Understanding our Nursery Policy for Sick Children

Offering a healthy nursery environment is one of our core commitments to families and parents, to our children, to our staff members and carers, and to those in our local community.

While we actively encourage all parents to immunise their children with all the recommended vaccines offered by the NHS, there are no specific immunisation requirements that we have in place. As part of the registration process and to ensure we have everything we need in case of an emergency or incident, we will ask for information about your child’s existing immunisations and health records. A pre-enrolment health questionnaire will include questions about vaccinations, health concerns, and anything else we should be aware of.

Our exclusion policy requests the following:

·        If your child is sick or feeling unwell, we ask that you keep them at home.

Symptoms to look out for include a temperature, vomiting, diarrhoea, a rash, and conjunctivitis.

·        If your child exhibits signs of an infectious illness like mumps or chickenpox, they must not attend nursery or come into contact with other children.

The risk of these issues extends to other children and particularly to potentially pregnant mothers, so it’s important to keep children with these illnesses at home.

·        If your child has a rash or unexplained virus, we ask that you receive medical advice before bringing them to nursery. We then ask that you reach out directly to the Nursery Manager, outlining the issue so that we – and you – can make the best decision regarding your child’s care.

·        If your child comes down with a vomiting bug, we require you to follow the 48 hour protocol. This means they must not come back into the nursery setting until they have been well for at least 48 hours.

If your child is unwell, it’s important to encourage them to rest and engage with them as much as possible so that they feel supported and cared for.

If your child falls ill while at nursery, we will reach out to parents to discuss how to handle the situation. It may be that we ask that you collect them. If you are unable to pick them up yourself, you must let us know who will be attending the nursery to take them home. Please note that children can only be picked up by a pre-approved carer or designated adult, regardless of the circumstances.

While your child waits to be picked up, they will be looked after by a member of the team who will see to their needs and ensure that they are as comfortable as possible. If necessary this may include isolation, though this is only in cases where it’s pertinent to keep the other children protected from the spread of the illness.

In more serious situations where your child requires urgent treatment, we will get in contact with emergency services and will let you know if your child is being taken to a medical facility directly.

As well as our exclusion policy and our policy for dealing with children who fall sick while at nursery, we seek to make good health and hygiene a core part of the nursery routine and our everyday habits.

Habits like handwashing, always coughing into our own hand, covering our nose when we sneeze, and cleaning surfaces on a regular basis are things that we make a regular part of the nursery routine – during bouts of sickness and when everyone is feeling healthy and happy. We know that in order to make these habits an effortless part of a child’s routine, we need to keep doing them regularly and consistently.

We also ask that parents observe these same habits at home to make the learning process even easier!

If you’ve got specific questions about our exclusion policy or have a concern that you wish to address with regards to your child’s health, you can do so by getting in touch with the My Ohana team directly.