Handover Protocols

Safeguarding is a key priority in our school. To keep our children safe we have set out the procedures we use to ensure a safe handover of our children to parents/carers at the end of the day.

Handover  Protocols

To aid with continuity for the children, it is the parents’ responsibility to arrive on time for child drop off or pick up. Late arrivals and early departures are acceptable but to be avoided if possible.

Marshland St James Primary and Nursery School will be ready to receive the children prior to their arrival at 8.35 am and will ensure the children are ready to go home at their official departure time.

Nursery and Reception classes Collection Of Child Policy

• Children may only be collected by a recognised parent/ carer
• Staff will ensure they recognise the person collecting the child and will operate a ‘hand over’ policy
• If a child is to be collected by a different adult, the parent/carer must inform the Nursery Keyworker beforehand. A password will be requested from the parent to share with new adult. They will then be asked  to share it on arrival to collect the child.
• If the different adult is not known to the staff, the different adult will be asked to quote the Parent Password Code.
• The parent/ Carer may inform the Nursery by telephone about a different person collecting their child. The different adult will be asked for the password on arrival.
• Staff will have the right to refuse to handover the child to an unfamiliar adult if they are unsure of the individual or the password is not shared correctly.

Key Stage One and Two Collection of Child Policy

• There remains a ‘Handover’ Policy in Key Stage One, which means the member of staff must ‘give’ the child to an adult at the end of each day.
• As in nursery/EYFS a password system will be used with parents when a new or unknown adult is collecting a child.
• Children in Y5 and 6 may go home without an adult. However the school or the class teacher will need to have written be notification of this at the beginning of the academic year.
• Parents have a responsibility to inform the school if a child is going home with a different child or is being collected by a different adult.
• In the case of marital or custody disputes, unless there is a Court Order in place and school have had sight of this, we as a school do not have the right to prevent a child leaving with either parent who has parental rights.
• Should a parent/carer come to collect a child and we suspect that they may be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or otherwise unable to care for their child, we will detain the child and attempt to contact another carer (e.g. the other parent or emergency contact) to ask them to come and escort the adult and child home. We may also contact the Social Services Duty Desk for advice and support.

Late Collection or Non collection

It is the responsibility of all parents to arrive in good time to collect their child. If a parent/carer/representative has not arrived after 15 minutes they are deemed late and the following procedure takes place.

• The child will continue to be cared for as usual and every effort will be made to make sure the child is not upset by the situation.
• Attempts will be made to contact the parent on all the given telephone numbers. If this produces no result, the emergency numbers will be used to contact a responsible adult.
• If, after one hour the parent or carer has still not arrived and staff have been unable to make contact with another member of the family or family friend it may be necessary to contact Children’s Social Care Services and take their advice.

For Breakfast Clubs running before the start of the school day, the child remains the responsibility of the parent until they are ‘handed over’ and registered with an appropriate adult.

Any person sent to collect a child from school must be over 14 years old and the parent of the child must have given consent. School may check this consent prior to releasing a child.

Autumn 2021