Calpol in permissions

Hello Everyone! :)

Ive been doing this for the past few months tell me what you think as i am due my inspection soon and i dont want it to be wrong.

In my non prescribed medications permissions form. After they have said yes or no to sunscreen and teething gel and anything they provide themselves I have a paragraph that basically says.

I will keep the Infant Paracetamol called CALPOL(sugar free version) on my premises for sudden onset of pain or fever or to support a child in pain while parents or emergency services are en route. I will only ever administer this with prior consent by way of a message or phone call. In the event of not being able to contact parents then I will call NHS 111 or 999 (depending upon the emergency of the situation) or the child’s GP and follow their advice.

If you choose to answer YES to this permission you are also confirming that your child has taken this exact medication before. This is to avoid allergic reactions at my setting.


I had a child with a high temp once that i had picked up from preschool and parents were an hour away, Emergency contacts unavailable. I felt helpless because at the time I was NOT admistering calpol. I have basically got this in there in absolute dire situations like this one where the kid needed some help.

I still continue to get signatures on pickup with dosage and times etc.

Just wondering what all your views are on this.

Thanks

AFAICS the wording complies with EYFS.

Ofsted used to have a guidance document on over-the-counter medicines which was more detailed and more strict than EYFS. That document appears to have been withdrawn and not replaced. What concerns me is that sort of th8ng tends to stay in an inspector's mind when it comes to the way they 'interpret' the regulations. I don’t think your consent document would have complied with that particular guidance, which makes me think there are inspectors out there who would have an issue with it.

You’d need your legal team to check it too.

At a day-to-day level, are you making it too easy for parents? You may mean the paracetamol is there for "absolute dire situations" only, but I suspect many parents will look at it very differently. They may well see it as you being equipped and ready to get a child through the day when they shouldn’t be there. A lot use infant paracetamol as a sort of pick-me-up for the under-5's and will think you’ve giv3n 5hem licence to turn up with an unwell child.

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Originally Posted by mathremuk

Hello Everyone! :)

Ive been doing this for the past few months tell me what you think as i am due my inspection soon and i dont want it to be wrong.

In my non prescribed medications permissions form. After they have said yes or no to sunscreen and teething gel and anything they provide themselves I have a paragraph that basically says.

I will keep the Infant Paracetamol called CALPOL(sugar free version) on my premises for sudden onset of pain or fever or to support a child in pain while parents or emergency services are en route. I will only ever administer this with prior consent by way of a message or phone call. In the event of not being able to contact parents then I will call NHS 111 or 999 (depending upon the emergency of the situation) or the child’s GP and follow their advice.

If you choose to answer YES to this permission you are also confirming that your child has taken this exact medication before. This is to avoid allergic reactions at my setting.


I had a child with a high temp once that i had picked up from preschool and parents were an hour away, Emergency contacts unavailable. I felt helpless because at the time I was NOT admistering calpol. I have basically got this in there in absolute dire situations like this one where the kid needed some help.

I still continue to get signatures on pickup with dosage and times etc.

Just wondering what all your views are on this.

Thanks

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A high temp can be treated by gently cooling the child- removing excess clothes, cool damp cloth etc. No need to automatically reach for the drugs. If there is an underlying medical reason (possibly serious) for the high-temp medics may prefer you NOT to mask the symptoms with paracetamol. Also it masks pain that a medic might need to use to diagnose an injury.

I prefer not to give calpol unless absolutely necessary.so would not suggest parents leave a bottle at mine.if they are needing calpol should they really be with us?.

my children are older, and so I don't have calpol ' to hand '.

I ask all parents to give me a couple of signed/named/dated sachets of calpol, that I keep in a named tub. I won't give it just because parent says they need it to get through the day etc ... my response is ... if they need it to get through the day, then they need to be at home.

I have it for the very occasional time that a child is fine, then suddenly goes downhill, and I phone parents to say come and collect. depending how long till parents can get to me, determines if I give calpol (with permission). This would after I had removed clothing/cooled them down etc.

You will find a free sample Medication Permission form here - Free Childminder Paperwork - Childcare.co.uk.

It will give you some useful wording :D