Admissions Policies can be found on our Admissions Page.

Protocol for schools when a child has not been collected as expected by parents at the end of the school day.

This protocol will be brought to the attention of parents, in writing, when their child first starts at the school. The protocol is also referred to in the school’s child protection policy.

Parents must provide the school with a record of their contact details:

• Name/s
• Address/es
• Telephone numbers – mobile, home, work
• Where possible, parents should also provide the school with the contact details of three or more other relatives/carers who can be called when the parent/carer cannot be contacted or in the event of an emergency.

The school aims to keep this record up to date by reminding parents in newsletters and at parent consultation evenings of the need to notify the school of any changes.

School staff will not ever take a child home with them but will care for a child who has not been collected until:

• he/she is reunited with a parent or other nominated responsible adult,

or

• advice is sought from MASH/the Emergency Duty Service re next steps.

School Procedure

If a child is not collected by a parent or carer, this will be brought to the attention of the Headteacher or Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL):

• The DSL will make sure every effort is made to contact the parent or carer or named alternative carer as per the child’s school records for up to 30 minutes from the end of the school day. This might include speaking to known friends or neighbours of the parents where appropriate.
• If no contact is made, the DSL will arrange for staff to either visit or drive a child to his/her home address (within one hour of the end of the school day), depending on child’s individual needs and circumstances. The DSL will ensure the child has adequate supervision at all times (whether in a car or waiting at the school).

This visit/transport will happen in all but very exceptional circumstances, particular to an individual family eg previous incidents of aggression towards staff, anticipated travel time to the child’s home of over I hour.

When the above procedure has been followed and the child has still not been reunited with a parent or carer, staff will escort the child back to the school:

• If the child is known to children’s social care, the DSL will contact the child’s allocated social worker or the Emergency Duty Service (EDS) if it is out of normal office hours.
• If the child is not known to social care, the DSL will consult with MASH or the EDS for advice.  
• The school will provide MASH/EDS with the following information about:

The child:

• Name(s), date of birth and address
• Gender, ethnicity, religion, language spoken
• Any additional needs – dietary, SEN, behavioural difficulties, medical
• Any current or previous child protection concerns
• Any previous significant or pattern of incidents of not being collected from school

The parent (and alternative carers):

• Name/s
• Address/es
• Telephone numbers – mobile, home, work

The DSL will record and review any incident when a child is not picked up by parents or picked up late (when no reasonable explanation is given) as part of the school safeguarding and child protection processes.

Social Care/ Police Procedure

EDS or MASH will advise the DSL of the next steps. This may include carrying out appropriate checks with partner agencies such as the Police and make further attempts to contact the parent/carer