Parents not following safety rules at pick up

[Howisitnotobvious]

Twice this week two separate parents have ignored both the signs and my verbal requests to follow the procedure of the nursery at pick up. To give an example, there are multiple entrances but they're all thumb print or facial recognition. These parents have followed me in or pushed past me once I've been given access using my facial/thumb ID. The process is that each collector does it themselves and if you're not a parent you have to press the buzzer and wait or enter a collection code the parent will have had access to to give to the grandparent. I tried to say please don't follow me in etc and was ignored.

There are safety aspects to too many people being in the pick up area at once I won't go into. So it's not just safeguarding re strangers.

Would you raise this with the nursery somehow?

You’re concerned, so obviously you should raise it with the nursery

You can mention it to the nursery but realistically this isn't something they can control too much. It's human nature to hold doors and be "polite" even when you've been asked not to. All they can do is ask again, but people will always ignore it even from them never mind from you.

The nursery should have backup security measures in place so if someone unauthorised does get in, they can't actually do any harm. Ask your nursery what theirs are, since they will never 100% be able to stop tailgaters.

For example, the office is next to the door and someone is always on duty to watch people come in and challenge strangers. There are fob systems on every door that need a staff member to open them. No children are anywhere near a door without at least one member of staff watching them. And in every room or outside area there's always someone on door watching duty to see who comes in and watch them until they pass into the next space.

Yes i think you should mention it. Too many people were doing this at our nursery so now they have a member of staff on the door who lets everyone in and out instead. Your nursery might not have the staff available to do that, but at least you've drawn their attention to it.

Next time, check if there is anyone heading your way before you go in. If there is, let them go first so you can make sure the door is shut before you then scan in. If someone tries to follow you, report straight to the nursery reception. They'll know if someone is a parent or a stranger and react accordingly. They can also send a reminder out about safe guarding and why it's important to know exactly who is in the building at any given time.

You can't really force other parents to play by the rules sadly.

Thing is these parents are adults and the nursery have no more power over them than you do. It’s just as much on you OP as it is the nursery. You should tell the parents yourself.

Thanks for your replies. So I did point to the sign and say I'd rather you didn't follow me in please they specifically ask us not to do that. I certainly didn't hold the door open to be polite. Neither parent listened to me and one said "well I'm going to sneak in behind you anyway" and grabbed the door.

Will definitely be more aware of who is parking up or walking around/near me next time too.

@Howisitnotobvious
"There are safety aspects to too many people being in the pick up area at once I won't go into."

Why not?

Just because I didn't want to give too much identifying information away.

Personally I think you are on to a losing battle. And it's not something I could get too worked up about. Presumably people can't just walk in and take a child, the nursery staff will hand over to someone they know? If they don't know them, they'll query it. This was always going to be the issue with this type of technology for access. People will always open the door for others. Its human nature and no amount of reminders or requests will change it.

People will always open the door for others. Its human nature and no amount of reminders or requests will change it.

^ that's the opposite of what's happening. People are forcing the door to stay open and actively tailgating whilst others are trying to shut it behind them and saying don't follow me.

My nursery had a no tailgating policy and people were generally good about following it. If you know who the tailgaters are could you just let them go first? I would tell the nursery because they can insist that people follow the policy. This is a serious issue, in my area an alert went out once about an unauthorised person trying to gain entry to more than one nursery by pretending to be a parent. I wouldn't want to be the person that let in a child abductor.

I don’t normally pick DD up from nursery, but I did the other day as I had to take the day off work.

When I came out there were several parents waiting in the rain, very clearly expecting me to hold the door open for them and let them in. I didn’t, because as you say, it’s a safeguarding risk.

I did apologise! Although some were more understanding than others…

My nursery have this issue too, and are constantly putting out reminder emails about it

This is the reason that we now have drop off and pick up at the door only. Once a parent held the door open for a dog to come in....🙄

Taking a child is the only concern though, a random adult could cause any kind of trouble

This happened to me once and I said to the woman trying to tailgate that I didn't know who she was and the rule was that each parent had to know the code for the door

She said she couldn't remember it and was quite rude to me, no idea if she actually was a parent but no way was I going to be responsible if she wasn't

Its common sense imo

Thanks everyone. I've emailed my concern today.