Failure to collect a child from the Centre

In the instance where a child has not been collected from the Centre by 6:30 p.m, team members MUST contact the child/ren’s parents or guardians, and where they can’t be contacted, the other authorised persons and nominees on the enrolment form should be contacted to pick up the child.  In the event that the child still remains at the Centre after 7:00 p.m. and no parents or guardians or emergency contacts can be contacted, the team members remaining on duty will contact one of the following departments for advice and further action:

After Hours Child Protection Emergency Services - 131 278

Victoria Police – 000

DEECD Northern Region - 9488 9488

Office for Children and Licensed Children’s Services Northern Region - 9412 5333

Human Services Child Protection North and West - 1300 664 977

It is a regulatory requirement that a minimum of 2 team members remain with this child at the Centre until a time that the child is handed over to police or a member of the Department.

All children have a fundamental right to be protected and kept safe while they are in the care of educators.  It is therefore vital that all team members are aware of these procedures for releasing children from the service and ensure that ALL children are kept safe and released only to authorised persons or nominees.

Source:          ‘Delivery and collection of children’- Practice Note 15, Department of Education and Early Childhood Development

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