Emergency cover?

[Ruthierhyme]

How do you all cope with sudden staff absences, have you got a contact list in any of your policies/procedures ~ or ever had to ask voluteering parents to stand in?

firstly work out how many children are actually expected, after holidays and sickness then:
we have 2 staff members that "cover" sickness training days etc etc. then if they are in and there is noone else we ask the comittee if they will come in, then if still need someone we have a few parents who will come in

failing that - well close i guess
never had to close but the comittee have to come in on occasion, or paretns. but not very often

we use our supply staff and ask staff to work longer if needed the manager also goes into the room where cover is needed

We have an emergency cover list of parents, mainly committee members, plus myself (I'm Admin assistant and mainly work from home but go in if they are short).

Our 3 full time staff are NVQ3 qualified so in theory we will always have someone qualified to run the session as they are unlikely to all be sick together!

All staff level 3 so no worries about supervising session, staff work extra hours usually, our keep fit/music and movement instructor (for want of a better word) who does 1 hour a week will cover if available, plus usually committee, but not used them for years!