Sickness Information

In order to take appropriate action of children who become ill and to minimise the spread of infection we implement the following procedures:

• If a child becomes ill during the nursery day, we contact their parent(s) and ask them to pick up their child as soon as possible. If we cannot make contact with the priority contact, we will then contact one of the emergency contacts. During this time, we care for the child in a quiet, calm area with their key person (wearing PPE), wherever possible.
• We follow the guidance published by UK Health Security Agency for managing specific infectious diseases[1] and advice from the NHS on exclusion times for specific illnesses, e.g. sickness and diarrhoea, measles and chicken pox, to protect other children in the nursery.
• Should a child have an infectious disease, such as sickness and diarrhoea, they must not return to nursery until they have been clear for at least 48 hours.
• A fever is a temperature of 38 degrees or above. If a child has a temperature of 38 degrees or higher, they must be kept away from nursery until they are well enough to attend.
• If you have administered Calpol or Nurofen to your child, they should not attend for 24 hours from the latest dose. This is because Calpol/ Nurofen can mask the effects of illness which could then be passed on to other children and conditions that may cause febrile convulsions.
• We inform all parents if there is a contagious infection identified in the nursery, to enable them to spot the early signs of this illness. We thoroughly clean and sterilise all equipment and resources that may have come into contact with a contagious child to reduce the spread of infection
• We ask parents to keep children on new antibiotics at home for the first 48 hours of the course (unless this is part of an ongoing care plan to treat individual medical conditions, e.g. asthma and the child is not unwell). the rigours of the nursery day, which requires socialising with
• We have the right to refuse admission to a child who is unwell. This decision will be taken by the manager on duty and is non-negotiable.
• We make information and posters about head lice readily available, and all parents are requested to regularly check their children’s hair. If a parent finds that their child has head lice, we would be grateful if they could inform the nursery so that other parents can be alerted to check their child’s hair.