Nursery went home and left dd!

[lookingfortheanswer]

Posting here for traffic, I don't have an aibu.

Went to pick up dd from nursery this afternoon and found the whole place locked up and nobody there. After frantically calling, banging on doors, checking nobody else had picked her up we managed to contact the neighbouring school. The staff who were still there were amazing, helped us to get into the building where we found dd on the toilet, on her own, lights off and doors closed, staff gone home. It took us half an hour to get in so she was there at least that long. She was obviously very upset but is now home and fine and drinking lemonade as a treat while I try to stop shaking.

Obviously this is a huge safeguarding issue and there is no way she is going back. The head of the neighbouring school has been in touch and is organising a meeting for the morning.

Any advice on where to go from here, who to complain to? Should we get legal advice? I am so so angry!

Very late to this thread. Just wanted. To say to OP how sorry I am to read this and to take good care of yourself for a bit as suspect it will hit you far more than DD.

There was an incident with DS at the same age in his first day at Pre School - not as bad as this but left me feeling sick for ages after every time I went by each day to drop my older child at the school on same premises. At pick up time the staff didn't see him walk out though there was someone on the door supposed to be handing over to each parent.

I was talking to another member of staff who was supposed to be at the side gate to double check no one got out on own (I didn't know routine as was first day or wouldn't have spoken to her) He was found actually in the gutter of the road about to walk across by another parent after we realised he was missing and a frantic search. We only lived round the corner and I think he knew the way home .

I went into some kind of shock i think (was in a bit of a state as MIL was ill with Cancer) and didn't call Ofsted and regret that to this day as heard another child got out a few years later and turned up back at his house. DS never went back and I quietly put the word round about why that was. It did spread as someone eventually told me about the incident. His new Nursery knew what had happened and were lovely and supportive about it.

TiP, I am not at all sure that you can state categorically that the op's child would not be accepted by another nursery if she quickly blows the whistle or sues or whatever you think she might do.

What have you based that assumption on?

rabbit
my work auditing and investigating fraud and seeing how people who run to the press before investigations are complete can find themselves shunned

that and seeing how bloody lazy the press are copying and pasting from each other till what is printed grossly misrepresents the truth

BUT
THe Google test that somebody else put up thread is more important : does OP want her DD to be able to read the gory details on a news scrape website when she grows up?

Let the LEA and Ofsted investigate, report and inform in a manner that complies with the law and the rights of the employees.

This story is likely to get out anyway, one way or another. Especially to other nursuries.
So if the op wants to change nursuries now, what is likely to happen?

Please don't put it on Facebook, if it gets out from there to media you will have no control.

Imo,dont go to press.let the Local authority and ofsted investigate
There needs to be order and ability to not be distracted by press distraction

Dont say or do anything that can jeopardize the investigation.

The story is now on here though for example.
Perhaps the op should have it stopped in that case?

I find it odd that they are open and not telling the parents.

A nursery in my town left a child behind on a school trip and didnt notice for over an hour. They closed the next day and didnt reopen for quite a while.

I would be fuming if I was sending my child there and wasnt aware of this.

I find it odd that they are open and not telling the parents.
we do not know that

OPs child is no longer there, as she stated this morning.
The town and the nursery have not been named
For all we know ALL of the parents were informed first thing
Probably around when they noticed the extra bods from Ofsted and the LEA milling around.

It's already been shared on facebook, I've seen it twice.

How awful for your poor DD.

As a nursery manager I can see how this can happen. With all the procedures in the world it only takes a sloppy staff member, In my setting each child is signed out. The manager or senior on duty checks registers, rooms and then signs the record to indicate all is well.

I will be making my staff read this tomorrow, it always helps to remind staff what can go wrong if standards slip and explains why i am a demanding old bag.

naming the nursery and OP's DD?
that is a great shame

OP please publicly name and shame this nursery, other parents need to know so that they can assess for themselves whether or not to remove their children. A slightly similar thing happened at a local nursery here and I was so glad it came up on an internet search when I was looking online for local nurseries for DS.

I dont understand how Facebook works
Do you mean that this thread has been reproduced over there, or that the nursery has been named seperately on Facebook via another route?

TiP. But surely, in this day and age, that was inevitable?

TheCunk. If she does that, I would have thought she herself could be sued?
I dont know. That may be a load of rubbish.

I would have thought its almost inevitable that there is another Mumsnetter who uses this Nursery or the school next door.

No, this event happened and she has every right to tell whomever she likes. Maybe wait until the investigation has been carried out but I can't see the nursery would be in any position to sue at all*

*I have NO legal training!

I'm.on the mobile site through aurora and I can highlight op's posts and search too.

No, this event happened and she has every right to tell whomever she likes.
No, she does not.
She was not there when the staff locked her DD in so she does NOT know what happened.
She was NOT there this morning when they met the parents dropping off.

Her comments would be speculation without evidence and potentially libellous (under the 2014 Act that QE school whacked MNHQ with)

Other parents - not just those with children presently at the nursery - have a right to know about this absolutely shocking incident of child endangerment at a local business. It isn't the OP's job to do that, of course (she's got enough on her plate dealing with the impact on own family) - it is the nursery's - but if they don't do the right thing, then unfortunately the OP will have to decide for herself about making it public. It sounds to me like she is (quite rightly!) angry and concerned and disappointed in the standard of care, and wants others to know what has happened. I'd feel the same way myself.

As for it now being the safest nursery in town - not likely. Often times, when something really tragic happens, there have been previous incidents. And there is no way to know now whether this was a freak one-off, or part of a systemic failure. Sadly, if the latter, the nursery is not likely to be made safe in a short time.

Of course whistleblowers (and the OP would not, technically, be a whistleblower, actually, but that's maybe beside the point) are sometimes given a hard time. That happens precisely in order to discourage whistleblowing. And that's why it is so important that we don't allow it to work.

And protecting the jobs of people at the nursery is not a consideration here. The nursery has failed. At least one person there has not done their job, and it is only by luck that their failure didn't result in a much wose outcome.

OP, you have handled everything brilliantly. Well-done.

Talkinpeace, that's pseudo-legal nonsense.
She has every right, legal and otherwise, to talk publicly about her experience of the event.

brdgrl
but OP had no experience of the event.
She has experience of the aftermath.

Anything she says about how or why is speculation and could impact upon the outcome of the Ofsted and LEA inspection.
Employment Law , Human Rights Legislation and the Defamation Act 2014 are pretty clear on such things.

Op theres a risk in other mn poster inciting and geeing you on.
you experience this,they dont. Be mindful youre not enacting their agenda
People were going on about immediate police involvement ,i see police declined involvement at this time,about taping conversations (inadmissible,and imo provocative)
and going to media about this.again provocative,you won't control flow information,could jeopardise or disrupt investigation