Safeguarding Escalation for a Late or Missing Child

When a Child Doesn't Arrive: The Safeguarding Escalation Ladder

This guide covers a different situation from routine absence marking. If a parent tells you in advance their child won't be in — illness, holiday, whatever the reason — that's a planned absence, and you record it yourself from the child's diary. See the Recording Absences guide for that flow.

This guide covers the opposite: a child is expected, hasn't arrived, and you can't reach anyone. KinderStart treats that as a safeguarding matter and walks you through a structured escalation ladder — not a routine attendance task.

When This Triggers

KinderStart watches every child's contracted start time for the day. If more than 30 minutes pass with no arrival logged and no absence already recorded for that child, a Safeguarding Alert screen opens automatically over your Home dashboard — you don't navigate to it yourself. It only fires once per child per day (closing it suppresses that child for an hour), and it never fires for a child you've already marked absent through the routine flow, or on a day your setting is closed for a holiday.

Verify Whereabouts

The screen opens with a warning that you must verify the child's whereabouts, plus an optional note field for anything you already know (e.g. "Parent messaged via Messenger: Child has a fever"). From here you have three options:

• They've Arrived — opens an arrival time panel. Enter the actual arrival time (or tap "Use contracted time" to fill in the scheduled start time) and tap Confirm Arrival. This logs the child as arrived and ends the escalation — no further steps needed.
• Yes, I've been notified — use this if you already know why the child is late or absent (a message from the parent, for example) but haven't formally logged it. This resolves the alert immediately.
• No, I have not — you have no explanation and can't confirm the child's whereabouts. This moves you to Step 1.

Step 1: Contact Parent

Call the parent(s) linked to the child directly from the app — tap the phone icon next to their name to dial. Add call notes if you want to record what happened (e.g. "Mom's phone went to voicemail"), then tap:

• Resolved — you reached a parent and have an explanation. Ends the escalation.
• No Answer — no parent could be reached. Moves you to Step 2.

If the child has no parent contacts on file, the screen flags this clearly instead of showing a call list.

Step 2: Emergency Contact

Parents are unreachable — call the child's listed emergency contacts the same way, one tap to dial each. Add notes on the outcome, then:

• Resolved — someone answered. Ends the escalation.
• No Answer — nobody could be reached. Moves you to Step 3.

If no emergency contacts are on file, the screen tells you so instead of showing a call list.

Step 3: Escalation — Refer to Social Care or Police

Nobody could be reached. The screen shows two numbers to call immediately:

• Social Care / MASH — 0300 123 4567
• Police (Non-Emergency) — 101

Record the outcome in the referral details field — a reference number, the officer's name, or whatever you're given — then tap Log Referral / Action Taken to close out the escalation.

What Gets Recorded

Every action you take at every step — who you tried to contact, when, and the outcome — is saved as a timestamped entry against that child's diary for the day, permanently linked to a "late arrival" safeguarding check. Resolving the alert at any step other than "They've Arrived" also records the day as an absence, so your attendance register stays accurate even when the day ends without the child ever showing up.