Illness Policy.

We are a closed environment with a fair number of people and therefore we also are a high risk environment for illness! 
The children are very young; their immune system is still very immature and they can easily catch lots of illnesses. 

To try and minimise the impact of illnesses we ask that:

• Parents/carers do all they can to protect the children from falling ill. 
• If a child is ill, a parent/carer accepts that they are expected to keep the child at home. 

For the benefit of us all:

• We reserve the right to send children home if we feel that the illness warrants it.  This may be because the child themselves is too unwell or there is a high risk of cross-infection. 
• We also reserve the right to exclude children from nursery for 48 hours or more, as necessary. 

Please note that despite what doctors say, we may still decide to exclude a child from nursery, if we feel that this is the correct action to embark on. 

We appreciate fully that this will cause you hassle and we will do our best to:

• Avoid this action as much as possible. 
• Offer you replacement sessions if we can. 

If you have been asked not to bring your child in, do keep them at home to avoid a possible uncomfortable situation (of us having to send you back at the door …!)

Vomiting and Diarrhoea and Conjunctivitis

Vomiting and Diarrhoea and Conjunctivitis are highly contagious illnesses and can affect the other children and adults very quickly and very badly.  Therefore, we take fairly drastic steps when they happen. 

• If we suspect that a child is suffering from either illnesses, we will ring that child’s parents/carers. 
• We expect the parents/carers to come and collect the child pretty immediately. 
• We expect the parents/carers to keep the child at home for a minimum of 48 hours, and certainly until all the symptoms have cleared and the child has been well for at least 24hours. 

Chicken Pox and Hand Foot and Mouth Disease

Chicken Pox and Hand Foot and Mouth Disease are very common in early childhood.  They are contagious before the blisters/ rash appear and the early symptoms can look very similar to a plain cold or just being ‘under the weather’, so they are difficult to guard against.  Once the blisters appear the ‘damage has been done’ and it’s then common for several children to go down, a bit like a domino effect.  We have found that the best way to limit the number of families affected is to exclude the infected children immediately and request that they stay home until their scabs are dry.  This is usually five days to one week for Chicken Pox but up to two weeks for Hand Foot and Mouth. 

In line with other diseases specified above

• If we suspect that a child is suffering from any such illness, we will ring that child’s parents/carers. 
• We expect the parents/carers to come and collect the child pretty immediately. 
• We expect the parents/carers to keep the child at home until the blisters have dried/ scabbed over. 

Teething

Teething causes slightly softer stools and a child who is less happy than usual.  It also seems to lower the immune system and make a child more prone to other illness. 
Unfortunately, the illnesses caught during teething are just as contagious as at any other times and the rules apply as above (even despite what doctors might say). 

Running a temperature

If a child begins to run a temperature (defined as more than 37.5C) while with us, we will give the parents/carers a ring and expect them to make arrangements to come and collect the child.  We may ask the parents/carers permission to give the child an analgesic (for ex Calpol, Ibuprofen, Calprofen) to help keep the temperature in check. 
The child may need to be kept at home for a minimum of 24hrs or until the temperature stabilises, before returning to nursery. 

Missed sessions due to illness

We understand that many parents/carers will want to try and make up the missed time at work. We therefore try to allow parents/carers to make up missed sessions due to a child’s illness. 

• Book these sessions immediately after the illness. There is only a maximum period of 2 weeks to catch up on missed sessions (please note that for holidays you can only catch up the week before and/ or the week after the holiday). 
• Make it very clear that you are making up missed illness time. 
• Make your request in writing (or by email).  Please be aware that we do our best but it is not always possible to catch up on all the missed sessions. 
• These ‘swapped’ sessions will be charged our ‘swap’ fee.