Child Attendance/Absence/Failure to collect and Punctuality Policy
Punctuality

Please attend all sessions on time. Children must not arrive early for sessions due to the strict staff to child ratios required by Ofsted. If you are early, please wait outside until your child’s start time.

Please let us know if you are going to be more than 5 minutes late for the start of your session. If you have not contacted us within 30 minutes of the start of your session, we will do our best to contact you, first by contacting parents/carers and then moving on to emergency contacts. If we cannot get in touch with you within an hour of the start of your session, we will do our best to contact emergency contacts to establish a reason for the child’s absence. If we are unable to establish a reason for absence, we may need to contact the local authority where we have reason to be concerned about the welfare of the child.

At Wild Monkeys Childcare Ltd, we endeavour to make sure that the children are ready and prepared to go home at the end of their session after completing all of their activities for the day. Please do not arrive more than 5 minutes early to collect your child unless you have arranged this with the manager, as this means that they may miss part of their activities and staff will not have got them ready for home time. If your child receives funding (see below), repeated early collection may result in your funding being reduced by the Early Years Education Entitlement (EYEE) team.

Please ensure that you pick your child up on time or call the Manager before the end of the session if you are going to be unavoidably late.

Late Collection/failure to collect child

Late collection causes additional overhead and costs for the nursery, and potentially unnecessary distress to the child. Even if there is only one child remaining at the nursery, they must be supervised by at least two members of staff, one of whom must be qualified. Late collection can therefore create significant expenses for the nursery.

We know that sometimes there may be circumstances beyond your control affecting prompt collection of your child. If you know you are going to be late, please contact the manager as soon as possible. All parents/carers will be given a five-minute grace period on late collection of their child. If your child has still not been collected five minutes after the session has ended, then we will charge £1 for every minute of lateness.

If you have not contacted us within 10 minutes of the expected collection time, we will make every effort to get in touch with you, first by contacting parents/carers, then by contacting emergency contacts. If more than 30 minutes have passed since the expected time, and we have not been able to get in touch with you or any of the emergency contacts, we will contact the local authority for advice on the next course of action. Ofsted will also be notified in line with government guidance.

Unreasonable and/or persistent lateness may result in your child’s place being terminated.

Absence
Please let us know in advance if you are planning to miss any sessions for activities or holidays or appointments so we can record this in our register.
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If your child is sick or cannot attend for some reason, please call or text the Manager by 30 minutes into the session to let us know.

If we have not heard from you within 30 minutes into the session, we will contact you to establish why your child is absent.
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If we cannot make contact with a parent/carer we will use all the contact details and the emergency contacts you have given us to try to establish why your child is absent.

If we are concerned about the welfare of a child, we reserve the right to contact social services.

Fees remain payable during periods of absence, unless alternative arrangements have been agreed.

Repeated absence may result in a loss of EYEE funding and subsequent reduction in the sessions your child is entitled to.

Contact number - 07818505469

Early Years Education Entitlement

All 3- and 4-year-olds and some 9 months + are eligible for a funded nursery place. To claim the funding, parents are required to bring their children to the sessions agreed on sign up. By law, the attendance and punctuality of children who are in receipt of the EYEE funding is required to be monitored in order to keep their funding.

If a child regularly does not attend for the hours claimed on the parental agreement, this will be reviewed by Wild Monkeys Childcare Ltd. and the parents/carers. If your child’s attendance (which includes lateness and early collection) falls below 75% then we will send you a letter of concern. If the attendance does not improve by the end of a funding period, the hours claimed in the next funding period will be reduced to reflect the hours the child is likely to attend, potentially resulting in a loss of some or all of your child’s entitlement.
Policy Last Reviewed: September 2025
Policy Review Date: September  2026