Late collection of children policy.
How we manage and respond when a child is not collected by the close of business.
Purpose: To ensure that the children at the centre are collected at the appropriate time.
Parents/Guardians are asked to contact the service if unforeseen circumstances or emergencies have occurred that prevent them from picking up their child by the service’s closing time. All reasonable steps must be taken by the family including arranging another authorised person to collect the child to assist in ensuring that all children are collected from the centre prior to the centre closing for the day.
Due to licensing requirements children cannot be on the premises prior to or after our licensed hours of operation please check with your relevant centre for operating hours.
Aims
To prevent the children from becoming distressed at not being collected at the given time.
To ensure that staff ratios for the care of children are not exceeded due to the late collection of children.
To prevent any confusion with parents regarding late fees by having a clear policy.
Families are asked to arrive a few minutes earlier if they wish to discuss their child’s day with educators. All children and families are required to have left the centre premises no later than the licenced closing time of the centre.
The Educational and Care Services National Regulations require that a minimum of two educators be in attendance, one of which must be qualified Diploma or above when children are in care. These educators, when required to work beyond their normal working hours, must be paid overtime to comply with the state award conditions. A late fee has been set to cover any costs incurred to the centre by a child being picked up late. It is the responsibility of parents/carers to arrive and leave prior to the centres licenced closing time. So that educators can promptly close the centre on time.
Procedure
The following steps are to be followed by staff when the parents are late in collecting a child:
Continually reassure the child and keep them involved in an activity.
At closing try to contact parent/s/carers to see if there is a problem in collecting the child. Ask parent/carer for an estimated time of arrival.
After 10 minutes if parent/s/carers are not able to be contacted then try emergency contact number for the child and inform Centre Director/ Nominated Supervisor if not on the premises, contact Approved Provider and/or the General Manager.
After one (1) hour, if staff have been unable to contact parents/carer or emergency contact, then re-contact the Approved Provider and/or the General Manager and Centre Director/ Nominated Supervisor if not on the premises and advise them that you are going to call the police.
At this time, ring the police.
Police will try and contact child’s parents or carers. If they suspect that the child is at risk of harm they will make a report to the Child Protection Helpline. If necessary the helpline will initiate an afterhours response.
Late Fee: Parents/Guardians must adhere to the closing times of Eikoh Seminar Australia centres.
A late fee will be charged when a child is picked up after centre closing time. A Late Collection fee will be charged at a rate of $50.00 for the first 10 minutes and $10.00 per 5 minutes after that. This amount will be charged separately from child care fees. Late fees do not attract the CCS rebate.
Late Fees will be added to your child’s statement of account by management.
Please note at centres that offer the preschool hours bookings of 9am-3pm (Roseville and St Ives): children who are at the service outside of these hours, may have fines applied at the discretion of the nominated supervisor.
Families who are late to collect their children more than 3 times within a month will put their child’s position in jeopardy. In this case, the position and circumstances will be reviewed in consultation with the family, Centre Director and General Manager.
This policy is the property of Eikoh Seminar Australia Pty Limited and must not be reproduced without the consent of management.