collecting children

[CAZMCA]

what is the minimum age of someone collecting a child in your care please? is it 16 or 18? x thanks x

[Mouse]

I don't think there is a legal minimum age, but if the child collecting is under 16yrs old, the parents remain responsible for the younger child.

That doesn't mean you can't set your own limit though.

[CAZMCA]

hmmmmm interesting, i know the school ask if a person is over 16 years to collect from there, what would you recommend? x

[Mouse]

The problem is setting an age, saying no one under 16 or 18 can collect a child, is if it's a very young parent who is younger than that. The policy would stop them collecting their own child!

I tend to consider each case individually. I think about the age of the child being collected, the age of the person collecting, whether they often look after the younger child or whether they've never done it before, how long will they be alone with the child etc. Some 14 year olds, for example, will often look after a younger sibling, so it seems reasonable enough for them to collect the mindee & take them home.

Luckily, apart from once, the only times it's happened for me I've been happy to let the mindee go as I've known the young person already.

The time I wasn't happy about it was when I was dropping a mindee home. He had some severe behavioural problems and his 14yr old brother who was at home to look after him was asleep in bed when I got there. I chatted to his brother, who seemed clueless & said he'd just leave mindee to do what he wanted. He admitted he really didn't want to look after mindee, so I took him back home with me & phoned mum to tell her.

[CAZMCA]

thanks hun i think i will just leave it to set dependent on age of parent etc x