, this should be recorded in the ‘special dietary requirements’ information. We ask that you do not include foods that you child does not like as a dietary requirement as this section should be used for intolerances and dietary choices, such as vegetarian, only.

As the majority of allergies and intolerances in the early years affect children under the age of 3, and many children grow out of their allergies and intolerances by the age of 5, please do continue to seek advice from a medical professional over the course of your child’s first 5 years. The NHS guidance is that all allergens should be introduced from 6 months and that delaying the introduction of allergens can increase the risk of developing an allergy. Once introduced, and if tolerated, allergens should continue to be offered as part of a baby’s usual diet (to minimise the risk of developing an allergy). If your child is weaning or will be weaning soon, please work with us to let us know which foods your child has been introduced to and which you are yet to try.

We cannot guarantee that our nurseries are completely free of any specific allergens. However, we have specific processes in place to ensure that a child with a diagnosed allergy is not exposed to their allergen. Whilst NHS guidance does recommend that children are regularly introduced to nuts from the age of 6 months onwards, we don’t at present use nuts in our menus and we do ask families and team members not to bring nuts into the nursery. We also ask that you don’t bring in any medications, including Arachis Hypogaea or other nut oils. However, many foods are labelled as having ‘traces of nut’ and ingredients with these warnings can be used in the nursery unless a risk assessment specific to a particular child indicates otherwise.

We ask that you don’t bring food in from home and ensure that your children’s bags and pockets are free of food. If your child has a prescribed EpiPen, we ask that you ensure that two EpiPens are in the nursery on any days that your child is in attendance.

We strive to make mealtimes enjoyable and developmental, supporting children to learn healthy eating habits and develop positive attitudes towards food. Children are given child-sized utensils and plates/bowls and are encouraged to clean up after eating. Children are always supervised during mealtimes, and all team members involved in mealtimes have completed Food Hygiene training.

N Family Club recognises that a healthy, balanced diet and regular activity are essential for children’s health and well-being. N Family Club follows the Voluntary Food and Drink Guidelines for Early Years Settings in England, to ensure we are supporting children to establish good food habits in each child’s early years.

Working with families:
• Individual dietary requirements will always be respected.
• We endeavour to provide foods from the diet of each of the children’s cultural backgrounds, providing children with familiar foods and introducing them to new ones.
• Cultural difference in eating habits are respected.
• Menus are available to view on our welcome screen.
• Families will be kept informed of young children’s eating habits at nursery via the Famly app.

Mothers are welcome to breastfeed their child in the nursery and we will support and promote breastfeeding. They are welcome to use the cafe area at any time and come in to breastfeed their child during their sessions with us. We are also able to prepare bottles using expressed breast milk at the family’s request. Breast milk should be provided in a suitable, sterilised container, labelled with the child’s name, mother’s name and the date it was expressed. We can store chilled breast milk in the fridge for 5 days from the date it was expressed or in the freezer for six months.

N Family Club can provide infant formula milk for children under the age of 1. Details of the family’s preferred brand will be taken during the home visit.

At N, we focus on promoting positive behaviour to encourage children to learn positive ways to ways to interact with their peers and with adults. Our Educators role model to the children, for example, remembering to say please and thank you. We praise all attempts at positive behaviour and ensure children are sufficiently challenged to help to prevent undesirable behaviour – children learn the benefits of listening and being helpful. We try to focus our teaching with the children on things they can do, rather than telling them what they can’t do, for example, if a child is throwing toys, we will show them what they can throw, and find a ball for an activity which involves making friends. We work closely with families to ensure continuity as much as possible; we support children to learn how to regulate their behaviour and inform parents/carers. Whilst in the nursery, Educators use a gentle, calm tone, and child-friendly and age-appropriate language.

Biting is a typical behaviour seen in young children, especially between 1-2 years old. As children mature, they develop self-control and communication skills, so this behaviour often lessens. While not uncommon, biting can be upsetting and potentially harmful to others, so should be discouraged from the first episode. We take a partnership approach with families to address biting, encouraging parents and carers to work with the nursery team. We deal with events when they happen but also have preventative measures to stop reoccurrence, through investigating potential causes and remedying these.

For children who are teething, we provide chilled teethers and, with parental consent, can offer herbal teething granules. The nursery will be able to provide further information on strategies to prevent biting specific to the individual child.

N has an open-door policy; we welcome parents and carers at all times. Our culture is one of accountability, communication and transparency in order to engender and maintain trust with parents and carers. We constantly strive to provide a continuously improving environment that operates at a high standard. To that end, we work in partnership with parents/carers and outside agencies, and we welcome any comments or suggestions that will help us to improve.

