Signing out for parents - some good suggestions please!

[ManAboutTheHouse]

Hi fellow CMs

My wife & I run a home-based childcare service, which (inclusive of school pick-ups), means that up to 10 children can be on the premises at the end of the working day.

More often than not, we will get at least 2 or 3 of the parents (if not more) arriving at the same time, which means that both of us are literally darting from one parent to another, especially if we are verbally updating them with something their child has done or been involved with. Of course, when this happens, another 2 or 3 parents invariably appear at the door!

This also means that we don't always get a chance for them to sign out their children for the day (for the time they leave our premises), as things are a little chaotic &/or if the parents are in a hurry to get home or head off elsewhere.

Therefore, I was wondering if there were any CMs (or teams of CMs working together, that care for a large number of children) out there that have a good system of ensuring that their parents sign-out their children for the time they leave the premises? We have tried the pen & paper option on a daily basis - however, we do have a number of children that are only with us 2-3 days a week, so if a sign-out is forgotten, it sometimes doesn't get addressed until the following week, or the next time the children are with us.

Many thanks in advance...

:0))

When there are three adults we find it all hectic we bought a hardback book to use as a firebook so as people whether adults or children go off the premises eg school run the time is recorded in book eg Katy out 9:25 in at 10:03 then if parents sign they sign register but I don't get parents to sign daily as no need we get parents to sign when they can

I keep my attendance book by the door and log the time on arrival and leaving.

No need for parents to sign anything.

Agree with Fliss - parents don't sign anything. The attendance register isn't required to be signed it's just one of those things that Ofsted has decided is good practice.

Thanks for the suggestions - however, I was under the impression that it was a requirement, for those instances when it covers you from something that occurred after the child was picked up?

Nope, not a requirement, you just need to accurately log the arrival and departure time. You can ask parents to sign the child out if you want as best practice but it's certainly not a 'must-do'

Man if it occurs after the child has left then you're not liable in any case - responsibility has been handed over.

Hi Octaviapink,

What you mention is the sort of thing we want to avoid (touch wood, it hasn't happened so far to us, but there is a first time of everything in our industry!).

We basically want to avoid a scenario where (for example), little Billy gets picked up by his Mum at 5.30, & then he has a fall on the pavement outside our house at 5.31 & is badly hurt, & the parent afterwards 'claims' that it's something that happened whilst in our care.

(Our local childminding officer related such a story to us recently that apparently ended up in court, that got us thinking about this subject).

Obviously, a parent signing out at 5.30 would clear this up (of course, there may be the additional issue of whose watch / clock you go by), but I'd like to think that things would be in my favour if I'm able to demonstrate that I keep an accurate log of sign-outs.

Hope the above makes sense! Any further thoughts? Thanks in advance!

Have something that the children know they should do and is fun.....
eg make laminated teddies or cartoon characters with child's name on it that are taken off one board representing school when they come in and put onto a house picture when they care with you and they can take them from that and put them on a car/bus picture or similar when they leave.
The children will make sure they do it as kids are good at that and that will remind their parents to sign the book
Children are soooo much more reliable than adults!!

I work with my husband (both registered childminders) and found it really hard to keep up with all the sign ins and outs so we do it. You just have to remember to record the time accurately so if the pick up was at 5.27pm and the contracted time is 5.30pm you have to put the actual time the child left not the contracted time. Also ... I never signed anything at school or nurseries when I collect the children. Only if I took the child early from school for whatever reason I would be asked to sign. It would be just impractical to have a queue of parents waiting to sign their child in and then sign out at pick up time.

Thanks - as an additional thing in our attendance register, we always record the actual time that the children get dropped off & picked up (rather than the contracted times).

I would hope that this is sufficient, but you never know...!

You are required to record the actual time of arrival and departure - to the minute - and that should be sufficient. CDWs and co always like to scare you with stories like that. I've had the same inspector twice now and realised she uses the same stories every time - it's a really Victorian trait!

I have a diary in which I note Arrival/Depature times.
I also note who I have that day and who picks up, if its any one other than whos on the contract.

We do ours on our phones. We also use an app for the daily diaries where the start and finish times are noted and we send those diaries to the parents each day.

I think that may cover you for the scenario you describe - if the start/end times were wrong it would be up to the parent to challenge them.