surely this can't be right? aibu to complain to head of nursery group ?

[Fairylea]

I am considering returning to work and dh and k went with ds aged 7 months to go and have a look at our local day nursery. Ds would be 11 months ish if I decided to return.

This is not a nursery bashing thread. My dd now aged 9 attended nursery for 3 days a week from about 9months and she absolutely thrived and settled in well, it was a purpose built nursery with separate rooms for babies and toddlers and a special sleeping room. She settled in quickly and stayed until she was 3. She still has fond memories.

The nursery we visited today was awful and I actually left and started crying! Ds certainly won't be going there!

It was one huge room with a tiny sectioned off bit for babies literally about 8ft by 12ft, basically fenced off by wooden fencing of no higher than a foot if that. The babies had no adult in with them, no visible toys to play with and one of them was trying to sleep on a mat on the floor (fair enough but ds won't sleep unless he has a dark room).

On the other side of the room were 17 toddlers. All not doing much of anything except wandering about. And 4 members of staff. One of who showed us about.

2 of the babies were clearly unsettled and one little boy just walking began crying and saying "mamma" and no one went over to him! The woman we talked to eventually said to him "not now. Later" and ignored him again! I would be horrified if that was my son. I would have expected her to at least pick him up while talking to us.

In the end I ended up stroking his head and telling him it would be ok - I couldn't help.myself.

I came.out feeling very sad. Surely this nursery should be doing a lot better?

I didn't feel any of them cared about the babies at all. I felt ds would just be ignored.

I want to complain and will do but I needed to vent. Surely it can't be right. Also the baby area had things all over the floor - even pieces of raw apple - major choking hazard and no one watching the babies rolling about.

I'm so upset and angry.

Again I know not all nurseries are like this but t I feel sad that the mums of those babies probably don't know how much they're being ignored.

We peeked in the window on our way back through the town and the little boy walking about was still crying and clutching his blanket :(

Oh that poor little boy

This sounds like my local sure start nursery. :-(

Hello there. This is the first time I've posted on MN so be nice to me... I've been lurking for months!

Had to reply to this though. The title of the OP post was asking if YWBU to report your worries to the head of the nursery group. You would absolutely not be unreasonable to do so and I'd go as far as to say you have an obligation to those babies to do so.

Glad you've written to Ofsted but in all honesty they are useless. The Ofsted regime has changed recently (Sept 2012) so if they get what they deem to be a serious complaint (which would suggest children were in danger) they will then go and carry out a full inspection. Other more minor complaints they will just pass on to the nursery to deal with (crazy isn't it!).

I'm not for one minute suggesting that your issues aren't serious but you'd need to focus on the ratios for Ofsted to take it seriously, not the lack of cuddles (which I completely accept and understand was completely unacceptable, it's just that Ofsted don't see it that way.

So, the people who can make a difference are the nursery owners (and sometimes managers). And if you raise a concern direct with the nursery your complaint to Ofsted carries more weight too.

Is the nursery really rated 'Outstanding'? (There is no excellent rating, it's satisfactory, good, outstanding).

Nurseries must always be within ratios, sickness or no sickness. Babies should never be left with supervision (or comfort!).

Ring and ask to speak to the manager, then the owner. Someone clearly needs to. Depending on their response, follow up your letter to Ofsted with a phonecall. Was the nursery part of a group?

Good luck finding a much better nursery.

I think that lots of people are really naive when choosing childcare, and some people really don't spend enough time thinking about it and researching it. It's the most important decision ever, who to trust your precious DCs to, and a nursery (or other childcare provider) needs to take their enormous responsibility seriously.

When I read your op I just imagined my own little DS wandering around crying with his blanket it's made me very upset. I'm glad you complained (to ofsted? Or nursery head office?) as something has got to be done about this.

Just to update everyone.... I emailed ofsted and forwarded a copy of the email to the chief executive of the nursery group (so they knew I had emailed ofsted too).

I received a very quick response from the CEO saying they were very very sorry and it sounds as though the nursery is definitely falling below their standards and he is passing it on to their director of nurseries (they run care homes for the elderly as well apparently!!) to look into and report back to me.

Ofsted also replied asking for more details of the nursery which I gave them and they said they will investigate.

I gave a very detailed complaint including the ratios and choking hazards and general lack of care.

I really hope something gets done.

I have to admit it's made me feel very skeptical about leaving ds with anyone but me :(

But I know that's an extreme response I guess.....

Awfull! I would have been upset too poor babies.
I remember looking at one for dd and didn't like it but was continuing the tour out of politeness. We went upstairs and had to step around a baby being changed on the carpet on the landing
You didn't see me for dust!