Hand hygiene ruling could impact on nursery
An outdoor north-east Fife nursery is awaiting a ruling which could radically change its day-to-day running.
- By Craig McManamon
- Published in the Courier : 24.08.10
- Published online : 24.08.10 @ 04.04pm
The Secret Garden, near Letham, has been told it must provide fresh water and liquid soap for youngsters to meet Scottish Government hand hygiene policies — but the instruction is being disputed as the nursery is in woodland, far from a suitable water source.
Children have been supplied with anti-bacterial wipes but this failed to satisfy the Care Commission, which regulates all adult, child and independent healthcare services in Scotland.
A spokesman for the commission said that good hand hygiene applies to all care services in Scotland.
"The accepted best practice for nurseries and childcare services is that children thoroughly wash their hands after visiting the toilet and before eating," he said. "We believe these principles are relevant to all services for acceptable hand hygiene and the prevention of infections.
"The Care Commission reviews these principles as part of its inspection process to ensure that services are demonstrating best practice in hand hygiene. If acceptable hand hygiene is not being demonstrated we will work closely with providers to ensure that standards improve.
"If anyone has concerns over hand hygiene practices in any of Scotland's care services they should contact the Care Commission for more information."
No one from the nursery was willing to comment until after a decision has been delivered.
Photo used under a Creative Commons licence courtesy of Flickr user Squigly.
09.32pm - 31.08.2010 paula cowie - Burntisland, scotland Report This
Its crazy to demand this from the Secret Garden. My son went to the woods every week for 3 and a half years with the nursery and not using water is clearly not a problem. water makes their hands cold in water and wets their sleeves, much more of a problem.
07.24pm - 01.09.2010 Siobhan - Kingskettle, Scotland Report This
CAN PARENTS BE ALLOWED TO DECIDE WHAT IS BEST FOR THEIR CHILDREN? <br />I would be interested to hear from your readers, if they feel that these bodies should be able to dictate to parents, or if the parents should be allowed to decide what is best for their kids based on the information available?
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