The Lodge Coronavirus (COVID-19) Policy

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Policy

This policy applies to all employees and service users, including parents, guardians, children and third-party users, social care, police and fire rescue services and any other person wishing to gain reasonable access to the setting. (This list is not exhaustive of all users defined.) 

Purpose of the Policy

• To protect all employees and service users of The Lodge Preschool and Nursery, including parents and children, from encountering Coronavirus (COVID-19).
• To maintain the minimum level of staff needed to continue to provide early year’s education services and to meet the welfare and care needs of the children who attend the setting.
• To ensure that the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19) remains at a minimum risk.

Nursery Closure

• Nursery closure will occur at any time that it is felt necessary to prevent the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19) and to ensure the health and safety welfare of all employees, children, parents and service users.
• The Lodge will close for 14 days to allow everyone – however great or small their interaction with the infected person – to isolate and prioritise their health and safety, and that of their family. The building will undergo a thorough deep clean and sterilisation and be left vacant for a minimum of five days. No charge will be due for the 14-day closure. Depending on when in the month the closure falls you will either receive a credit or a reduced invoice.
• The Lodge Preschool and Nursery will continually monitor the risk factor of keeping the setting open as a viable option, and may at any time, revert to a closed status, with no children permitted on site; or, to a partially closed status, where setting places may be limited to, but not excluding, vulnerability, age, need of care, critical key worker status of parents or guardians, special educational needs (SEND), children who have an EHCP plan in place, children in care including adopted children, children who have a social worker allocated to them. We may limit the days that we are open, our session times and the numbers of children attending.

Monitoring

• The Lodge Preschool and Nursery is closely monitoring and gathering information from the Department of Health England (DoH), the Department for Education (DfE), our Local Authority and all guidelines delivered through official Government sources.
• Due diligence will be paid to our existing policies and ongoing guidance to ensure that we have the most current information and workplace practices in place relating to the spread and containment of the Coronavirus (COVID-19).
• This includes delivering training in new and evolving procedures to all employees and any other third-party associated with the running of, or participation within, The Lodge Preschool and Nursery. The Nursery reserves the right to make changes to this document to uphold guidance of safe working practises and delivery methods.

Attendance

• Only children and adults who are symptom free or have completed the requested isolation period are permitted to attend The Lodge Preschool and Nursery
• We reserve the right to check a child’s temperature on arrival but will not be doing this routinely. If, upon arrival, your child is displaying a temperature of 37.8 degrees, has a new cough, looks generally unwell or is displaying any other signs associated with coronavirus (COVID-19), they will be excluded for a period of 7 days for self-isolation. If a temperature or cough persist, a further 7 days self-isolation must be undertaken in line with the Department of Health England and the government’s current guidelines.
• You will be given a date of when your child can attend again. They must not return before this date. This will help to control the spread of the virus within our setting. If your child gets tested during this time and receives a negative test before the allotted time has expired, they may return to the setting providing you can show a copy of the negative test result.
• If a child/employee/direct contact with the nursery tests positive after attending the setting, we will follow all guidelines from the Department of Health and cascade these to families as required.

Day-to-Day Procedures

• The ‘bubble’ of children at The Lodge Preschool and Nursery is the nursery as a whole. The Lodge Preschool and Nursery forms its own ‘bubble’.
• While we cannot expect children of our age groups to understand and maintain social distancing, we will act responsibly by working in smaller groups where possible, and for example, not sending the whole group to change shoes together.
• We will reasonably endeavour to deliver the learning and development requirements of the EYFS. It is understood that these are exceptional circumstances and the priority at this time is keeping children safe and well cared for.
• As much time as possible will be spent outside. If activities can practically happen outside, then they should do so.
• Windows will be open for the whole of the session where possible, to encourage good ventilation.
• Children will be given drinks, snacks, and lunches as normal during the day using our items, which are sterilised daily.
• We will continue to encourage children to self-pour their own drinks and do activities such as spreading their own butter on their toast. This will help to promote confidence and motor skills whilst maintaining best practice with hygiene procedures.
• Menus may be limited due to the stock limitations and/or changed without prior notice.

