Personal Hygiene

Maintaining good personal hygiene and grooming habits is essential for providing a safe and healthy environment for the children in our care, as well as for the adults who work with them.

Hand-washing

It is important that you handwash regularly with soap and water. This includes before and after handling food, and toileting, coming into the gan from the street or garden, and after supporting children with personal care, including nappies and toileting. You should dry your hands with paper towels and dispose of them in a waste bin (not down a toilet). On average, you should wash your hands every 20 minutes whilst at work.

Clean clothes

You need to smell clean and fresh when you come to work, this includes your clothing. You should wear a clean outfit every day, and not wear things from the previous day, without laundering them. It is a good idea to bring spare clothes with you, in case you get soiled in the course of your working day.

It is important to create a professional approach, this means that your clothing should be odour free, without stains, and that you look and smell clean.

Sometimes outer wear such as coats and scarves can become smelly, especially if they are worn in the rain. As many staff wear out garments in the winter in the garden with children, these clothes should also smell fresh. This may mean cleaning your coat for example once a month.

Smokers must have a change of top if they smoke during a break in their working day. It is not permitted to wear the same top that you have smoked in, back into work with the children. Please refer to our smoking policy for full details

Body Odour

 One aspect of personal hygiene that is particularly important is body odour.

Staff members are expected to maintain good personal hygiene and grooming habits, including taking regular showers or baths, using deodorant. Where staff use natural or more organic deodorant solutions, these can often be less effective than more traditional brands, at masking body odours, this means that if you use these products, you may have to wash during the day, and/or reapply your chosen deodorant solution.

It is important that children and parents feel comfortable with staff, and are drawn towards them for play, comfort and close communication. This can be uncomfortable if the staff member smells of body odour or unclean clothes, which is why it is so important to stay fresh.

If a staff member feels uncomfortable around a colleague, they are invited to speak confidentially to the nursery manager but asked to refrain from gossiping.

Where the manager notices that a staff member has excessive body odour, or otherwise smells unclean or not fresh, she will speak with them privately and inform them of the concern and provide feedback.

Accommodation: If a staff member is found to have excessive body odour due to a medical condition, we will work with the staff member to accommodate their needs and find a solution that works for everyone. The situation must be monitored to ensure that staff are comfortable with their co-workers and children and parents do not experience un-fresh smells.

We recognise that body odour can be an embarrassing issue, and we will approach this matter with discretion, sensitivity, and compassion. We will work with staff members to help them understand the importance of addressing body odour and providing support and resources to help them do so. We will also strive to create a culture where all staff members feel comfortable discussing and addressing any personal hygiene issues they may be experiencing

Click here for a useful governmental website that explores this issue further, and gives advice

From the management, we will keep a ‘fresh’ zone in the bathroom with personal care products such as spray deodorant that staff can use throughout the day.

Dress Code

At Rainbow – we very much believe that you should come as you are! Don’t ‘change’ yourself to come to work. We love who you are! The only thing to avoid is slogans which may be offensive.

Clothes should be clean and smell fresh.

Outside shoes cannot be worn in the classroom. Instead, you can wear bare feet, socks, or slippers. Some staff also have ‘Rainbow shoes’ – which are regular shoes which have never been worn outside.