Parents take 2 hours to collect sick child

[KatieFS]

Yesterday sent child home as temp not herself not eating etc
But concern is they took nearly 3 hours to get here as parents work in London (I'm in Surrey).
It was fine baby slept and was ok.
But where does this leave me if a child needs to go to hospital? My policy advises I will call parents to collect if non urgent. I will call ambulance for emergencies. In the scenario where parent takes a long time do I wait there with their child and the others until they collect
Some days I have 3 ey and 4 older children. How will I manage this?
Any pearls of wisdom

[ktdg85]

In my policies I state that if my own or any other child has to go to hospital in emergencies I will leave all other children with a person I deem to be suitable, ie. my mum or another childminder and all parents sign to say they agree to all my policies. The priority would be a very very ill child and I'm sure most parents would want their child to be with someone they are comfortable with in an emergency?!

[dawn100]

Is there anyone else who the parents put in as a contact who is local to you eg one of my parents has the dads sister incase they are working further away another has a close friend, obviously I would call parents first but then I could contact the closer person for quicker pick up.

[hectors house]

I have in my emergency policy details of several childminders who I could call in an emergency ie: if child had accident or was very ill and needed to go to hospital - if none of these childminders could come to my house to wait until other childrens parents arrived then my policy states that I can leave the children in my house with a neighbour (someone I would trust my own children with). Either I would phone all the other parents while waiting for emergency childminder to arrive or other childminder could ring them as I would give them my contact sheet.

My husband also has contact numbers locked in his briefcase at work in case I had an accident in my car - I have a sign in car informing people that I am a childminder and it gives my husbands name and work number so he can contact parents.

I would ask parents working far away to give you an emergency number of someone who lives or works far closer.

[rickysmiths]

This is why we are required to have two other emergency contacts for the child and I always ask for them to be close especially if it is going to take the parent more than an hour to get home. I would have to let the child go in the ambulance if it was a dire emergency and arrange emergency cover for the others and follow on. If the parents could not get home quick then I would call the nearest contact and ask them to go to the hospital with the child.

If the child is sick with me then I have to cll the nearer contact or know that it is going to take the parent x time to get to me and deal with it.

[KatieFS]

Ah well I only have one contact currently so think in circumstances better review this.
I was just rather concerned how long it would take for them to see a poorly child. There are no other family close by. I've left it with them as feel they need to have a contact who could reach within the hour. Is this unreasonable?

[rickysmiths]

Ah well I only have one contact currently so think in circumstances better review this.
I was just rather concerned how long it would take for them to see a poorly child. There are no other family close by. I've left it with them as feel they need to have a contact who could reach within the hour. Is this unreasonable?

You are supposed to have at least two. There is now space for two on all the Pacey Contracts etc.

[Chatterbox Childcare]

You really should get an emergency procedure in place and that would include what you are asking. You would need to have emergency cover yourself, other childminders etc who would hold the childrens details. If I had an emergency I have another childminder who has all my record information sheets in a sealed envelope and could open then and take over for me, contact all the parents etc to collect.

I had to use this once when I was stuck in Egypt and it worked, everyone was happy and no one was let down :)

[tashaleee]

You are supposed to have at least two. There is now space for two on all the Pacey Contracts etc.

Problem I have found is parents often move into my area because its a nice area, then commute out to work - or they are medical and therefore move around a lot so live centrally as they move work placements every 6 months or so... because of this family often live 2 plus hours away from me as well... sometimes its simply not possible to have a local contact and even if they name a friend, then the friend often has their own children so technically is not much use if the emergency involves a hospital visit :(