AIBU to raise concerns after school let father-in-law apply suncream when not an approved collector?

[Tryingtohelp12]

My father in law called in today to drop something off and I said can you do me a favour and drop dc2 Suncream at school I’ve just realised it’s not in her bag and it’s on your way past. Just leave it with the office (my child school has allowed them to take their own cream in this week and apply it themselves). About 20 minutes later came back and he said the office wouldn’t let him leave the cream and had retrieved my child from her classroom and allowed him to apply it.

i have no problem with him actually doing this as we are close and he is trustworthy, but was really surprised, he’s not on the list of approved collectors as he has never done a school run for us and honestly could have been anyone. What if he’d come in and said they need to take child out of school- would they have let him?

I mentioned it to the teacher at pick up who said she will look into it but now I’m worried I have overreacted and got the office staff in trouble.

i agree with you OP - it’s very clear on this thread those posters who have had safeguarding training and those who haven’t!

Regardless of a child’s age/ability to recognise and name an adult, no childcare/education setting should be allowing access to any adult who does not have express permission from the parent/carer of the child in question.

As PPs have suggested, parent/carers could be NC for a myriad of reasons not known to a child who just sees ‘Grandad’ coming in to the setting. And yes - that means a phone call etc to the parent/carer every time someone not on the approved list appears!

oh come on it’s not as if he dragged her off to a private room to do it. I assume they were stood in the open by reception with plenty of witnesses. The school can’t win in this situation, if they’d denied him putting sun cream on her and sent him away you’d also be complaining, next time take it yourself if you’re going to moan

No adult would be allowed to "retrieve" a child from any classroom in any school. Visitors, including parents, can't get further than a reception area.
How did they know what to put on his lanyard?

Then with all due respect, it’s a good job you don’t work in a school then……

So… you asked for a favour, then you made it in to a crime scene? Christ on a bike

@Tryingtohelp12 I will give my head a wobble as suggested and blame the sun - I’m in general a very relaxed person

No, don’t give your head a wobble please! Tell school that this happened and they need to change their procedures or tighten them up or whatever. Imagine if Ofsted were there watching this happen!

But the point is, school don’t know she sent him!

what if Grandpa wasn’t allowed to see the children, and thought to himself ‘this is a clever work around. I’ll go to school and say the mum sent me.’

I didn’t complain I just said to her teacher I was surprised by it.

Assuming that you’re British, surely you are aware that ‘being surprised’ is the equivalent of being absolutely outraged…

Office staff have a list and sometimes photos when there are situations like this.

If she got sun burnt because she was not allowed the suncream, I'm sure you would be annoyed with the school too.
Your post suggests that they let a random older man take a child from their classroom and apply suncream, but I'm sure that is not the case.
If it is the case then I would be more worried about that than your hypothetical question

I get your point to some extent but think you are over reacting as you were the one that sent the GP to the school.
You wanted your child have sunscreen in this really hot weather and as the office said the GP couldn’t leave it, they instead allowed him to apply it. So you got what you wanted which is your child has sun protection. The alternative would’ve been he came back with the sun lotion and I’m guessing you would be complaining about the school being unreasonable and your child spending the whole day without sun protection. Clearly a mistake. Put the GP on the list if you plan to send them for anything school related.

I imagine another adult was present when he was applying it.

😂

He shouldn't have got past the reception area. Whoever allowed this will be disciplined. It's very serious.

I think the office staff retrieved her and took her to the office.

Right. They're in breach of their safeguarding training.

Cant rely on that. For every photo of a forbidden person, there is a friend or relative of theirs who can sound convincingly like ‘gran’ or ‘granddad’.

The lack of awareness around safeguarding in this post is staggering.

It does not matter if he applied it with another adult present. School did not know if parents had granted any contact with this man.

It does not matter if the children knew who he was. School did not know if parents had granted any contact with this man.

It does not matter if he said Mum sent him. School did not know if parents had granted any contact with this man.

It does not matter if school didn't have a picture of a note saying 'no contact' with this man. School did not know if parents had granted any contact with this man.

That's it. That's all that matters.

School should not be granting any contact, regardless of the type, with any people that walk in off the street, that haven't been approved by the parents. It's that simple.

This👆

Worst, worst case scenario - a member of the school staff with safeguarding training just watched a sex offender rub his hands over a young child.

Is that ok, just because they watched him? No, of course not.

I agree OP.

I know a child who would have welcomed a close family member and loved to see him, so to all intents and purposes it would have looked like a loving a close bond.
In actual fact the relative was an abuser and had groomed other children in certain settings and the family of the child had gone no contact.

If FIL was not on the approved list he should not have been allowed any contact with the child unless with someone who was on the list.

Absolutely this.

Nowhere in the OP does it say he "got past the reception area". It says an adult retrieved OP's DD from the classroom, so she was presumably brought out to Reception to meet Grandad. However, even if he had entered the school that would not be an issue as long as he was supervised by a member of school staff at all times. Grandparents come into school for events all the time, as long as there are staff present and they're not just wandering the school unsupervised it's perfectly fine.

They gave him access to a young child without the proper checks. Not okay.

Public events are nothing to do with this scenario.

My misunderstanding about where Grandad went had been clarified - thanks.
No. He should not have had contact with any child. As pp have said, they're in breach of S&CP laws.