At Hopscotch Holiday Club whilst the health and safety and wellbeing of all our children is paramount, it is important to have a clear contingency plan in place for if a child should ever be lost. The scenarios where this could feasibly happen are:
- Where a child becomes lost on an outing
- Where a child becomes lost or goes missing from the school building or garden
- Where a child is forcibly taken from the setting by an unapproved adult
In such a scenario the following steps should be followed:
- Immediately alert the holiday club management team who will try to ascertain when the child was last seen and where
- Remember the safety of other children with regard to supervision and security
- Whilst ensuring that the remaining children are sufficiently supervised and secure, one or more members of staff should search the building, garden and immediate vicinity, as appropriate
- Notify Hopscotch Head Office to discuss any further action
- If the child cannot be found within 15 minutes then the Police and parents and any other relevant organisations must be informed
- The holiday club staff should continue to search, widening the area, whilst also ensuring the safety of the setting is not compromised.