We understand that from time to time, there may be occasions when issues become sufficiently important that escalation is required. Any issues that require escalation can be discussed with the key person, a room manager, Nursery Manager or escalated to the Regional Director. If at this stage you are still unhappy with the outcome, complaints may also be escalated to Ofsted.

N Family Club always prioritises children’s safety, both on and off the premises. Every attempt is made to ensure that prevention methods are put in place to avoid a child ever becoming lost. These processes include regular headcounts, effective team deployment and strict adherence to statutory requirements. Children are always kept within sight or hearing of Educators. If, however, in an extenuating circumstance, a child was not within sight or hearing and could not be located, the lost or missing child procedure would be instigated which would include locating the child, informing the child’s parents/carers and escalating to the police if required.

Smoking is a proven health risk and the nursery operates a strict “No Smoking Policy” within its buildings and grounds, and when on excursions off-site.

At N Family Club, we value outdoor play and the benefits of regular outings. We plan regular outings in line with the children’s interests, our Forest School curriculum and the children’s cultural capital needs. We are aware of the risks involved and take every possible step to minimise these. Each outing is risk assessed with sufficient team deployed to support the trip.

At N Family Club, we create a safe and calm environment for children to sleep, in line with their home routines wherever possible. Key persons will have regular conversations with families to ensure they are aware of children’s sleep routines and patterns at home, and take into account the family’s wishes regarding their child’s sleep at nursery. Whilst every effort will be made to encourage and support a child to sleep in line with these wishes at nursery, it must be noted that an Educator cannot force a child to fall asleep or wake from sleep.

N is a fully inclusive setting following the guidelines from the SEND code of practice. All our Educators are trained in how to assess children’s learning, putting measures into place to support development and progression. In any situation where we feel your child may benefit from some extra support, we are committed to putting measures into place to tailor the curriculum to suit your child’s individual needs. We operate a four-stage graduated approach for supporting children: “assess, plan, do, review”. All early years educators monitor each child’s learning and development through accurate observation and assessment. Through this process, we can identify any child who may be experiencing difficulties in specific areas and organise additional support to enhance their progression by writing up an individual support plan (ISP) in conjunction with the Key Person, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Co-ordinator (SENDCO) and family. If the ISP does not result in the child making sufficient and age-appropriate progress, we will seek and follow advice from outside agencies such as Speech and Language Therapy.

The team at N are vigilant against fire and risk of fire and are always ready for evacuation procedures at any time. Our local evacuation procedures are documented and tested regularly. Weekly alarm tests and regular fire drills are in operation. Prevention and maintenance procedures (for example, professional checking of fire safety equipment) are also in place to minimise the risk of fire.

All reasonably practicable actions will be taken to ensure the maintenance of a safe and healthy working environment, the health and safety of all persons, and to prevent damage to nursery property, by promoting awareness of legal, personal and economic responsibilities.

Daily risk assessments enable us to action any issues as required. We also run in-depth yearly risk assessments to review our environment and ensure its continued suitability.

Management has a responsibility to:
• provide and maintain safe and healthy working conditions taking account of any statutory requirements;
• provide training and instruction to enable employees to perform their work safely and efficiently;
• make available all necessary safety devices and protective equipment and to supervise their use;
• maintain a constant and continuing interest in health and safety matters applicable to the Nursery’s activities, in particular, by consulting and involving employees or their representatives wherever possible.

All employees have a duty to:
• Work safely and efficiently;
• Use protective equipment provided and by meeting statutory obligations;
• report incidents that have led or may lead to injury to people or damage to property, plant or equipment;
• adhere to the Nursery Procedures for securing a safe workplace;
• assist in the investigation of accidents in order to introduce new measures to prevent a recurrence.

All visitors will be greeted at the main reception, which is the only access point for visitors, and asked to sign in and out. Visitors are expected to show ID. Unexpected or unknown visitors may be asked to make an appointment and provide contact details to return for their visit another time. Visitors are never left unaccompanied or unsupervised with children at any time. Visitors are defined for this policy as anyone who is not a current child’s parent or carer or authorised explicitly by parents/carers to drop off or pick up a child at the nursery and is known to the nursery team.

