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!

I am so sorry for your dd, and you. Truly shocking.

They must be in breach of SOMETHING if they closed at 5.20 and are supposed to remain open until 6.

Surely they are responsible for children until 6pm?

I hope you're both ok. X

Bobthefly, she did phone around.

For those who are wondering, Ofsted registered childcare facilities in England must have a Child Not Collected procedure which terminates in calling in Social Services after x amount of time.

OP I have made an assumption you are in England. Apologies if not the case.

It gets worse, doesn't it? FWIW, i agree with MrsAlexVause - write everything down now, before you forget.

How come your DD hadnt set off the intruder alarm? Or was the poor little sausage too frightened to come out of the toilet? I don't know you or your DD, but I feel so awfully sorry for the poor little thing,sitting there and wondering what had happened.

Someone should lose their job over this. This is NOT a minor oversight.

I don't think I would have thought to try and get access either. I'd have been onto the police in the absence of any other way of contacting anyone.

The OP was incredibly lucky to have been right in her guess of the child still being inside. A huge amount of time could have been wasted.

Fucking hell. That is just... actually I don't have words. Your poor dd. And you too, that must have been a hellish 30 minutes for you all.
Have you got hold of the nursery manager? What have they said?

In the nursery I worked in as children went home we moved them to the other rooms so staff members could go home, and we could quite often close between 30 mins and an hour early when all the children were picked up.

I can see how this could happen with one careless member of staff not paying attention to who had been picked up.

Hope you and your dd are alright op

I think there seem to be a lot of remarkable circumstances here. Obviously locking a child in a building and failing to note she had not been collected is utterly dire in itself - but what actually interests me more is how come the nursery was empty and shut so early. Surely something calamitous had happened?

I asked if the OP was late, not to criticise or excuse.

I just don't know how this could have happened, except if child went to the toilet, it was late and a member of staff assumed they'd been picked up already, and it was after their normal closing time. But that is not an excuse. That is still beyond comprehension in my opinion.

I genuinely would have phoned the police then and there. And if you broke in, you probably should ring them to tell them you broke in and therefore the nursery is not secure.

It is totally unacceptable. OFSTED immediately. Police immediately.

Holy God .

It doesn't matter a bit if the OP was late, and it turns out she wasn't anyway. My dd's nursery (a few years ago now) had a very clear protocol for late pickups. They charged an additional amount for every 5 minutes that the parent was late, and after a certain time had elapsed, they would call Social Services. The extra charge was bloody steep, and caused no end of stress when stuck on the M4 with no mobile reception, but FFS at least there was no question of them being left alone. Your poor wee sausage. Thank God she didn't come to any harm.

How awful.

I think the nursery heeds to explain how, if they are meant to be open til 6:00, they had packed up,and all gone home by 5:30

My DC don't go to nursery but when is the cleaning done?

Does nobody else pick their child up from 5:30 onwards? Manager has no paperwork to do etc? Is this a chain? Is the owner on site? I think head office/the owner would obviously be very interested/concerned, not just about your DD (of course) but the fact that the workers are clearing off early

Wow! You're poor dd. Shocking.

In every nursery and pre-school I have worked in, you have a different register for every session, so you know which children are there, to allow for children who do different days. You mark them off as they leave, because some leave at 3pm, some at 6pm. You have to do this incase of an emergency or fire.

I can't see how this happened.

WTF?! That's awful! I would contact Ofsted, the police, the newspapers... anyone who would listen!

Just I hope dd forgets all about this very quickly :(

I am so sorry.

No way in hell would I attend a "meeting" with the bullshit nursery staff.

What is there to meet about? They endangered your daughter. Their ONLY goal in the meeting will be damage control. Fuck that. Don't give them the time of day. Spend the time making complaints and looking after yourself.

If they contact you at home, tell them you've been advised to have all correspondence in writing.

Hmmmm...

Well, sounds like a Daily Mail sad face photo is required.

How come you assumed she'd been left in there? That would have been my last thought.

I don't think there is much strange about the nursery shutting early. The DC old nursery was open until 1830 but if all the kids had gone by 1745 for example they would shut.

I'm a bit confused . Why would the nursery shut just because they (mistakenly) thought everyone had gone? If they're open till 6, surely that's when they're open until? If it was all closed up, what made you think your poor DD was stuck in there, in the dark, on her own? This is just so unbelievably awful - assuming, too, your DD is under 4? It beggars belief that the nursery could be so incompetent.

I think I would have broken in and assumed there would be an adult in there with my child who had turned most of the lights off and couldn't hear me for some reason, once I had done the usual phoning around etc.

Omg.

I would let other parents know.

There in no excuse fore this, even if OP was late you ( which she wasn't)

Safe guarding is paramount.

I would be going to the police as this is child abondament

Bodfinmum - I was writing that as OP posted so missed her saying she wasn't. I was more remarking how it wouldn't have mattered if she was late or not as it's the fact the nursery left her DD there as it appeared some people were more annoyed she may have been late.

Normally if you are late for some reason the nursery starts phoning your mobile and finding out what is going on.