Sun Safe Nurseries is a FREE national accreditation programme. We provide nurseries and pre-school settings nationwide with all the tools, resources and support they need to fulfil their duty of care to safeguard children against UV, raise awareness of skin cancer across their stakeholder communities and introduce sun safe messaging and healthy habits to early learners.
Sun Safe Nurseries was our second national accreditation that launched in 2013 as a sister programme to Sun Safe Schools. Our mission is to facilitate the needs of nursery, pre-school and early years settings who have a duty to safeguard children in their care from the damaging affects of UV radiation, introduce sun safe habits to early learners and raise awareness of skin cancer prevention across their wider stakeholder communities.
Skin cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the UK and over-exposure to UV radiation is the direct cause of 90% of cases. Without protection a child’s delicate skin can burn within minutes, causing irreparable damage to the skin cells that can significantly increase their risk of developing skin cancer in later life.
When entrusting a child into the care of a childminder, preschool or early years setting, UV exposure is a serious safeguarding issue that should be addressed appropriately by the setting’s management and staff and supported by the wider parent/carer community.
Our mission via the Sun Safe Nurseries national accreditation programme is to provide early years settings with all the tools, advice, guidance and resources they need to successfully achieve the accreditation criteria which provides evidence of their commitment to:
To gain their Sun Safe Accreditation, settings must complete the 3 step process detailed below, providing written feedback on-line following the completion of each step. Extensive supportive resources have been developed to help settings achieve each step effectively and efficiently, with maximum impact on required outcomes and minimum strain on valuable time and resources.
Our on-line policy maker makes it easy for settings to tailor and download their own Sun Protection Policy. With key areas made mandatory, the process ensures settings have covered all essential guidelines and recommendations and can be confident that they are implementing a suitable policy to present to parents and safeguard children in their care.
In accordance with setting’s tailored policy, a personalised letter is automatically generated to download and present to parents/carers along with their policy and sun safety information to reinforce key messaging at home. This ensures settings are requesting the required level of support, providing appropriate advice and doing great work to increase vital knowledge about skin cancer prevention and early detection across their wider stakeholder community.
A range of fun and engaging resources from rhyming book and song to UV monitor roles and activity sheets are provided to educate early learners and reinforce key messaging throughout the spring and summer months. Additional display resources are also available to reinforce daily protection to parents and carers.
Once all of the steps have been completed and feedback has been provided, settings are awarded their certificate of accreditation. The accreditation is valid for one year, with a renewal process in place to ensure all aspects of the programme are revisited and reinforced annually.
We are extremely proud of the amazing feedback we receive each year by settings taking part in their initial accreditation and renewing their annual accreditation. We have literally thousands of individual pieces of feedback for the various steps required, enabling us to monitor programme effectiveness, maintain best practice and provide evidence of success.
“Using the Sun Safe Nurseries resources, we developed a comprehensive sun safety policy for parents. We modified the permissions on our children’s communication app to require wide-brimmed bucket hats and included the SKCIN sun safety booklet with additional information. We use the recommended UV app daily and post relevant signs to inform parents and staff, involving the children as a learning experience. Our recent policy review shows it continues to effectively educate our families.
We found the resources invaluable; they are both educational and engaging, making the learning experience more impactful. We placed printed copies in our hallway and reception area for visitors, and we sent digital copies to our current families. By doing this, we ensure the widespread dissemination of sun safety information to everyone.
Since becoming accredited, our setting has benefited from increased sun safety awareness and healthier outdoor practices. Parents and carers have been very supportive, reinforcing sun safety habits at home. The children have responded positively, becoming more conscious about wearing hats and applying sunscreen. The programme and its resources have been extremely helpful, providing clear and engaging materials that make sun safety education enjoyable and effective.”
Teepee Day Nursery, Berkshire