Routine Hygiene

• All surfaces and ‘hot spots’ such as light switches and door handles will be cleaned regularly.
• Soft furnishings will be sprayed with a disinfectant at least twice daily.
• Children will be actively encouraged to wash their hands after every activity or after playing in a specific area. We will use warm water and hand soap with a minimum wash time of 20 seconds per child, demonstrating good modelling behaviours for the children to follow best practise. Children and adults will wash hands when starting and finishing a new activity; resources will then be sanitised.
• The staff team will implement fun and engaging activities that support children’s understanding and implementation of hand washing procedures.
• Both the kitchen and toileting/nappy changing areas will be regularly cleaned and sanitised during the day by all employees.
• Hand sanitisers should only be used when soap and water is not available.
• Any bodily fluids (such as blood, vomit, urine, faeces) will be cleaned up following normal procedures, and by one person only, if possible. The area will be fully disinfected after the incident.
• Resources will be soaked in a sterilising solution or wiped as applicable between uses.
• At the end of each day we carry out the following procedure: antibac cleaning and sanitising of all surfaces, toys, fabrics, toilet areas, outdoor areas, and equipment, ready for use the following day. This includes storing all outside toys securely at the end of every working day and before weekend/holiday period closures, or closures for health and safety measures.
• All laundry will be washed at the highest temperature possible for the item. The laundry basket will be sanitised regularly.
• Where furnishings cannot be washed in the washing machine, they will be sprayed with a sanitising solution/steam cleaned

Children and Families

• Shared care between our setting and another will only be allowed at the manager’s discretion after a comprehensive risk assessment has been carried out. Affected families will be contacted individually about this.
• Although every measure will be taken to ensure that each child has minimal contact with others, children of the early years age group will inevitably want to hug and touch others through play or when needing comfort. Therefore it is vital that we not only adhere to best practise hygiene policies throughout the day, but that parents / guardians also support this by changing their children’s clothing when they return home, placing that day’s clothing in the wash, and ensuring each child takes a shower/bath after/before each attendance.
• If any child needs comfort, our staff will comfort them and do their absolute best to make sure that all their social, emotional and wellbeing needs are met whilst in attendance at The Lodge Preschool and Nursery.
• As per current guidance children must remove any facemasks provided by home before entering nursery. Parents or guardians must dispose of these correctly at home.
• As is normal policy, children will not share facecloths or bedding – these are all personal / individual items.
• Children who display symptoms must be collected immediately upon While awaiting collection the child will be with one member of staff. The window will be opened for air circulation. The staff member will follow government guidelines while awaiting collection. Once the child is collected the whole room will be cleaned and disinfected, if the child requires the bathroom while awaiting collection, this room will also require a full clean and disinfecting. The staff member will not have to go home unless they develop symptoms. PPE worn by the staff member and cleaning cloths used to clean the area will be disposed of.
• In an emergency, 999 will be called.
• Should anyone in a child’s household display symptoms, there is a duty of care to inform the setting at the first available opportunity and without unreasonable delay.
• Any medication required by your child at the nursery must be handed over in a sealed bag with a prescription label attached. We reserve the right not to administer medication unless sufficient information is provided to enable us to administer it safely (as per our medication policy).
• Staff and parents should remain mindful of their discussions surrounding Coronavirus around the children.