N Family Club do not provide a babysitting service outside our normal operating hours. However, we are aware that families sometimes ask Educators to babysit for their children. N Family Club advise both our families and our team members not to enter into private babysitting arrangements outside of the nursery since the home environment does not have the usual safeguards that we have in place at N. Should families and team members ignore this advice N Family Club is not responsible for the consequences arising from any private arrangements.

N Family Club operates CCTV within the setting to provide a safer and more secure environment for the benefit of children, families and the team. In compliance with our policy and ICO guidance, the footage is only viewed and retained in cases of accidents or incidents requiring investigation and is otherwise deleted after 31 days. N Family Club reserve the right to share CCTV footage with any Law enforcement agencies, prosecution agencies or emergency services in connection with the investigation of an accident.

N Family Club has a duty to protect the health and safety of our team members in the workplace. The consumption of alcohol and/or drugs is taken extremely seriously by us. The use, possession, distribution, purchase, sale or being under the influence of alcohol (except on authorised occasions) or any controlled drugs whilst at work or on our premises is prohibited and will be regarded as an act of gross misconduct.

N is committed to providing equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice for all children and families according to their individual needs. We foster a positive atmosphere of mutual respect and trust among children and team members. We will provide equal opportunity and inclusion for all children and their families, regardless of gender, ethnic origin, race, colour, sexual orientation, marital status, family structure, social grouping, nationality, age or disability. We will deal with all forms of discrimination consistently, promptly and efficiently. We will recruit, select, train and promote individuals on the basis of occupational skills requirements, with no regard to age, sex, gender reassignment, disability, marriage or civil partnership, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation and pregnancy or maternity which cannot be justified as being necessary for the safe and effective performance of their work or training.

We promote fundamental British values of democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance for those with different faiths and beliefs. We provide an inclusive environment for any children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. We ensure that there is equal access to all areas of the curriculum for all the children at our nurseries and we include and value the contribution of all our families to our understanding of equality, inclusion and diversity.

N Family Club offers a more flexible approach to nursery provision. We offer a flexible hour either side of our core hours in which families can discretionarily drop off or pick up outside of core hours. However, this flexibility has its boundaries. For both the child’s safety and emotional wellbeing, and for operating Educators out of hours on-site, this is our lateness/escalation procedure which is initiated if we have not had contact from parents or carers within certain thresholds of the expected pick up time. This starts with attempts to contact the immediate parents or carers, ten minutes past the expected collection time. If we are unable to reach you, we will then try the emergency contacts. If no contact has been made by parents or emergency contacts after half an hour, social care will be contacted.

Nappy changing and toileting are always conducted in such a way as to ensure the children feel safe, secure, and respected and valued as individuals. Children have a right to privacy and dignity when team members are meeting their needs. Children are supported in their understanding of toileting procedures so that they can become increasingly independent. Nappy changes and toileting will usually be supported by the child’s Key Person who will make a record on Famly to notify parents/carers of the nappy change.

If a child has any disability or medical needs that affect their personal care routine, a Health Care Plan will be made in agreement with parents/carers. During settling in, families will be asked whether or not their child has any special words/actions/particular needs during their nappy changing procedure. Any significant observations made during a nappy change will be notified to the families at the end of the session (e.g. badly soiled nappy). The intimate care of boys and girls may be carried out by team members of either sex and parental requests for changes to only be carried out by specific members of the team with certain protected characteristics will not be met.

Children’s welfare is at the centre of everything we do. We follow guidelines from the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board (LSCB) on how to protect children from harm by others and provide them with safe and effective care.

Safeguarding children run through every core policy and procedure we have, from safe recruitment and DBS checks of staff to daily activities and training all members of staff on how to recognise any signs and symptoms of possible abuse. If Educators have reason to believe that a child has shown a sign of abuse or neglect, they have a duty to escalate this to the Designated Safeguarding Lead at the nursery who will decide if the threshold for referral has been met. Usually, any referrals would be discussed with the families prior to being made unless doing so would place the child at greater risk of harm.

We respond immediately to any concerns for a child’s welfare and will share all relevant information with the respective statutory child protection agencies (children’s services and/or police) without delay when required.

All our team members complete an induction training programme and regular refreshers on how to recognise and respond to signs and symptoms of potential abuse and neglect as well as how to identify children at risk of being drawn into terrorism and to challenge extremist ideas. Visitors are never left unsupervised and we have enhanced security on our entrances and exits, as well as CCTV throughout the building.

We ensure that everyone in the N Family Club team maintains focus on safeguarding reflected through sound individual practice and knowledge, and internal policies and guidance.

