Unexplained absence of a child should always be followed up in nursery, club, school or your home as a childminder. Practitioners in any setting have a responsibility to check when this child should...

Unexplained absence of a child should always be followed up in nursery, club, school or your home as a childminder. Practitioners in any setting have a responsibility to check when this child should have arrived today, or when they should have been seen by now, even on an irregular pattern of attendance. It is good practice that parents realise that you are concerned to know they are all right. Most times, such follow-up will prompt an apology that you were not told about a planned absence or unexpected illness. However, there have been cases where a nursery or other setting has sounded the alarm and young children have been found with a desperately sick parent, or children have been abandoned in their home.