Nursery Policies and Procedures

Firstly, it’s important to distinguish the difference between a policy and a procedure.  A policy is a written statement about how you will work in one area of your practice. A procedure details the actions you will take to carry out the policy.

The main policies and procedures you need to run a nursery all cover how you will keep most importantly children but also staff, parents and visitors safe.

9 Key Policies and Procedures

I will introduce 9 key policies and procedures needed to open a nursery in the UK.

1. The main policy around this is your safeguarding policy. This is the most important policy and should be robust.  It should state everything you will do to ensure children in your care are kept safe, whether during your nursery day or at home.  It can include information about Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), Prevent and E-Safety & Mobile Phones.  Or these can be addressed in a separate policy.

Other key policies include:

2. Equal Opportunities Policy – this policy sets out your commitment to fairness and lays down guidelines on how to deal with issues that contravene these guidelines includes your policy on racism, sexism and sexual harassment
3. Behaviour Management Policy – this policy covers how you manage behaviour in order to provide direction, consistency and fairness in behaviour management throughout your setting.  It should include how you will promote a partnership between staff, parents/guardians and yourself. 
4. Complaints Procedure – a clear complaints policy or procedure is a requirement of the EYFS. You should state the procedure you follow for handling complaints, to ensure they are handled fairly, consistently and wherever possible resolved to the complainant’s satisfaction.
5. Policies that cover keeping people and children safe – which can include
   1. Administration of medicine – this covers medication you have for children or medication that parents may provide. It describes how you will receive, store, and administer any medicine given by parents.
   2. Health and Safety Policy – this is a written statement that sets out how you as an employer ensures that the workplace is a safe environment to work in. This includes providing a safe place of work, safe access to work, safe systems of work, safe equipment, safe and competent fellow workers and protection from risks of injury
   3. Infection Control – this policy describes what measures you have in place to prevent the spread of infections. It can include how you manage Covid-19 and your sickness policy in terms of isolation periods for certain illnesses
   4. Risk assessment – this policy states how you aim to reduce risks and who will be responsible for risk assessments
   5. Fire Evacuation Policy – this details what you would do in the event of a fire, including your fire evacuation plan and frequency of your fire drills.
   6. Lockdown Procedure – this states the procedure you take should you need to go into lockdown and the circumstances you go into lockdown.  Lockdown involves keeping staff and children inside to protect them from threats like terrorism
   7. Accident and Incident Policy – this outlines the procedures your nursery, childminder or other setting has for recording, reporting and reducing incidents and accidents
6. Recruitment and Staffing Policies including:
   1. Safer Recruitment Policy – here you outline how you will recruit and induct staff, safely. Which must include getting two references and applying for a DBS for each member of staff. It should outline your company’s preferred hiring practices and aids consistency within your employee recruiting process.
   2. Equal Opportunities – this sets out your commitment to fairness and lays down guidelines on how to deal with issues that contravene these guidelines includes your policy on racism, sexism and sexual harassment. This goes beyond your recruitment and can include how you provide equal opportunities for children too.
   3. Whistleblowing Policy – this states a clear process for any employee to report any concerns about the nursery, childminder or other type of childcare setting
7. SEN Policy – this policy shows how you ensure all children have access to a broad and balanced curriculum, differentiated as appropriate to meet individual needs. Allowing all children to flourish regardless of their needs.  It should refer to and incorporate the statutory DfE SEN Code of Practice.
8. Parent Partnership Policy – this policy states how you will work in partnership with parents to help the children and the nursery develop
9. And finally, a policy covering your Curriculum is useful. This would state the aims and principles relating to your nursery or childminder curriculum and can include how you plan to achieve and implement it.