All children are accounted for during the day and their arrival and departure time is marked in the register and staff make regular heads counts.
If a child is missing, staff alert the manager (or person in charge) who calmly checks both inside and outside the building. If there is no sign of the child the police are contacted immediately and parents are also informed of the situation. Staff would then wait for the police to arrive and follow their instructions. The manager would continue the search whilst awaiting the police.
Ofsted would be contacted and a written report sent by the Nursery Manager informing them of the incident.
When taking the children on outings, a risk assessment is carried out prior to the outing and regular head counts are made throughout the time. Children are allocated to certain members of staff with higher than normal ratios, to ensure the children are safe at all times.
If a child went missing then the person in charge would be immediately informed. A member of staff would make an immediate search of the surrounding area, ensuring that the other children were sufficiently supervised and safe.
If the child cannot be found after the appropriate search time (up to 15 minutes – shorter if in a busy area) then the Police and parents would be informed. The search would continue with the member of staff keeping in touch by mobile phone. Once the Police arrived, their instructions would be followed.
The Nursery Manager would inform Ofsted.
This policy was reviewed in March 2024.