A Safe, Secure School Club Environment
At Care Love Learn we make sure the out of school club is a safe environment for children, parents, staff and visitors through our fire safety policy and procedures.
The manager Sue Morris makes sure the premises are compliant with fire safety regulations, including following any major changes or alterations to the premises and seeks advice from the local fire safety officer as necessary.
The manager has overall responsibility for the fire drill and evacuation procedures. These are carried out and recorded for each group of children every three months or as and when a large change occurs, e.g. a large intake of children or a new member of staff joins the out of school club. These drills will occur at different times of the day and on different days to ensure evacuations are possible under different circumstances and all children and staff participate in the rehearsals.
The manager checks fire detection and control equipment and fire exits in line with the timescales in a checklist.
Care Love Learn operates a strict no smoking policy.
At Care Love Learn we make sure the out of school club is a safe environment for children, parents, staff and visitors by carrying out safety checks on a regular basis in accordance with the timescales set out in the club’s checklists. These include daily checks of the premises, indoors and outdoors, and all equipment and resources before the children access any of the areas. The checks are recorded to show any issues and solutions.
All staff should be aware of potential hazards in the out of school club environment and monitor safety at all times.
We will use the lock down procedure when the safety of the children and staff is at risk and we will be better placed inside the current building, with doors and windows locked and blinds/curtains drawn.
We will activate this emergency procedure in response to a number of situations, but some of the more typical might be:
- A report incident or disturbance in the local community (with potential to pose a risk to staff and children in the out of school club)
- An intruder on our site (with potential to pose a risk to staff and children in the out of school club)
- A warning being received regarding a risk locally, of air pollution (smoke plumes, gas cloud etc.)
- A major fire or explosion in the vicinity of the out of school club – as long as it is safer staying in the premises than leaving.
Protecting and supporting the welfare of the children
At Care Love Learn we aim to protect and support the welfare of the children in our care at all times. The manager is responsible for all staff, students and relief staff receiving information on health and safety policies and procedures in the out of school club in order to supervise the children in their care suitably.
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. 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
- 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
- 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.
At Care Love Learn we aim to protect the children in our care at all times. This includes making sure any visitors to the out of school club are properly identified and supervised.
All visitors must sign the visitors’ book on arrival and departure. Where applicable, visitors’ identity should be checked, e.g. Ofsted inspectors or colleagues attending in a professional capacity such as speech and language therapists. Visitors are informed of any relevant policies including the fire evacuation procedure and mobile phone, camera and other recording devices policy including use of smartwatches where applicable.
All visitors are given and should wear a visitor’s badge to identify themselves to staff and parents within the setting. A member of staff must accompany visitors in the setting at all times while in the building; at no time should a visitor be left alone with a child unless under specific circumstances arranged previously with the manager.
Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) is a new Government scheme which will give eligible families up to £2,000 per child towards childcare costs, including the fees for breakfast, after-school and holiday clubs. The aim is for it to replace the employer-supported Childcare Voucher scheme.
