Can I complain about a childcare provider that I don’t use?

[DoingWhatIHaveToDo]

NC for this.

My friends DD aged 2, attends a private Nursery and I have concerns about it. However my DD attends a different Nursery so not sure how or who I complain to.

For basics, friends DD often comes home with bruising on her face that the staff can’t explain, my friend tells me that when she asks staff about her childs progress they can't say or what they’re learning the staff say “they’ll play it by ear”, child has been there a year and friend has never had a parents evening or a written report about her DD. When I’ve picked her up they often give us the wrong bag. Friend also said that when her DD broke her arm at Easter the Nursery excluded her basically, they didn’t adapt activities and just left her DD stood watching her friends do activities when she couldn’t when friend asked why the staff said they didn’t know how to include her.

I’ve tried to encourage my friend to change her DDs Nursery but friend is reluctant to do so as her DD is happy there (apart from screaming going in in the morning and saying on her days off that she doesn’t want to go to Nursery), she also doesn’t want to complain herself in case the staff treat her DD differently because of it.

So how do I complain as I am seriously concerned about my friends DD and also any other children they look after? I have never had to complain about my DDs Nursery (as they go above and beyond) so not even sure if it’s possible to complain about a provider you don’t use

You really can't do that. It's up to your friend if she wants to complain and you need to respect that.

What does “they’ll play it by ear” mean? Sending the wrong bag home isn’t really that big a deal, this can happen in school if the child picks up the wrong bag. Strange that there are no parents evenings. Do the nursery record evidence of the children’s learning? I’m assuming it’s a full time nursery and not a playgroup? You can look up their last ofsted online unless they are newly opened.

Friend didn't know what play it by ear meant. Not sure if they record evidence of learning friend says she's never seen anything. It's a fulltime private Nursery.

Is it an alternative nursery like Steiner or something? Is it ofsted registered or isi registered? Most nurseries will be recording the children’s areas of development unless they are maybe private or alternative. Do they have a website?

OfSted registered, not an alternate childcare provider I don’t think not sure how I’d know. Does have a website.

So look on the website and see what they say about tracking children’s progress, dates for parents evening and so on. Look at their latest report. Is it possible that your friend is just disorganised and doesn’t read their letters to find out when parents evening is and so on. Sometimes a child can get a bruise and it is t seen, practitioners can’t have eyes everywhere. Some children just don’t make a fuss or maybe bruise easily from a tiny bump.

Tell your friend to ask too see their child's learning journey/pupil portfolio, they cant refuse as it is the child's working document of observations and is theirs. This should document learning through play observations and outcomes individually to the child.

Regarding the parents evening not all private nursery's offer this, it's not an OFSTED rule however they would expect to see evidence of good communication skills between home/nursery & community.

Just to say, not every nursery has a learning journal type system ( though this is rare) which is why I asked what type of provider they are.