• Your child’s health:
    The single most important message we can give in relation to illness is honesty. Please inform us of any sickness, contagious disease or head lice as soon as you are aware. There is never any blame – simply an honest policy so that we can keep everyone informed, we will update childpaths with infection illness as they occur and you will receive a notification of same. Covid cases or head lice will be communicated via email/what’s app.
  • If your child requires a covid test – they must isolate whilst waiting on the results. They cannot come to creche until we have the negative result.
  • If your child does not feel well.
  • If your child has symptoms of diseases viral respiratory disease, even if they are mild, they must not attend creche. Likewise parents who have respiratory symptoms must not take their child to a setting or pick them up. Parents must not take their child to a childcare setting if a parent or anyone else in your home is suspected of having or known to have Covid-19. If your child becomes ill while attending a childcare setting, you must collect them as quickly as possible, contact your GP straight away and follow HSE advice
  • Isolation area – we will provide an area in the reception hall for isolation – or we can also isolate within the room if we can keep 2 meters from other children. The isolation area will contain, apron, gloves, surgical masks, nappy bags, goggles, tissues and a bin. All staff will have own visor if required they may use it if dealing with a sick child.
  • If your child has left the creche due to any of the signs of Covid -19 then the child can only return to creche when they are 48 hours free of symptoms and they are fit and healthy. This measure is purely during the Covid period, once this is gone we will resume to normal practice of 24hrs for a temperate and 48 hours for vomiting/diarrhoea as per our regular policies. You will be required to complete a questionnaire upon the child’s return.
  • Do not bring any toys from home.
    Children must not bring their own toys from home. You can bring a comfort toy that helps your child to fall asleep. However, it is more important than ever that this toy is not shared with other children. It may be useful to provide a duplicate comfort toy to the setting where possible.
  • We have been working hard to implement all of the public health guidelines. Staff have been trained and inducted in the necessary changes. We will try to minimise and manage risk of infection. Some risk is inevitable but public health advice is that reopening is appropriate. We will maintain a high standard of infection control with your help. It is important that children with a temperature or any other symptoms of illness do not attend the service. We will not be checking the temperatures of the children or the staff upon arrival. We request that you wash your hands and your child’s hands before you leave home every day. We will support children to wash their hands upon arrival each day. We will provide alcohol hand sanitizer 70% alcohol for the adults and alcohol free for the children, children will only use hand sanitizer when there is no sink available.
  • If a child/staff member in the service is displaying symptoms of COVID-19 arrangements will be made for them to leave/be collected from the service immediately. They or their parents/guardians should be advised to contact their doctor.
  • Again – If your child has left the creche due to any of the signs of Covid -19 then the child can only return to creche when they are 48 hours free of symptoms and they are fit and healthy.
  • Infectious Illness:
    If a child develops an Infectious illness parents are asked to inform Bumble Bees of the nature of the illness and to keep the child at home for the duration of the infectious period for the protection of the other children and staff. This may require a clearance note from your Doctor especially if the illness was contagious. Some infectious illnesses will need to be reported to Tusla (eg. RSV)
  • Hand Hygiene:
    Parents must wash their hand and their children’s hands before leaving home, then once they arrive at the creche the adults can use the hand sanitizer available at all entry points. We will also provide non-alcohol sanitizer for children. We will endeavour to wash with soap and water mainly. Children will then be asked to wash their hands regularly throughout the day, esp after using the toilet, before eating, after playing outside, coughing or sneezing etc.
  • Infectious illness notification:
    All infectious illness will be reported on Childpaths.
  • Head Lice:
    If we notice eggs or lice in the child’s hair while at creche, the parents will be called immediately to collect the child. Parents will be given advice on how to treat the lice. Once treated the child can return to creche. It’s recommended that the child is checked 3 times over the following 10 days with a fine-tooth comb, wet the hair and apply loads of inexpensive conditioner, comb thoroughly checking for eggs/lice. Re-treat if necessary following the advice of pharmacist (usually 7 days later). Parents are asked to inform us if they have discovered and treated the lice at home so that we can send a memo to the other families.
  • Sickness
    If a child becomes ill while attending the crèche, parents will be called immediately. We will only call for a child to be picked up if we feel there is no alternative and therefore it is the parent’s responsibility to arrive as soon as possible. In this instance we recommend having other contacts on your registration form so that you have back up for collection. We understand that it may not be convenient to pick children up with little notice but we have a duty to your child, and the rest of the children and staff in our care to protect than in so far as is possible from the spread of infection.
  • Exclusion due to illness:
    A child will be excluded from the services for any of the following symptoms: Diarrhoea, vomiting, (48 hours from last episode) a fever of 101°C/38°F (24 hours back to normal, 48 hours during Covid period) or above, or with any communicable disease i.e.: chicken pox (scabs must be dried up no visible spots), measles, hepatitis, mumps, meningitis, conjunctivitis (24 hours after treatment started) ,Head lice (until treated). (Please enquire in relation to separate exclusion periods) A full day out following the day a child has been prescribed an antibiotic is needed before returning to the crèche. There are few exceptions to this rule and should be discussed with management, return will always be based on the best interest of the child/children.
  • Administration of medicine:
    This requires great care and responsibility that we take very seriously. On registration you will be asked to sign your permission for a senior staff member to administer Calpol (Paracetamol) in the case of pain or high temperature in the child. In a case where a child requires specialist medication for instance in a diabetic or asthmatic, the procedure will need to be discussed and agreed upon on registration, depending on the severity of the condition management will make the decision whether or not we can administer this type of medication. Any child with a Doctors diagnosis of Asthma must bring their inhaler every day to creche – they will not be allowed to attend without it. In the case of self-administration of medication in an older child (afterschool) we will require written parental request, staff will witness the self-medication and record it on the child’s medical record. We will request that any medicines to be administered at Bumble Bees are stored in our cabinet/fridge out of reach of other children and returned when the child is going home.

