Advice needed!

[Gmjr]

My LO is 10 months old and has recently started nursery. There are a few things that I am not happy about but I don’t know if they are ‘normal’ in the world of nurseries... I’m considering moving her but she seems settled and happy. What should I do? The issues I have are-

1. Nursery took babies out for a walk and when I came back early to pick her up they couldn’t tell me where she was or get in touch with the staff that had taken her out
   
2. At certain times of the day the babies are taken into the toddler room. My LO is not walking and sits in the middle with toddlers running around
   
3. Staff seem to constantly be coming and going from the room so the 1 staff per 3 babies isn’t consistent
   

I’m sure she would settle into somewhere else but starting nursery has been a big change to her and she is very attached to key worker. Advice please!

[Jackshouse]

1. Not normal or safe! I would raise this with manager. What would happen if there was a fire?
   
2. Normal at my DD’s small nursery for babies to get used to staff in the next room but I would expect them to be closely monitored. My toddler has said things like ‘my baby is not a teddy bear’ so I suspect she has been trying to cuddle the babies.

[HSMMaCM]

1. In the event of fire, they would know your DD was out on a walk with allocated carers. The people who had taken them out would know the route, but ideally someone in the nursery would know where they were going (maybe for example, it was just into the woods and then see where the children pointed and go that way).
2. Many nurseries have points in the day when they mix the children. As long as they are well supervised, it's fine.
3. Staff will come and go for nappy changes, lunch breaks, putting children to sleep, etc throughout the day.

Ask if you can have a chat with her key worker, or a senior member of staff and raise your concerns. Hopefully they can put your mind at rest.

[itsaboojum]

I agree with PPs on all points. However, on the first point, you might be surprised to hear that Ofsted don’t necessarily agree.

One of our local nurseries has been taking children out or doing school runs with the staff member(s) carrying a mobile phone. This was previously seen as a sensible safety precaution. Their last Ofsted inspector took against it and graded them 'inadequate'. They’ve been doing it for about 12 years and numerous inspections, and it has suddenly gone from being "best practice" to "serious safeguarding risk".

Go figure........?

[Gmjr]

Thanks all. I’m going to have a chat with the manager and see what she says. I’m also going to speak to some other nurseries in the area to see what their procedure is.

[Whynotnowbaby]

Why is it a serious safeguarding risk? Do they think she’s taking photos and putting them on her private Facebook page? Would it be ok if it were a nursery owned mobile?

[insancerre]

1- let the nursery know if you are going to pick up early, then they can plan their walks and leave your child behind
2- how do you know she’s sat in the middle of the room with toddlers running around?
3- the ratio applies across the setting, so staff can go in and out of the room without it affecting the ratio