Keeping children safe
This section includes the Look, Think, Act campaign resources and practices notes to help keep children safe by raising awareness of how, and why, they could leave a childcare setting without a responsible adult.
All early learning and childcare services should to be aware of how and why children could potentially leave a setting without staff or a parent/carer.
It is everyone’s responsibility to keep children safe, so ensure you know where your children are at all times. It is important that staff teams work well together, communicate effectively and have a shared understanding of roles and responsibilities to keep children safe. Even when busy with other activities we all need to be alert to what children are doing. It is especially important at pick up and drop off times and when outdoors or on outings. Review your procedures and identify where improvements might be needed. Review the security of your setting, are all doors, gates and perimeters secure. Most importantly are all children fully engaged in their activities and secure in their relationships with the staff. Think about how well you support all of your children to have fun and be confident in your setting.
All services are required to notify the Care Inspectorate of any incidents, so that we can all share the learning and keep children safe. We want to engage with services to reduce and prevent occurrences of children being in unsafe situations.
Let’s keep children safe by raising awareness of how, and why, they could leave a childcare setting without a responsible adult.
SIMOA (Safe, Inspect, Monitor, Observe, Act)
We want to introduce Simoa, the elephant, to all ELC settings. Let’s raise awareness and act responsibly to safeguard, protect and support children’s wellbeing.
Simoa always remembers:
Safe
Be alert to all potential risks in your setting.
Inspect
Look around and inspect the environment to make sure a child can’t leave an area without staff or their parent/carer.
Monitor
Regularly check that all children are accounted for particularly when they are outside, on outings or using transport.
Observe
Observe children and think about their feelings and emotional security – use these observations to support children to feel loved and secure.
Act
Assess and take action to keep children safe.
If you would like to share this message with staff and parents in your setting you can download our posters and graphics from the links below:
Practice notes
Early learning and childcare (ELC) staff should create a place of safety where children want to be and where they can develop a sense of wonder about the world. Caring for children involves staff being responsive and sensitive in meeting children’s needs. Children require a balance of independence, risk, new experiences, familiar routines, support and connections. When these needs are met, children will play and learn because they feel safe and secure.
ELC environments should be fun, challenging, stimulating and a place where children feel loved and respected, but importantly an environment that is safe and children feel protected. A strongly connected relationship and knowledge of individual children’s needs are key to children’s safety and wellbeing.
It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that children are safe, secure, and protected from harm. Our notifications and scrutiny work has highlighted that children’s safety is at greater risk when outings, transitions and children’s natural curiosity and exploration are not fully understood and supported by staff. To support ELC staff to keep children safe, we have developed a range of practice notes.
Practice note to support trips and outings
This practice note provides a prompt for reflecting on and developing approaches to keeping children safe on trips and outings while ensuring they still have opportunities to be curious and develop their learning.
Practice note to support transitions
This practice note will provide a prompt for reflecting on and developing approaches to keeping children safe during transitions, while ensuring they still have opportunities to build connections with others, play and learn.
Practice note to support curiosity and exploration
This practice note will provide a prompt for reflecting on and developing approaches to keeping children safe, while supporting their learning and development through regular opportunities to be curious, creative and to develop a sense of wonder about the world.
Practice note supporting positive mealtime experiences
This practice note is designed to provide support and guidance in the planning, preparation and provision of nutritious and healthy meals and snacks for children.
Health and Social Care Standards
The Health and Social Care Standards set out what we should expect when using health, social care or social work services in Scotland
Improvement support section
An introduction to the improvement support section and quality improvement methodology.
Gender equal play in early learning and childcare
An improvement resource promoting gender equality in how children experience early learning and childcare
Related policy
Browse related policy developments
Latest children and young people bulletin
A weekly bulletin produced by our policy team providing an update on the key developments concerning children and young people.
