Minimum age a person can pick up from nursery

[AnonyMouse_41935]

Does anyone know whether there is a legal minimum age a person can pick up a child from Nursery, we have recently had an older sibling who is 16 come to pick up her younger brother, this was a one off and all the relevant checks were carried out.

Any advice would be gratefully received as i don't seem to be able to find much information.

[AnonyMouse_79]

I would have thought 16 was acceptable. My first thoughts were 14 but I don't know if there is a legal minimum age.

[AnonyMouse_7120]

there's no law to say how old a babysitter needs to be...but we have 16 years in our policy.

[AnonyMouse_15046]

There isn't a legal minimum age and some children under sixteen can also be parents.

I would have and record a conversation with the parents regarding whether the child is safe with someone younger than 16 so that I could show Ofsted that I had taken reasonable steps towards safeguarding the child I was handing over.

I would treat over sixteens as adults.

[AnonyMouse_41935]

Thank you all for your help.

 

We in the past have had a parent whose child attended the setting who was under sixteen, this was what made me wonder.

Think its a discussion we need to have with our parents/carers and write into our policies.

[AnonyMouse_5970]

Yesterday I was asked if a 10 year old could collect a three year old! They are both Looked After Children! You can guess what my answer was.

[AnonyMouse_31531]

We always say 16 as well but have never had an issue with anyone picking up. In a pharmacy you can pick up an adults prescription for them if you are over 16 so it must be a common cut off point and a general age that most policies are comfortable with. However I guess there can be a level of discretion for a slightly younger teenager if it felt they are responsible and the parents are happy with it. As Upsy Daisy said perhaps a record of conversation to cover yourself?

[AnonyMouse_39602]

ours is 18

[AnonyMouse_7356]

What about if the parent is under 18 though? (Not an issue at present but was something me and colleague were thinking about a few weeks back)

[AnonyMouse_8422]

We have a parent who is under 16. We amended our policy wording to say a child may only be collected by an adult (over 18) or by a parent / legal guardian. We think that covers the situation.

[AnonyMouse_42895]

Our policy says nobody under the age of 16. Obviously if a Parent of a child was under 16 that would be acceptable, it's a good idea to write it into the policy as a child may only be picked up by someone over the age of .... or by a parent/carer.

[AnonyMouse_30128]

do schools have a policy about this? i've seen loads of siblings pick up from our local one.