We aim to foster an environment that encourages children to develop a positive self-image regardless of race, religion, culture, sexuality, disability, gender or background, where everyone feels valued. We expect children to establish and sustain satisfying relationships within their families, with peers and other adults, and we hope to support children to develop a sense of autonomy and independence within their community.

Throughout the daily routine, the children’s environment is risk assessed to ensure its continued suitability for the safety and security of all children. We also teach children methods to handle potential risks from situations such as crossing the road safely and walking with scissors so that children can develop an understanding of how and why they need to keep safe. At whatever level we identify risks, we highlight them and seek to ensure that appropriate steps are taken to safeguard the children concerned.

N Family Club endeavours to build trusting and supportive relationships with the families of children who attend. With the understanding that the care and safety of children are paramount, we do all in our power to support and work with you at all times.

We have a rigorous recruitment and selection process, enabling us to only recruit people with the necessary skills and cultural fit to enable the Nursery to operate at its best and to contribute to the N Family Club culture and values. The recruitment and selection procedures provide guidance to managers and others involved with recruitment – both the selection and appointment of the team. We commit to following a safe recruitment process to fulfil and exceed our duty of care to safeguard and protect children from unsuitable adults. We will apply this policy every time we recruit a new member to our nursery team. We will ensure that individuals appointed to posts involving teaching and care responsibilities are qualified to carry out such duties or are working towards an appropriate qualification. We will select staff who are a good cultural fit for N, have the right attitude and approach to support our values and continuously improve both themselves (through the training and development framework of the N Academy) and the setting (standards of care and education for children, policies and processes, service for families).

The recruitment process reflects and demonstrates our culture and values. The process is candidate-centric, giving the best possible candidate experience and offering the candidate an opportunity to see how N operates, showcase our culture and high levels of care, education and service.

We will ensure that individuals are recruited, selected, trained and promoted on the basis of their own skills, qualification and experience. By doing this we will ensure that everybody will be treated equally on the grounds of gender, ethnic origin, race, colour, sexual orientation, marital status, nationality, age or disability.

We will ensure that by following a safe recruitment process, we fulfil and exceed our duty of care to safeguard and protect children from unsuitable adults. We will enable new members of the team to understand N’s Policies and Procedures, culture and standards. We will ensure that staff appointed to posts involving teaching and care responsibilities are completely up to date with nursery policies, including safeguarding, through our in-house training and induction procedures. Staff appointed will understand and support the culture of N, have the right attitudes and approaches to support our values and continuously improve both themselves (through the training and development framework of the N Academy) and the setting (standards of care and education for children, policies and processes, service for families).

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. We operate a safe recruitment policy. The nursery will ensure all members of the team, including contractors, bank staff, students and volunteers, are suitable to work with children.

Checks are carried out via enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) clearance checks as well as other sources, such as employer references, identity checks and qualification checks, amongst others. Checks will be completed in full prior to someone commencing employment with us.

We promote the good health of children attending nursery and take necessary steps to prevent the spread of infection. This policy and set of procedures are to ensure that children who become unwell whilst at the nursery are treated with sensitivity and respect and to help us protect other children from illness and the spread of infection.

We have a ‘well-child’ assessment tool which helps you to identify if your child is well enough to attend nursery. Click here for more details. Please note: Covid-19 is now treated in the same way as any other illness – use the well-child assessment tool for guidance on what to do if your child displays symptoms.

Exclusion periods as defined by UKHSA (Guidance on Infection Control in Schools and other Childcare Settings (2016)) will be followed. Click here for more details.

Please note that in the case of vomiting and diarrhoea, we do ask all families and team members to adhere to the strict 48-hour exclusion period outlined by PHE. This is for the benefit of everyone in the nursery.

There may be cases where a child requires medication during their time with us. If a child requires medicine, we will familiarise ourselves with the child’s needs and will ensure this information is kept up-to-date.

When dealing with medication of any kind in the nursery, strict guidelines will be followed. First aid-trained and fully qualified Educators will administer medicine from its original packaging with written consent from the parent or carer. Prescription medication will only be administered provided it was prescribed for the child in question. The first dose of the medicine must have been given by the parent (EpiPens are an exception to this).

We have a ‘well-child’ assessment tool which helps you to identify if your child is well enough to attend nursery. Click here for more details.

Teaching children about safety is a vital part of helping them navigate the world confidently. With the help of Safi, our new safety mascot chameleon, we make learning about safety engaging and memorable. Safi acts as a fun visual aid for children and educators, helping them recognise hazards and develop safe habits both at nursery and at home.