In this article, we review our policy intentions regarding the supervision of children and how we can safeguard their safety throughout our working day...
Supervision of Children
At Hatching Dragons we aim to protect and support the welfare of the children in our care at all times. The nursery manager is responsible for all staff, students and relief staff receiving information on health and safety policies and procedures in the nursery in order to supervise the children in their care suitably.
Supervision
We ensure that children are supervised adequately at all times, 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.
- Taking regular headcount of children between any / all room transitions
- To take 10 minute sleep checks on children irrespective of age
- Monitoring staff deployment across the setting regularly to ensure children’s needs are met
- Ensuring children are fully supervised at all times when using water play/paddling pools as we are aware that children can drown in only a few centimetres of water
- Taking special care when children are using large apparatus e.g. a climbing frame, and when walking up or down steps/stairs
- Staff will support children to identify, minimise and manage risks in their play
- Making sure staff recognise and are aware of any dangers relating to bushes, shrubs and plants when on visits/outdoors
- Supervising children at all times when eating; monitoring toddlers and babies closely and never leaving babies alone with a bottle. Babies are always bottle fed by a member of staff
- Supervising sleeping babies/children and never leaving them unattended
- Never leaving babies/children unattended during nappy changing times
- Supervising children carefully when using scissors or tools, including using knives in cooking activities where this is required
- Increasing staff: child ratios during outings to ensure supervision and safety (please refer to Outings policy)
- Strictly following any safety guidelines given by other organisations or companies relating to the hire of equipment or services e.g. hire of a bouncy castle and a member of staff MUST supervise the children at all times.