Guest Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 Does anyone have a violence against staff members policy? and where legally do we stand with barring parents from the setting? This hasn't happened yet, but we have a current mum that is well known to professionals in the town who is prone to 'kicking off' and has been barred from the local sure start centre twice for abusive behaviour towards staff. We have a partnership meeting on Monday with the parents, HV, Sure start, Play therapist, Ed Pshyc, possibly Social services and SENCO we are hoping. I am worried she will start whilst in the setting. If she does start on staff can we barr her but not her child? (dad mostly brings him and collects) or is there something in EYFS that can stop us doing this? Any help appreciated. Debs
AnonyMouse_19762 Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 Does she have recognised mental health problems? Sunnyday
Guest Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 Does she have recognised mental health problems? Sunnyday Yes there are mental health issues
AnonyMouse_3307 Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 Schools can effectively ban a person from the premises in cases where they are violent or abusive towards staff although there are procedures that have to be gone through. It's so long since I've had to think about this that I've forgotten!! We were told that if someone was excessively and uncontrollably aggressive/ violent then you call the police and let them deal with with the situation. Cx
Guest Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 Schools can effectively ban a person from the premises in cases where they are violent or abusive towards staff although there are procedures that have to be gone through. It's so long since I've had to think about this that I've forgotten!! We were told that if someone was excessively and uncontrollably aggressive/ violent then you call the police and let them deal with with the situation. Cx Ok But we are a pre-school and we dont have the same privildges as a school we were told we cannot expel a child for biting or violence but a school can cos they have ways and means of getting round things. Will this be the same in the case of a parent? Sorry to sound odd but schools seem to get away with a lot more than we can! lol
Guest Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 I am not sure that is correct because it depends on your policy I do not have policy for abusive parents never thought about it but i certainly would not accept any behaviour that threatened my staff children or other parents. At the end of the day everyone within the setting needs to feel safe and i feel that i would be failing in my duty of care to accept abusive or violent behaviour directed at us If you are unsure of this then try calling Ofsted and see what there thoughts are. I had a whizz through the eyfs guidance and could not see any mention of it but it was a quickie so to speak
AnonyMouse_19920 Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 sure i read something on here about banning abusive parents - look through the policies might find comething there
Guest Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 What you could do, and we did when worked in a mainstream school, was to ban parent from premises. That way you would still include the child fully but mum would not be able to come on to the premises and would have to make alternative arrangements to drop off/pick up. This would probably not be a problem for you if as you say dad does most of these anyway. This can be enforced by police if necessary, but usually a stern letter does the trick we found. Of course each case is different though. we also found that a lot of outreach work, ie. homevisits worked when trying to reintegrate parents who had had problems. Are you on a school site, if so talk to school as presumably this could be an issue right through school so it would be in schools interests to lay down some ground rules now even if its not officially their problem yet. Zoe xxx
Guest janetcollins Posted May 11, 2009 Posted May 11, 2009 Ok But we are a pre-school and we dont have the same privildges as a school we were told we cannot expel a child for biting or violence but a school can cos they have ways and means of getting round things. Will this be the same in the case of a parent? Sorry to sound odd but schools seem to get away with a lot more than we can! lol Hi sorry but I have only just registered with the forum. You say you can not 'expel' a child for biting or violence but a school can. I have to say that if you have a child who is continually being violent and all attempts to follow a behaviour manangement plan are not successful then if the child concerns continues to be violent then you have to also remember all children within your setting. The childrens Act 1989 states that 'all children are paramount'. That includes the children whom may be getting hurt and therefore you have to do a risk assessment and if it means that you are putting the wellbeing and safety of the other children in your setting in front of any risk then you are doing your job even if it means telling a parent or carer that there child is unable to attend your pre school anymore. I would be inclined to say that the same would go for the parent. You may risk loosing the child whose parent you do not wish to have in the setting but you do have to do a risk assessment of this person's behaviour and to weigh all evidence to come to your dicission. Hope this helps. I always put in front of anything that a child is paramount and to me this means their wellbeing and safety which should also include their peace of mind.
Guest Posted May 13, 2009 Posted May 13, 2009 I agree with you janetcollins we would not tolerate behaviuor like this having explored all options first of course then i dont see you have any option but to ban, paramount is the well being of all children and staff
AnonyMouse_1195 Posted May 13, 2009 Posted May 13, 2009 If you have an abusive person on the premises, whether you are a school or not, you can ask them to leave. If they wont and their behaviour continues, then you call the Police, who will remove them from the premises. A school would only do he same, in fact anyone would do the same, shop, pub, hospital, bus etc. You cannot force them off the premises without getting into bother yourselves. They are using threatening behaviour and that is an offence. Obviously no-one ever wants to get to that point, but unfortunately these things do happen. The safety of the children and staff is paramount. Schools can't just expel children for biting or bad behaviour, there are lots of procedures to go through, and with young children this very very rarely happens, it is far more likely that a behaviour plan would be put in place, Early Years Action or School Action, to address the child's needs.
AnonyMouse_1195 Posted May 13, 2009 Posted May 13, 2009 There is a discussion here if it is any help.
Guest Posted June 4, 2009 Posted June 4, 2009 THanks for all of your replies - further to this the child in question this week bit a staff members 3 times with the third time drawing blood and leaving a bruise larger than the size of a 50pence piece!. We sent him home this week as we just felt unable to cope with him he spent 45 minutes continually attacking children and staff members. I have spoken to my SENCO who has said that no we shouldnt have sent him home as we have to remember the underlying issues. SENCO have actually advised one of my staff members NOT to write down when other children are hurt by him even though we have had OFSTED in in the past telling us off for doing this and saying we have a duty to protect ALL children and not just him which I fully agree with. I finally got onto my community development officer who has written an email to SENCO saying that as a setting we feel that we are unable to meet his needs even though there is now extra money in place for support and we either need further closer support for him or to consider whether another nursery or pre-school may better meet his needs. We might finally be getting somewhere I just know that even with 5 staff members in we still cannot manage his behaviour. Absolutely nothing triggers the biting and this has been seen and noted by the EP, so there is no way of anticipating when it is going to happen and effectively saving other children or ourselves! We shall wait and see!
AnonyMouse_13453 Posted June 4, 2009 Posted June 4, 2009 Goodness - yes. We seem to have a 'flush' of biters at the moment on here! Luckily only ever had one and the child he bit screamed so loudly right in his face that he never did it again!
Recommended Posts