A Visitor Policy is an essential part of an early years service's documentation. A Visitor policy should outline the correct procedures to manage visitors to a service particularly in relation to infection control and COVID-19. Pobal has been requiring that services submit a Visitor policy online and in response to this a new visitor policy has been put together by Canavan Byrne.
This new pack is a customisable and downloadable pack that includes the Visitor Policy as well as a poster as a visual aid. The poster has colourful illustrations showing the key points of visitor protocols that you can print and post in your service.
The policy outline the aims of what you would like to achieve, the definition of what visitors are, the responsibilities of the service, COVID-19, doorstop procedure, arrival, visitors who stay and finally, departure. The document can be customised to suit your own service requirements.
Visitor Policy - Include a Visitor Book for Only €5.00!
When you purchase the Visitor Policy you have the option to purchase a Visitor Book for only €5.00 (normally €15.00). A Visitor book is a requirement under the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) Regulations 2016 and the Child Care Act 2018 (Early Years Services) (Registration of School Age Services) Regulations 2018. The Act states that ‘All persons entering an early years setting must be approved by an employee and each person must sign in and sign out of the building. The register must be stored for one year from the date it has begun (Regulation 24 (3 &4))’.
Every visitor to your Early Years Service must complete a column of the Visitor Book before they enter the care rooms during working hours. This includes non-employees of the service such as Inspectors (TUSLA, HSA, DES), Mock Inspectors (e.g. Canavan Byrne), work experience/placement students, volunteers (should a firefighter, Garda, vet or dentist, for example, pay a visit). It is important that the information is input accurately, such as time of entry and time of check out.
The book contains 20 entries per page and has 100 pages per book. The information that must be collected on a visitor record includes Date, Name, Company, Contact Details, Time In, Time Out, Reason for Visit, Authorised by. The Visitor Record Book allows for all of the above.
