Accident and Emergencies Procedures

Prevention of accidents and emergencies:

The safety of your child is paramount and we will take every measure we can to protect your child from injury whilst they are in our care. Children are always supervised whilst at Bubbles and are taught how to assess and consider their own risks, working with adults to mitigate risks so chosen activities can still happen. 

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Risk assessments of our premises and planned activities are carried out regularly to ensure it meets the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the EYFS. Risks are weighed against the benefits which means that children will be encouraged to take calculated risks that benefit their development and quality of life and adults will ensure these risks are manageable and will not lead to any serious injury.

 

Both Tori Winter and Ginni Noice hold full paediatric first-aid certificates which will be renewed through training every three years. We will have a complete first-aid kit available in the setting at any time that children are present and will take a first-aid kit with us during off-site visits.

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In the event of an accident:

• We will comfort and reassure the child, while ensuring the safety of any other children in our care. Whenever possible, one member of staff will stay with the child and the other will take the other children to a different area of the provision. 

• We will assess the extent of the child’s injuries and perform any first aid that we have been trained to do, if required.

•The details of the accident will be recorded in our accident log and parents will be informed at collection. If the child is particularly distressed or the injury requires close monitoring (such as in the case of a head injury) we may phone parents to advise them immediately and may request you collect your child from the setting. 

• If the injury is serious, we will follow the procedure given below.

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In the event of serious or life-threatening injury:

• We will contact the emergency services immediately and accompany the child to the hospital if necessary/possible.

• If we need to accompany a child to the hospital, we will either take the other children with us or call a known responsible adult to cover for our absence. As long as we are both on site one will accompany the child whilst the other stays with the other children.

• We will contact all parents/carers as soon as possible and, if necessary, ask you to collect your child from the setting or meet us at the hospital.

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Following an accident:

• We will record full details of how and where the accident happened and note any treatment given.

• You will be given a paper copy.

• You will be asked to acknowledge, in writing, that you have seen my accident report.

• I will inform Ofsted and my insurance company about any serious accident or incident.

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In the event of accident or injury off site:

• We will carry parent/carer contact details with us when we are away from the setting and follow the same procedures as above.

• A travel first-aid kit containing items that might be required while away from the setting will be taken on all off-site visits, along with any emergency medications such as allergy pens, asthma inhalers, etc.

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If the childminder has a serious accident or needs to leave urgently:

We will, at most times, have two of us on site to care for the children. However, if one of us is injured we may call parents/carers and ask you to collect your child(ren). If you are called following an emergency, you agree to set off immediately or send an emergency contact to collect them. In the meantime, children may be left with another responsible adult until they can be collected. An adult from the list at the end of this document will be called in where possible, but others may be used if these people are unavailable. Children cannot be left with backup cover for longer than is absolutely necessary.

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Emergency responsible adults:

Lorna Lacroix - DBS checked and OFSTED registered as living on the premises

David Winter - DBS checked and husband to Tori Winter, Father to Eldwyn Winter

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Precautions in place to help prevent emergencies:

Our setting is fitted with fully-functioning smoke detectors, which will be tested and checked regularly. Children will learn about the function of smoke detectors, listen to what they sound like (with prior warning) and be taught about age-appropriate safety precautions. We will look at where the exits are in the setting, discuss which we would use in an emergency and look for any safety control items that adults might use, e.g. fire blanket, fire extinguisher. Only if we feel it is safe to do so, will we attempt to tackle a fire ourselves and the safety of the children in our care will be our first priority in such a situation. Evacuation may be necessary in the event of a fire, flooding, etc. The children will regularly discuss and be made aware of the evacuation procedure so that they would know what to do in the event of a real emergency. Practices will be carried out on different days of the week to ensure that all children get a chance to practise and the details of these practices will be recorded. We also have an Emergency Evacuation Poster that we use to remind the children about what we would do in the event of an emergency. This also includes details of our evacuation assembly point.

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In the event of an emergency evacuation we will:

1. Sound the alarm - smoke detectors may sound or we will call out to all to evacuate.

2. Evacuate the children using the safest and nearest exit available (babies and toddlers will be carried safely). We will all walk calmly, to avoid any accidents. Children and adults will not be allowed to stop to collect any other personal belongings or outdoor clothing/footwear.

3. Take emergency contact details and the days sign in sheet with us, if safe to do so. 

4. Close windows and doors behind us, where possible, to prevent further spread of a fire.

5. Go to the agreed assembly point (if safe to do so) or somewhere away from danger.

6. Contact the emergency services.

7. Comfort and reassure the children.

8. When everyone is accounted for and in a safe place we will then contact parents/carers to collect their children as soon as possible.

9. Follow the instructions of the emergency services.

10. Do not return to the building until the emergency services have declared it safe to do so.