The Nursery
Safeguarding policies relate to anything that protects children from accidents and illness and includes general health and safety as well as the recruitment of staff and suitability of the premises.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) lays out safeguarding and welfare requirements that all nurseries should have in place to protect staff & children, and make sure you’re leaving your little one in the best possible hands.
“LKA ongoing commitment to health and safety means that we go above and beyond the statutory requirements. As part of our dedication to safeguarding, all our staff members are trained in health and safety, and we offer regular internal safeguarding training courses so that parents can take comfort in the standard of care we provide.”
When working with young children, there must be enough adults to provide the appropriate level of supervision and to effectively monitor children’s behavior. Although your child may have a key person.
At LKA, our ratios are:
Baby rooms 1 adult: 3 children
Toddlers – 1 adult: 4 children
Preschool 1 adult: 8 children
Child and nursery practitioner smiling
It’s good to have an understanding of exactly what your fees get you when choosing a day nursery so that there are no hidden surprises further down the line. Find out whether the nursery fees include their meals, nappies, wipes, activities, and extracurricular sessions.
Child’s Well-being
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets standards for the learning, development, and care of your child which all nurseries must follow to ensure they’re providing the correct learning and development opportunities for your child.
“At LKA we provide enhanced delivery of the EYFS framework. These bespoke modules tailored by our in-house educational team, focused art/craft/Music sessions, and well-being activities. Alongside this, we also offer French lessons delivered by our educator, daily fitness sessions taught by our fully trained Room Leader, and sports lessons, inspiring all children to achieve educational success.”
A good way to gain more insight into the success of a day nursery’s educational offering is by looking at their latest inspection report “LKA smart mobile Application (google Play & App Store)”.
Support the child’s nutrition through a balanced diet and do offer specialized early years well-being activities. Discover how LKA supports children’s, parents, and staff’s well-being. Children doing fitness/sport activities daily at LKA.
Children’s early nursery experiences lay the groundwork for their school years from sensory play in the baby room to reading and writing in preschool.
“Our LKA work closely with local schools to ensure a seamless transition and many activities in our pre-school rooms revolve around school preparation. For example, offering real-life resources that encourage children’s problem-solving skills, communication, social, and physical abilities to ensure they’re fully equipped for their next stage of learning.”
Nursery Teams
It may not be an obvious choice, but one of the most interesting questions to ask is how the nursery recruit’s staff. When looking for a day nursery it can be a good idea to ask about this to ensure you’re leaving your little one in the best possible care.
“LKA Nurseries has safer recruitment processes in place to ensure all staff are suitable to work in early years childcare, including 2 separate references, enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks, and a work trial within the nursery meaning we now have an even lower staff turnover. We’ve also recently introduced a health declaration to add an extra layer of safety to this process.”
An Enhanced DBS check is suitable for people working with children or adults in certain circumstances such as those in receipt of healthcare or personal care. An Enhanced DBS check is also suitable for a small number of other roles such as taxi license applications or people working in the Gambling Commission. A DBS check is a way for employers check your criminal record, to help decide whether you are a suitable person to work for them. This includes deciding whether it is suitable for you to work with children or vulnerable adults.
It’s important that a nursery keeps their team up to date with the latest early years training so they can provide your child with the highest standard of care. Some good questions to ask is whether they offer staff regular training opportunities in child’s safeguarding, how to manage children’s behavior, effective interactions, and other childcare methods when choosing a nursery. “Nursery managers training”
There’s often a correlation between the qualifications of staff and the standard of care within a day nursery so we recommend asking “what qualifications do your staff have to support my child’s early years?” Childcare practitioner qualifications include Apprentices, level 2 and 3 qualifications, and degree level.
“At LKA our lower than the national average staff attrition is a result of how our in-house recruitment team selects the best candidates. We take pride in nurturing and growing our own talent from Apprentices all the way through their childcare career, which in many cases leads them to Nursey Manager roles.”
Parent Partnerships
The transition into nursery life can be an adjustment for both you and your child and it can often take children a while to settle in, especially if it’s the first time. Therefore, you’ll want to know how your key worker will keep you up to date with your child’s progress whilst they’re at nursery and all the precious milestones they reach in their early years.
“It’s a huge priority that parents feel supported throughout their time at LKA. Your child’s key worker will keep in constant communication with you, via the LKA parent app where they update parents on their child’s daily experiences, learning progress, and overall development through pictures, videos, and messages.”
Hygiene Operations & Procedures
We have created an operational plan and constantly examine government directives. Additionally, we are decreasing the danger of transmission during drop-off and pick-up periods and following good cleaning procedures.
To ensure your child’s safety, we have a strong nursery’s Hygiene policies include how children are grouped to lower the risk of transmission, what health and safety precautions are in place, and a dedicated isolation room.
Choosing a day nursery visit is an entirely good experience and many parents are finding themselves registering a child at a nursery they’ve never stepped inside of. Because of this, it can be a good idea to find a virtual way as this is the next best thing to an in-person visit.
“During the pandemic we were unable to allow parents to visit in line with the government guidelines. However, we understood the importance of visiting a nursery and because of this, we launched live virtual tours. This allows parents to book a convenient time and be shown around virtually by a member of our admissions team. This proved incredibly successful and is something we continue to offer”
Nurseries can be a hot bed of bugs and sickness. Children, as they should, muck about, play and man-handle anything and everything in their pursuit of making friends and acting their age. While this is all fun and games for the children, it leaves their minders and staff struggling to ensure they are keeping the kids (and themselves!) safe and healthy (or as healthy as possible). That’s why we have put together our guide to the top 10 procedures and practices of nursery hygiene.
Hygiene is key in a nursery for the simple reason that it is important to keep the children safe and well. While the kids are in the care of a nursery, there is a duty from staff and the nursery to ensure their wellbeing. This is why hygiene in a nursery is important.
- Ensure surfaces are clean. This is the basic stuff, but you need to make sure that at regular junctures in the day you are cleaning and disinfecting surfaces.
- The same with toys and books. Make sure you sanitize toys and books at the end of each day. Kids love to play, bite, and chew their toys, so cleaning these items is very important.
- Create good habits. This goes for both children but adults too. Teach good handwashing techniques, ensure everyone knows the cleaning rules and try and imprint good hygiene on children. This will create further good habits in the future.
- Make sure waste is kept away from kids. This is important because, as we all know, children will rummage through everything.
- Linked to the above – ensure your bins are disposed of properly! This goes for all types, be it food, clinical or general. Direct365 can help with that if you’re looking for a responsible company to service your waste!
- If someone falls ill, send them home! Adults have a habit of forcing themselves through sickness. But both adults and children should be sent home to reduce the chance of making others ill. This isn’t a COVID rule, it is a rule for life.
- When using cleaning solutions, make sure they’re stored away from children and visitors. Cleaning products, if handled incorrectly, could be very harmful. This, coupled with children not having the awareness of their actions, make cleaning products dangerous.
- Good food hygiene is important! Whether your nursery is preparing food, or simply providing somewhere for the children to eat their own, make sure you provide places to ensure good food hygiene.
- With food hygiene, comes avoiding pests. Wherever food is involved, there is the potential to attract pests. Storing and disposing of food correctly can help avoid this issue.
- Finally, proper ventilation is an important part of hygiene and illness prevention. During COVID, we’ve all heard of how ventilation can help reduce the spread of bugs, so why wouldn’t you keep on doing it?
- You should always keep these practices in mind. While they are great for all settings, they are particularly helpful for nurseries. Do these and you can’t go far wrong.
