We’ve touched briefly on the Coronavirus outbreak, otherwise known as COVID-19. At Non-Stop Kids we have had some clients addressing concerns towards the virus and what we are doing to make sure everything is a success for your party. In this blog we offer some advice about what you can do to ensure your child’s parties a success during the outbreak.
Ensuring a Successful Party Amidst the Coronavirus Outbreak: 9 Essential Steps to Follow
AVOID FOOD BUFFETS
1. During this time we would strongly recommend that you avoid sharing food on a buffet. We recommend having separate snack boxes with food already inside. (Such as a sandwich, crisps, cake bar and fruit etc). This is less work than preparing a buffet and it will definitely help stop any symptoms passing.
CHECK WITH YOUR ENTERTAINER
2. Check with your entertainer if they have any symptoms in good time so if they have you can find a replacement, now this will also take a lot of work especially if you haven’t booked a national company for your party. Non Stop Kids Entertainment have over 100 entertainers nationally. We have systems and procedures in place to monitor our entertainers health. It means we can make sure if one of our entertainers has to self isolate another healthy entertainer will be on hand to make sure your party is a success. We will also allow you to reschedule your booking and move your party to a different date within 12 months! It means you can book in confidence knowing that if the worst happens you can reschedule your party and there will be no financial implications.
MAKE SURE YOUR VENUE HAS LIQUID SOAP
3. Make sure your venue has liquid soap at the ready so that kids & adults can wash their hands upon arrival and also before eating food. It is vital this is provided not just for the kids but for our entertainers also. We have been to venues and there has been no soap provided by the venue. Make sure you check this beforehand.
HAVE HAND SANITISERS
4. All our entertainers carry hand sanitisers even before the outbreak started & we recommend that you do the same with your party, its really good peace of mind for anyone else that might be worrying about the virus. You want to ensure that parents feel confident and happy bringing their children to your party and communicating this to them is a great way to do that.
MAKE SURE VENUE IS CLEAN (has your venue take the coronavirus seriously?)
5. It is very important to not only stress to your entertainer your concerns but to also stress it to the venue you are booking for your party. Have they put cleaning protocols in place? Is the venue clean? Have they carried out a deep clean recently? These are just a few questions you need to ask.
DISPOSABLE PLATES & CUPS FOR KIDS & ADULTS
6. Disposable plates & cups should be what you are using for your party. Not just for kids but for adults too. Making sure that hot drinks are also in polystyrene cups & then thrown away immediately after. This takes away the chance of any germs being spread. As a bonus it also means that there is no washing up!
CONSIDER HOLDING THE PARTY AT HOME
7. If you are worried about the venue being dirty then why not take matters into your own hands and have it at home? At least then you know it will be clean! FYI Non-Stop Kids Entertainment do over 8,000 parties a year and a large percentage of those are in homes! This will also make parents feel more confident bringing their children to your party.
LIMIT PARTY INVITES / CONSIDER HAVING A MINIMUM AMOUNT OF CHILDREN & ADULTS AT THE PARTY
8. We personally can manage anywhere from 10 kids to a 100 kids with 1 entertainer however, during the time of the coronavirus outbreak it may be a good idea to limit the amount of children and adults who attend the party by limiting the amount of party invites that you send out. We understand that a lot of children want to invite everyone however having less children at the party all make it easier to ensure that there isn’t any cross contamination.
DO NOT WORRY TOO MUCH!
9. We understand that it can be difficult to not worry with the uncertainty that is happening around the world. However it’s important to understand that it’s your child’s special day and if your are worried they might not enjoy their day as much. Remember that for the majority of the people that are infected it’s no worse than a flu. Try to remain calm, don’t panic and make sure that all the kids have an awesome party.
We hope some of these points have helped you, we strongly recommend you take them on board. Please feel free to read our other blogs regarding the coronavirus by going through our blog section. Finally if you would like to speak to us about any concerns just give us a call.
We must stress that these are things that we would recommend & not something that may work for everyone. If you find that your child or any of your family members may have symptoms then please go to this link that NHS have set up to see if your symptoms meet the criteria of the Coronavirus - https://111.nhs.uk/covid-19
You can also read NHS blog on the virus here - https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/
