Advice needed on schools policy on missing childrennot being followed

[SammieJP]

Hi all, this is my first time writing so I am unsure if I have put this in the right section, apologies if I have. Apologies also for this being quite long.
I am looking for some advice on what I should do and who to complain to about my son's school not following their own procedures set out in their policy for missing children.
I'll try to keep it short but this is what happened.
About a month ago I had arranged for my friend to pick my son up from school for me (we have done this countless times between us). When it come to collecting him, he came out to her and said he would wait by the tree (always does this) while her daughter comes out. In the time of him saying that and her daughter coming out they have lost track of each other. My friend then goes searching for him, shouting his name and asking teachers if they had seen him. After 5 minutes of looking for him she then goes to the school reception to report him missing, one teacher checks his classroom and says he's not in there and does absolutely nothing else. To cut it short he was found by my brother 45 minutes later safe and well walking to his nannas, which is where he was originally going to be dropped off. The following school day I spoke to his teacher and the schools safe guarding teacher to inform them of what had happened and ask why the school did nothing to help seeing as he was still on school grounds when he went missing. They were appalled that any of the staff that my friend spoke to never informed them he was missing, they informed me of their policy and pointed out that not one of the teachers followed it. Whilst I am having the conversation with these 2 teachers another child is reported missing and I witness them follow the procedures to the letter! Anyway I rambling, the conversation ended with them saying they will investigate what happened and why the proper procedures weren't followed. They would then let me know the outcome of the investigation and they would be speaking to all children in assembly to tell them to come back into school if they cannot find who they are supposed to go home with.
I hadn't heard anything from either of them for 2 weeks following this incident so I spoke to my son's teacher last week, she informed me that she has heard nothing from the safe guarding teacher and nothing has been said to the rest of the school in assembly, she said she would speak to her and get back to me.
Yesterday was the last day of term and I've heard absolutely nothing, I've not even seen his teacher to able to speak to her since our last chat.
Normally the school is very good with communication and I'm getting the feeling that they think I'll just let it go, I don't want to let it go because if this happens to another child and procedures aren't followed again then the outcome could be very different!
I'm just not sure on what I do next, on the schools complaints procedure online it says to write to the schools head teacher, the head teacher is currently off sick and it is the safe guarding teacher that is acting head teacher. I can't very well write to her to complain about her so I'm unsure on who I write/speak to next seeing as schools now finished for 6 weeks.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Have you questioned your friend on why she did what she did yet, op?
What explanation does she have for taking him out of the care of his teachers and then immediately leaving him alone in the playground, apparently on his own say so?
If you’re aware she was doing this then you’re as negligent as she is.

The premises would be checked to ensure the child hadn't returned, to use the toilet or collect something they had forgotten or because they were lost.
Our standard instruction is to come back to school if your grownup isn't there.
I'm assuming from some posts that people think that the teachers day ends when children leave, but many members of staff will be supervising after school activities and/or pupils who haven't been picked up. Unless you know all the facts you can't judge.
But an inescapable fact is the OPs friend collected the child then allowed him to wander off unsupervised and the child took it upon themselves to walk to a grandparents home. The OP needs a more reliable friend and a long chat with their child on the dangers of wandering off.

would you really not help because your duty of care ended when they were collected?
I would absolutely help look for the child.

I would be if it was suggested that I had failed as a member of staff because someone's friend couldn't keep tabs on thr child they were meant ti be collecting.

No candy. The child was on the premises but had been dismissed to the friend. This does put more emphasis on the school because he wandered off from their premises and their policy covers this possibility and what should happen. What other schools do is irrelevant. Therefore help to find the child was a reasonable expectation.

Of course it would be a lot better if the DS had accompanied the friend to collect her child. This is better than leaving him anywhere and is obviously the way forward.

But he wandered off their premises having been handed over to a responsible (or so they imagined) adult.
At what point did the person collecting him assume responsibility, if not then?
She was a bloody clown to wander off herself at that point.

Have you read the school's policy BubblesBuddy? It might help if you directed the rest of us to it.

You aren’t very good at explaining yourself. You must be a shit teacher

Certainly, I absolutely must if some random aggresssive poster turns up on the primary boards and says so.

Meanwhile, in this universe, i’m just going to direct you towards all the comments made by all the other posters who are making similar points and ignore such idiocy.

The op said they didn’t follow their policy. Obviously I have not read it but I have to believe the op since none of us know any better. There certainly are school policies that cover children being “lost” when on school premises but not directly under the control of a teacher. Not all schools have them but some do and there are now “grey areas” in that children go to after school clubs and other activities are not dismissed and collected in a standard way at all. It is common sense for everyone to help and not be overly concerned about how it happened until the child was found. Clearly DS should have stayed put but he’s a child! They are not the finished article as far as common sense is concerned. As I said above, the responsible adult should have kept him with her but none of that stops a school taking the missing child situation seriously. It would be interesting to see if the harder lines taken in posts actually stood up if it was tested in court should something awful have happened. He could have been removed from the school premises by someone not authorised to be there. What would the school have said then? I think it would be very poor for a school to say they didn’t really bother to help when they were informed a child was missing even if he had been dismissed.

"there are now “grey areas” in that children go to after school clubs and other activities are not dismissed and collected in a standard way" fortunately in the OPs case it isn't a grey area as the child was dismissed to the person designated to collect him.
"but I have to believe the op "
I'm afraid I'm very sceptical that anyone in the school would tell the OP that the policy hadn't been followed prior to a full investigation.

He could have been removed from the school premises by someone not authorised to be there
But isn’t this why they don’t just open the doors and turn them loose?
They hand the children over to an authorised person; if the fool in question immediately abandons the child and walks off, what are the school to do about it?
How would they know, how could they legislate for it?
The person op asked to collect her child is an imbecile of the highest order, and op should be concentrating on that instead of badgering the school for it’s “policies”, which will cover no such eventuality.

Teach your son to do as he is told. If he'd waited at the tree there wouldn't have been an issue. To try to blame the school for this is laughable. Get a fucking grip