    Medicine Protocol:
    Here are the steps followed to ensure the safe administration of medicine.

  • You will receive a call from a senior staff member if we feel Calpol is required by the child before we administer it
  • A senior staff member will administer the medicine. The dosage, time, staff signage x 2 will be recorded on the child’s personal medicine form on Childpaths (medical administration form). The child will be monitored closely and another call to parents will be made if no improvement is noted
  • If parents require staff at crèche to administer medicine, the details of such need to be filled in by the parent on Childpaths (medical consent form), the medicine must be clearly labelled and preferably in a zip lock bag. Please inform staff if it requires refrigeration. It’s a good idea to use a disposable syringe at home (chemist will give you these) and fill with the exact dose and just send that in each day in the zip-lock bag.
  • We can administer most over the counter medications with signed permission – however if prescribed from a Doctor the label must clearly have the child’s name on it (ie not for another family member).
  • The first dosage of any medicine must be given at home for the first 24 hours. We will never administer the first dose of either a prescribed medicine or one that the child has not had before.
  • Any medicine that reaches is use by date will be returned to the family to dispose of it.
  • Control of infection – Hand Washing Policy (Staff procedure)
    Hand washing is known to be the single best method of preventing spread of infection. Hands should be washed for 15-20 seconds if doing so effectively. Hands must be dried with paper towel provided.
    Staff will wash hands;
  • Before and after nappy changes
  • Before and after assisting child to toilet
  • Before feeding a baby/child
  • After blowing nose/sneezing or smoking
  • After cleaning a child’s nose
  • After using toilet
  • Before administering medicine
  • Before and after preparing or eating food
  • After contact with any bodily fluid, I.E urine, blood etc.

As we do not have sinks in every room, it may not be possible to leave to wash hands, in this case staff use disinfectant hand wash until they can wash hands thoroughly. There are 3 hand sanitizer points for your use, front and back door and at top of stairs and hand sanitizer in all rooms.

Staff who have symptoms of gastrointestinal abdominal pain, diarrhoea or vomiting should not attend work until symptoms are clear for 48 hours.