Employees

• Wearing of face masks is not recommended within educational settings.
• We will have no extra staff at nursery at this time. We will maintain safe ratios but will be limiting the contact of those allowed within the premises.
• Employees are advised to always practice strict hygiene and cleanliness procedures.
• Employees must wash their hands at regular intervals for a minimum of 20 seconds using soap and warm water.
• Employees are advised to cough or sneeze into their elbow when a tissue or other vessel cannot be reached in time, and must always wash their hands afterwards.
• Employees are advised to avoid contact with others, such as handshakes or hugs and are to maintain a social distance of 2-metres from other adult members of the nursery team whenever it is possible to do so.
• Employees are to avoid touching their eyes, nose, and face whilst on the premises and whilst children are in their care.
• Tablets will be allocated to individual team members where possible and when not possible, will be wiped after each use.
• The telephone and keyboards will be wiped after each use.
• All staff are to have completed the Citation-Atlas online training ‘Covid19’ prior to returning to work.
• As is normal practice, staff may wear PPE if required during nappy changing, changing of clothes and if a child has had an accident. This is not a replacement for hand washing and general high levels of hygiene.
• We ask that all staff who can walk to work do so.
• All Early Years / Nursery staff are classified essential workers so are eligible for coronavirus testing if they are displaying symptoms of the virus.

Outside Visitors

• Meetings will be virtual where they can be.
• Prospective parents will be invited to tour the nursery on a Saturday, or out of hours only.
• Settling visits with a keyperson will be arranged on a one-to-one basis with the initial drop off being in the garden area.
• Should any work or maintenance need to be carried out by outside contractors, it will happen, as far as possible, outside of nursery hours. If it does need to take place during opening hours, then a risk assessment will be carried out prior to attendance.

Hygiene on Arrival / Pick Up

• All users of the setting, including parents and guardians, should avoid all non-essential Public Transport travel and ensure they follow national guidelines for social interaction outside of the setting.
• Please do not travel to nursery with others from outside of your own household.
• Only the parent or guardian of the child may drop off and collect them. In case of emergencies you may have one other person on standby. Only one adult may drop off and pick up – any other people must wait in the car (siblings under 5 excluded). This will reduce social contact and ensure the welfare and safety of our staff, which is a top priority.
• Only parents who are symptom-free may drop off or collect their children.
• Staff will greet parent’s outside the nursery building where hand over will take place. No parent is permitted to enter the nursery building.
• We ask that you respect the neighbours of The Lodge Preschool and Nursery by ensuring all social distancing measures remain in place.
• Children and staff will all wash their hands upon arrival.
• Children are not permitted to bring in any items from home, including toys and books, other than essential comforters.
• There will be minimal ‘verbal feedback’ at pick up during this time.
• Staff will sign the children out on our daily register.
• All children will be handed over by a member of staff with all their belongings and will be ready to go immediately. Please bear in mind the social distancing rule of 2-metres for groups of people from outside of your household. You must exit swiftly from the grounds to maintain others’ rights to access the setting to collect their child. This will also help to minimise contact for all visitors of the setting. Any belongings left behind will be ready to collect next time your child attends. Please do not come back to the nursery once you have collected your child.
• If you would like to talk to the staff regarding your child’s attendance, a telephone consultation will be arranged. No face-to-face meetings are possible at this time.
• Once your child has been collected, please leave the premises. Please do not remain outside of the building for any other reason; this applies whether you are in your vehicle or not. We expect that families will collect their children and return home.
• If your child comes home in spare clothing from the setting, please can you ensure that this is washed and returned to the setting when your child next attends.

Physical Distancing

• Children within the early years group cannot socially distance from each other and we will not have an expectation that they will do so.
• Staff will be mindful of their social distance from each other and will keep the 2-metre distance where and when possible.
• Staff will maintain the 2-metre distance from parents and visitors; they may need to break this distance to support a child at settling but this will be a brief handover.
• Parents or designated carers must only attend the setting when they are coming to collect their child.

Cleaning After Closure

• All areas are cleaned and sanitised.
• All resources will be sprayed or soaked overnight as applicable.
• The evening cleaner will be extra vigilant with sanitising.
• All soft furnishings that cannot be disinfected with spray will be laundered ready for the next day.
• Daily checks on cleaning supplies will be made.

Updated 29th October, 2020