Supervision, headcount, and ratios policy and procedure

At The University of Dundee Day Nursery Ltd we always aim to protect and support the welfare of the children in our care. The Management Team is responsible for all staff and parents receiving and implementing information on health and safety policies and procedures in the nursery to supervise the children in their care suitably.

Supervision of children policy

The Management Team are responsible for all practitioners, students, volunteers, and relief cover receiving information on health and safety within the nursery about how to supervise the children in their care suitably.

Staffing arrangements are organised to meet the needs of the children and ensure their safety. The Management Team are responsible for ensuring that all children are adequately supervised and that practitioners are deployed to ensure that children’s needs are met.

It is the responsibility of the Management team to read, understand and adhere to all policies and procedures and act in accordance with current legislation and best practice. It is also the Management’s responsibility to support team members to do the same and ensure all policies and procedures are followed.

All Early Years Practitioners MUST read, understand, and always adhere to all policies and procedures relevant to their role.

Supervision of children procedures

Attendance records

1. Practitioner MUST accurately record the arrival and departure times of all children on the daily register as soon as child arrives or leaves the nursery or arrives or leaves the room on a settling session/doctor appointment.
2. Room Senior or person in charge MUST check to ensure that the registers accurately reflect the attendance of all children throughout the day.
3. Only one child on time can be taken from a parent/carer to a member of staff on arrival and departure. The door must be closed when a member of staff is supporting child during transition process.
4. Between handling over time, the gate must always be closed.

Headcounts

Headcounts – two different members of staff must count children. Nominated member of staff read child’s name through daily register with a child acknowledgment required and second member of staff counts children.

Room Senior or person in charge MUST nominate two members of staff for head counting so it is clear for full team who and when is doing.

5. Headcounts MUST be undertaken regularly, the frequency of these must meet the needs of each individual room.

This could be:

• A child arrives or leaves nursery
• A child arrives or leaves the room on settling in session
• A child arrives or leaves the room when visiting from another room
• The group of children move e.g. between inside and outside area in setting where free flow paly in not possible
• Room join together
• When bathroom routine is taking place.

A record of the headcounts and who it was completed by must be recorded on the children's register.

Supervision

Each individual staff member will ensure that children are always supervised adequately, whether children are in or out of the building through:

• Making sure that every child is always within the sight and/or hearing of a suitably vetted member of staff.
• Staff will nominate between themselves an individual within their base room to carry out headcounts and gain confirmation of headcount numbers from their colleagues throughout the day. This ensures all children are present and accounted for and correct ratios are always maintained. All room staff will support each other, staff will also be responsible for ensuring registers are always kept up to date.
• The supervision of children by practitioners should always ensure the safety and wellbeing of the children. Practitioner should be aware of their own position and those around them, ensuring children are cared for and ratios are always met and that children are not left unattended whilst routine jobs completed.
• When a practitioner is required to complete a task which will momentarily take them away from the main group of children e.g. taking child to the toilet or fetching something they MUST communicate this to colleagues who MUST ensure that supervision and deployment is adapted accordingly. If a child is leaving the room with them e.g. for nappy changing this MUST also be communicated.
• There may be times throughout the day when a child changes rooms for a period e.g. settling in before moving up to another room. The Room Senior or responsible person MUST signing the child in and out of both rooms register.
• Be aware that children drown in only a few centimetres of water; children MUST always be fully supervised when using water play.
• Special care should be taken when children are using large apparatus e.g. climbing frame, and when walking up or down steps/stairs
• A practitioner MUST always supervised large outdoor play equipment
• When outdoors, practitioners must be aware of any dangers relating to bushes, shrubs, and plants.
• Children MUST always be supervised when eating, toddlers and babies should be closely monitored. Babies will never be left alone with a bottle and will always be bottle fed whilst being held by a member of staff.
• No hot drinks are permitted in room, practitioners are only allowed to drink water from open single use plastic cup or their own water bottle.
• Children MUST be carefully supervised when using scissors.
• Children/Babies MUST be carefully supervised whilst sleeping and regular checks are recorded in “Sleeping Monitoring Form”.
• Children MUST be carefully supervised when using knives for cooking activities.
• Babies/children MUST never be left unattended on high level changing units (please refer to Nappy Changing Policy)
• No students, visitors (such as health visitors, speech and language therapists or external SEND’s etc), volunteers, inspectors or apprentices will be left alone with our children at any time.

Staff can carry out any additional headcounts on top of the minimum requirements as they see fit. Staff must communicate headcount numbers to a member of the management team when leaving and re-entering the nursery. In addition to these verbal headcounts, staff and children numbers will be recorded daily in the nurser registers.

It is the responsibility of individual Room Senior to nominate a person “In Charge” when they will knowing be absent. Senior Management will make nomination if absence is unexpected.

For the purpose of this policy Management Team refers to Senior Manager, Junior Manager and Room Senior.

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