Nurseries- how common is this policy?

[insancerre]

I have a friend who works in a private nursery and they have a policy of any member of staff never being on their own with a child/children, ever.
I have worked in private nurseries for many years and ave never come across this before. It would make it impossible to operate at my nursery with this setup.
I was shocked that the staff in her nursery are not trusted to be on their own and she was shocked that the staff in my nursery are laying themselves open to allegations of abuse (her words)
I just wondered what other people's experiences of this are,

[jojo1983]

We had this policy in the setting I worked in. It was brought in to safeguard the staff as sad as it sounds it's the world that we live in

[Tiago]

Her nursery must be very very expensive given the number of staff they must need to have...

I can see her point (DH is a lecturer and often gets me reminding him not to have closed door meetings with any students due to the danger), but it seems impractical in a situation where your friend presumably has to change/patch up/etc toddlers.

[notcitrus]

Not at ds's nursery. There's 8 kids in the preschool room with one staff member much of the time. Though each room has a window into the adjacent room and into the corridor so other staff / parents can see in everywhere except the loos.

[insancerre]

I was telling her how I had taken 2 children to buy some stamps and post some letters and how we had to run back as it started raining. It was great fun and the children's parents didn't think it odd. But my friend said it's in the EYFS that staff can't be on their own
So what about childminders then? I asked. She couldn't answer that.

[TiggyD]

Best practice would be to never leave somebody properly alone. Door open into the nappy changing room, no taking children to rooms down deserted corridors etc. Partly to stop abuse, partly to stop accusations of abuse, and partly because you are ever only one slip away from knocking yourself unconscious and leaving the children to fend for themselves.
It used to be the way it was done everywhere when I started, but then rules got diluted to reduce costs for nurseries...
It's now legal for a 14 year old to keep children down a pit and call it a nursery. So long as they do outstanding Learning journeys of course!

[Rubirosa]

I haven't seen anything in the EYFS about staff not being alone with children, and have never seen anything from Ofsted (or anyone else) suggesting it is "best practice".

It wouldn't work in my (outstanding) nursery and we are overstaffed! Bathroom door is closed for nappies/changing/toileting, staff are alone with sleeping children, one adult often an individual or small group of children of for some focussed work etc.