Picture the phone buzzing at 10.40 am with the nursery’s number on the screen. A child has gone flushed and miserable after snack. What happens next is set out in the nursery sickness policy.
Staff sit the child somewhere quiet and keep them away from the others if it looks contagious. A parent gets a call straight away. If the child can’t stay, someone has to come and collect. The same policy covers when a child must stay home, how medicine is handled and how infections are kept from spreading. Wording differs between settings. The national rules underneath don’t.
What Does a Nursery Sickness Policy Actually Cover?
Every nursery in England must have a procedure for dealing with infectious children, and this procedure has to be explained to parents. This requirement comes from the Early Years Foundation Stage. Most nurseries have policies that cover the basic issues:
- What staff do when a child becomes unwell mid-day
- Which illnesses mean staying home, and for how long
- How medicine is asked for, given and recorded
- Reporting infections to Ofsted or health teams
- What happens when a child turns up already looking ropey
Get a copy before signing up. Reading it over a cup of tea beats finding out its rules at 7.45 am with a feverish toddler on one hip.
What Happens When a Child Becomes Unwell at Nursery?
Staff comfort the child and watch how the symptoms develop. Then comes the phone call. If it looks infectious, say about sickness or a rash that’s spreading, the child waits somewhere apart from the others until pickup. Real emergency? 999 first, parents second.
Parents are normally asked to sign off emergency medical treatment at registration. Those contact details only help if they’re current, so update them whenever a number changes. A named backup, a grandparent or neighbour who can get there fast, makes a huge difference on the days a work meeting won’t budge.
Who Decides a Child Is Too Ill to Stay?
The nursery does. Usually the manager or room leader, going by the policy. Most policies also let them turn a child away at the door if they’re clearly unwell, because one poorly child can turn into a poorly room surprisingly fast. Harsh at drop-off. Fair to everyone else’s parents the following week.
How Long Should a Child Stay Home After Common Illnesses?
The UK Health Security Agency publishes national guidance on how long children should stay out of childcare with common infections. These crop up most:
| Illness | Usual time away |
| Diarrhoea and/or vomiting | 48 hours after the last episode |
| Chickenpox | Until all the spots have crusted over |
| Scarlet fever | 24 hours after starting antibiotics |
| Impetigo | Until sores are crusted and healed, or 48 hours after starting antibiotics |
| Flu | Until recovered |
| Conjunctivitis, hand, foot and mouth, glandular fever | No set exclusion period |
A temperature of 38C or above counts as a fever, and the NHS advice is to keep a child at home until it has gone. Illnesses with no set exclusion period are a different story. A child with one of those can still feel far too rough for a full day, and that call belongs to the parent and the staff, not a rulebook.
Why Some Nurseries Are Stricter Than the Guidance
Nurseries can set their own exclusion periods as long as the aim is protecting children and staff. A baby room might play it safer than a room of four-year-olds. Whatever goes beyond the national guidance should be written into the policy. Nobody likes finding out about a rule on the morning it applies to them.
How Does Medicine Work at Nursery?
Prescription or not, medicine needs a parent’s written permission before it’s given, and every dose gets recorded. That’s the EYFS talking, not a nursery being fussy. Plenty of nurseries still prefer doses to be given at home where that’s possible, and some have their own rules on fever-reducing medicine. Ask before the first time it matters.
Does a Nursery Have to Report Illness?
Sometimes. Food poisoning affecting two or more children has to be reported to Ofsted as soon as reasonably practicable, and within 14 days. Serious infections can also go to the local health protection team. Parents usually hear about it when chickenpox or scarlet fever starts doing the rounds.
What Should Parents Ask About a Nursery’s Sickness Policy?
Child sickness at nursery will happen sooner or later. A few questions before day one save a lot of head-scratching:
- How fast are parents expected to collect?
- Is there a written list of exclusion periods?
- Who gives medicine, and what paperwork does that need?
- Are fees charged for sick days?
- How do parents find out an infection is going round?
Clear, quick answers suggest the nursery has thought it through. Waffle deserves a follow-up. And if the worry is about the child’s health rather than the policy, that’s a GP or NHS 111 matter, not one for the nursery.
So what should parents expect?
A good nursery sickness policy is straightforward. It’s written down. Easy to find. It treats every child the same. It keeps the child, the other children, and the staff safe even when mornings feel messy and hard. So read the policy before the day. Make sure emergency numbers are up to date. Once that’s done, the awkward moments start to feel less awkward.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How do we care for a child when the child is ill?
The nursery follows a written sickness policy that explains what we do. The staff will comfort the child, keep the child apart from other children if the child’s illness looks contagious, and we will call a parent or emergency contact to arrange that the child is collected.
2. When can a child come back to the nursery after the child has been sick?
A child may return to the nursery after 48 hours, with no vomiting or diarrhoea. The clock starts from the child’s episode of sickness, not from the first time the child felt better.
3. What is the nursery policy for hand, foot and mouth disease?
National guidance doesn’t set a fixed exclusion period. The NHS advice is to keep a child home while they feel too unwell to go, and staying off longer is unlikely to stop it spreading. Some nurseries add rules of their own, so the policy is worth a look.
4 . Can my child go back to nursery if they have chickenpox?
Not until every spot has crusted over. That tends to take around five days, but the crusting is the test, not the calendar.
5. How to stop baby getting ill at nursery?
Not every bug can be dodged, especially in the first year. What helps is regular handwashing, keeping routine vaccinations up to date, and keeping a poorly baby at home so the germs don’t circulate. A nursery with clear cleaning and sickness routines also makes a difference.
6. How long does a child stay sick?
The time a child stays sick depends entirely on the illness. A sickness bug often needs forty‑eight hours to clear before the child is back to normal; hand, foot and mouth disease usually passes on its own in seven to ten days for the child; and a fever that lasts five days or more requires advice for the child.