Guest Posted September 18, 2010 Share Posted September 18, 2010 Help. Does anyone know if there is a legal minimum age for a minor to bring and collect a nursery aged child to school. The parents of one of our 3 year olds are insisting that their 14 year old daughter can collect her sister. (Regardless of the fact she herself should be at school). I believed that there was a rule or policy of 16 or 18. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_13453 Posted September 18, 2010 Share Posted September 18, 2010 Yes, it's 16 I believe. I'll check our PSLA policy but I'm sure that's what it says Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_11396 Posted September 18, 2010 Share Posted September 18, 2010 It states in our policy documents that no person under the age of 16 is allowed to collect a child in our care. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_1027 Posted September 18, 2010 Share Posted September 18, 2010 im pretty sure its 16 also Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 18, 2010 Share Posted September 18, 2010 In my school it must be someone over 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 18, 2010 Share Posted September 18, 2010 Hi, why not tell parents that government guidelines mean you would have to inform the school's educational welfare officer? That might put them off without them feeling it is you being awkward (not that you are being awkward but you know how parents can be). Explain that if you allowed it to happen you would be effectively condoning truancy. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_73 Posted September 18, 2010 Share Posted September 18, 2010 We also had the over 16 rule, but parents do have the right to insist that their 11 year old (or whatever) collects, and we could never actually legally stop them. All we could do was ask them to sign a declaration so that we weren't held responsible in the event of anything that might happen along the way. An awful lot depends also on the school community, location, distance home and difficulty of journey, maturity of child(ren) etc, its very difficult to make a blanket age decision. Also there are a significant number of children in the UK who are child carers (young carers) and these have often been allowed to collect siblings because their parents are unable to. I don't think there is actually a legal requirement on this, although Id be interested to see it if there is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_8466 Posted September 18, 2010 Share Posted September 18, 2010 I don't think there is actually a legal requirement on this, although Id be interested to see it if there is. I think you're right mundia - its a bit like the minimum age for a child to be left alone. It is up to the parent to decide whether their child is mature enough to cope in an emergency. I think this is a tricky area, altogether. There might be many reasons for the under 16 year old to be out of school, and a blanket ban on under 16s collecting children might exclude parents collecting their own children in certain circumstances. I think maybe this is one policy that needs to be decided on a 'per case' basis. Maz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_13453 Posted September 18, 2010 Share Posted September 18, 2010 They may not be 'out of school' of course, they could be collecting a sibling on their way home from school, possibly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_8457 Posted September 18, 2010 Share Posted September 18, 2010 Our setting also has an over 16 policy but I did ask if it was OK for my 15 year old to collect her 7 year old sister from school if I was still at a meeting once... However as said ^^^ the elder one would have been on her way home from school and the younger one was finishing later as she had an after school club As it happened she didn't need to but the teacher said to me that if I was happy with the arrangement so was she... Just to play devil's advocate here.... what if the mum/dad was under 16? Not unheard of... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_9650 Posted September 19, 2010 Share Posted September 19, 2010 Our policy is that no one under 18 can collect unless they have parental responsibility - that way you are not discriminating against your teenage parents! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_8623 Posted September 19, 2010 Share Posted September 19, 2010 Our policy has always been for over 16's to collect. The comments by some previous posters have made me think and I'll be bringing them up at next staff meeting. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_20748 Posted September 19, 2010 Share Posted September 19, 2010 Its 16 I believe however I think a parent under 16 can still colect Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_3139 Posted September 19, 2010 Share Posted September 19, 2010 I'm with mundia and Maz, we looked into it some years ago. All I found was that if a aprent gave responsibility to a child under 16 for younger children i.e. babaysitting, if something went worng the parent would be held responsible, over 16 year old and they would be held responsible. Nothing in law stopping an under 16 being in charge. This might be of use.. Ask the police Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_3735 Posted September 19, 2010 Share Posted September 19, 2010 we had a form which parents had to fill in and sign... it contained things like the name of the sibling collecting ( amazing how many times they used to send a friend to collect!) that parent gave permission for them to collect xxx and that once collected it was parents responsibility should anything happen.. we could not be held responsible... it was usually someone collecting on way home from school as we had a local secondary school that finished early so they could collect on way home... particularly when mum had another younger one at home. we decided on a form to complete rather than the parent supply a letter as it was one way of reminding them of the responsibility being handed over at collection point and getting a name of who was collecting.. Inge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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