Nursery haven't contacted me

[curlymam]

DS is full of a cold with quite a bad cough so I decided to keep him home from nursery today. I didn't have to set an alarm so we got up late, had a leisurely breakfast, and I was in the middle of giving him a bath when I remembered I hadn't called nursery to let them know he wasn't coming in.

However, I've just now realised they haven't called me either when he's not turned up. I think I thought it was like school where they'd call to find out if everything is okay. Should nurseries do this or have I got it wrong?

There is no legal requirement for a child to be in nursery as there is in school, so there's no legal motivation to call and ask where they are.

And an 18 month isn't going to wander off on their own (I hope) like a 9 year old might.

I think you should call them as a courtesy, but otherwise, no, I can't see the need.

No they shouldn't but you should call them. Hope kiddo feels better

It’s not something schools ‘should’ do, some of them do, some of them don’t. One of my dc’s school will generally phone twice, both times leaving voicemails (if I can’t answer) asking to let them know why they are off so they can put it down as an authorised absence instead of authorised. One of my other dc’s school will send a text out but not follow it up if you don’t text back. My third dc’s school rarely phone or anything. Unless your dc is off for a fairly long period with no contact or explanation, there’s nothing really to follow up.

• instead of unauthorised

No. You don't need to tell them though it would be polite. They don't need to chase you up.

As a one off no, but if they don't hear from you after a few days they might. Just to check your welfare. As a cm I would send a text to check all was well.

My LOs nursery gets in touch if not there by 10am.

Thanks everyone, I did call them when I remembered but he should have been there for a couple of hours by that point.

There's no requirement to, but DS's did, more as a general welfare check than anything else. About that time there was a case in the news about a young boy who had starved to death after his mother had died suddenly and as school hadn't checked his dad (who was away on business) was unaware until it was too late.

I thought it was now compulsory for nursery to check unexpected absence because of this case, plus another one in Scotland with a 3 yo whose mother died.

I think schools are required to do this from a safeguarding point of view, and I’m surprised nurseries aren’t required to as well. What if the parents had died in the night? The child not turning up to school/nursery might be the first sign something was amiss and the alarm might be raised. Not sure if my school is over cautious with this but I thought it was a legal requirement to chase up absence for this reason.

@modgepodge I think that was my thinking, if God forbid something happened on my way to nursery then it would be found out fairly quickly as they'd enquire where we were.

I think you're getting confused between school, where there is a legal requirement to be there, and nursery where there isn't.

That's why you didn't get a phone call.

Our nursery does contact us, as above I thought it was a safeguarding thing. Maybe it's best practice rather than required.

I'm a retired nursery manager, it's good practice for safeguarding to contact the parents if a child isn't at nursery due to unexplained absence. I always rang if not notified by 10am. I can't remember if it's a requirement.

It’s not as if they child could have gone missing on the way, nursery age children don’t make their own way to nursery.

It’s on you to let them know that your child will not be there.

Hmm, no reason for them to contact you. YOu should have contacted them though, for their planning and ratios, etc

The nursery I work in we contact parents to make a welfare call if we don't hear from the family.

However if I'm off sick, no one else does it. I'm assuming if I was off for more than a day or two someone would make the calls.

We always send an email before 7am if our daughter is off for the day. Once it was missed and we got an email at 9am asking where she was and if everything was OK.