Uncollected Child Policy

Our Policy:

If a child is not collected by an authorized adult at the end of a football session or holiday camp, the company puts into practice agreed procedures. These ensure the child is cared for safely by a qualified coach who is known to the child. We will ensure that the child receives a high standard of care to cause as little distress as possible. We inform parents/carers of our procedures so that, if they are unavoidably delayed, they will be reassured that their children will be properly cared for.

Parents of children starting at Zico Football coaching whether this be a small group session or camp are asked to provide the following specific information. Contact number, Emergency contact number, Details of who has parental responsibility for the child. It so up to the parent responsible for the child to give Zico Football Coaching the Information about any person who does not have legal access to the child. If parents or carers are aware that they will not be at home or in their usual place of work and do not have a mobile phone, they should inform us in writing/email of how they can be contacted. On occasions when the parent/carer or the person normally authorized to collect the child is not able to collect the child, they should provide us with written details of the address and telephone number of the person who will be collecting their child.

We will agree with parents on how to verify the identity of the person who is to collect their child. If, for any reason, a parent or carer is unable to collect the child as planned, they must inform Zico Football Coaching as soon as possible of how their child will be collected.

If a child is not collected by an authorized adult within half an hour after the session has closed, coaches will apply our child protection procedures as set out in our safeguarding policy. If a child is not collected at the end of the session/day, the following procedures will be implemented: If no new information is available, we will attempt to contact parents/carers using all contact numbers provided. If this is unsuccessful, we will attempt to contact those adults who are listed on the emergency contact number to collect their child from the setting.

All reasonable attempts will be made to contact the parents or nominated carers. If no-one collects the child after a further within 30 minutes of the end of the session and no-one can be contacted to collect the child, we will contact Guernsey’s Children Services. The child will stay in the care of two qualified coaches until the child is safely collected either by the parents or by a Social Care worker. Social Care will attempt to find the parent or relative. If they are unable to do so, the child will be looked after by the social care worker.

Coaches will not go to look for parents or take the children home with them. A full written report of the incident will be recorded and kept on file. Depending on circumstances, we reserve the right to charge parents for the additional hour’s children are cared for.