To consider not sending DD back to pre-school after accident?

[Rainatnight]

DD (3) started pre-school (a nursery attached to a primary school) on Monday.

Today, she had a bad accident. We’re still a bit unclear exactly what happened, but the upshot is that her hand got caught in a big metal gate, opened by a TA, crushing the middle finger.

We spent the day in A and E, and it’s been operated on. The doctors described it as a very bad injury, and were very surprised the gate didn’t have anything on it (like that plastic covering you sometimes see on the edges of doors).

It was awful. DD was obviously incredibly distressed. Her little school uniform was covered in blood. I didn’t look at the finger while the doctors did, but DP said it looked like a banana that had been peeled. I feel sick just thinking about it.

When we feel calmer, we need to collect our thoughts and decide what to do.

Right now, my gut feeling is that no way are they getting my child back. But I don’t know if that’s reasonable cos I’m very emotional.

So I’m interested in thoughts.

And would be good if anyone who works in schools could let me have their perspective, plus anything I should ask at a meeting with the school.

Sue. Someone was clearly negligent somewhere.

Sue? Ffs you silly person.
It's clearly a bad accident and measures need to be put in place to improve. Hope your dd is OK

I absolutely wouldn't take my child back there. She will see the gate every day and it will keep the accident in her mind. I would be looking for a new childcare provision in your shoes.

I would also be asking for a full enquiry from the pre-school manager, evidence the gate had been replaced or made safe and I would be considering reporting the incident to ofsted.

Children gets bumps and bruises at nursery and pre-school as they do at home but there is no way this should have happened.

I really hope you're daughter's hand recovers well and your nerves are not totally shot. Big unmumsnetty hugs to you.

It sounds like a horrible bad accident. As a parent I have trapped my kids fingers somewhere I wasn't expecting.

I would see how nursery respond, a good one would automatically put safeguards in to prevent a repeat. It also needs to be reported to ofstead (afaik any accident resulting in serious injury needs reporting).

I wouldn't let the accident be a sole decider in returning as sometimes accidents do just happen.

I hope your DD is ok! X

YANBU that sounds incredibly painful I hope she recovers well and quickly.

What did the accident form say? Did it explain what had happened if it was due to a TA?

I'd feel the same, I'd want to know how it played put especially as the injury doesn't (to me) sound a typical little accident in the playground

How have the staff treated this incident? Have they discussed what measures they are going to put in place to ensure this doesn't happen again?

I'm surprised a gate could be closed on a childs hands tbh, I'd have thought everything would have been closed

The key word here is ‘accident’. Children’s fingers get trapped all of the time. It’s unfortunate that your dd ended up with a fairly serious injury than the usual minor one. There’s no nursery on the planet that isn’t prone to accidents. My dd1’s nursery teacher managed to trap her fingers in a drawer, luckily they were just a bit swollen/bruised. If you’ve never had an issue with the nursery prior to this then you’re not making your dd safer by moving her. Guaranteed that after this incident the nursery staff will be extremely cautious around the children. What have they said to you about the accident? Have they apologised?

It shocks me the number of places that still don’t have finger guards on the doors. I notice, because the same thing happened to my child, who also had to have an operation to repair his nail bed. His accident would have been completely prevented if the place we were at had finger guards. I didn’t sue, I asked them to put finger guards up and they have since done that.

These sorts of accidents happen so quickly and easily. I don’t think it would make me anxious to send my child back; I wouldn’t think they were in danger. But I would want to see some action arising from this accident. A nursery that takes its risk assessment seriously will take measures now to prevent such a serious accident in the future. I’m pretty shocked a nursery doesn’t already have finger guards. Was it an outside gate? Do they have them inside?

Sorry I didn't mean the accident form should have been filled in because a TA had caused it, any accident form should have the required details and information

I would be making sure a full,thorough investigation took place though to check that accidents/incidents like this didn't happen again and staff are trained and equipment etc is up to standard.

I still don't get how this could have happened.

I hope your daughter feels better soon and isn't too upset :(

It was an accident. As pp said, kids constantly are getting their fingers trapped in things. It depends what happened. If it’s a sliding gate amd her fingers just got trapped then I don’t think it’s a safeguarding issue! As for ‘sue’ oh shut up.
Need more detail about what happened and how, have they apologised, what are they doing next etc. It could just be an unfortunate accident.

Ouch! Your poor DD. Hope she heals quickly and isn't too troubled by it

I trapped DDs hand in a car door once. Accidents happen. Do try to find out exactly what did happen, but in a calm and measured way.

How have the nursery responded? This would inform my decision.

Oh and my decision would 100% be based on how the nursery dealt with this incident. If I didnt feel reassured I wouldn't be going back

her hand got caught in a big metal gate

I've worked in several schools, and the type of gate you mention I have only seen as an external gate leading into the school. I can't imagine why these would be opened for nursery children on their very first day

I would expect as a minimum an accident form and a phone call to inquire about your child. Then I would expect a meeting with the nursery teacher, TA and headteacher, to discuss the incident and how they are going to prevent future accidents occurring.

So sorry this happened OP

I would be asking

To see a copy of the accident book. This will give an impression of how seriously they took it. Does it give a lot of detail or just 'girl trapped finger in gate'

Why was this not covered by a risk assessment? As a big heavy gate is an obvious risk and should have had either some protections fitted or some procedure to stop it being opened or closed when children were in the vicinity

What have they done to stop this happening again eg different gate, replaced parts of it, use an alternative gate

Have they done a review of similar risks eg other doors and gates to make sure it cabr happen in another place on the premises

I'd double check the HSE rules, not sure if an accident requiring hospitalization and operation has to be reported for a more school (as it would in the workplace).

I'd check back through the last Ofsted report and see if any safety concerns were raised.

No matter how important safety is to an organisation, it is run by humans who make mistakes and miss things. It's how seriously they take it, how apologetic they are, and how they are making sure it doesnt happen again.

In terms of the cries of 'sue them' and 'it's an accident'...yes accidents happen however there is a very high duty of care towards young children and this is not a case of a slip or a fall which are almost impossible to prevent. I think it would be pretty easy to prove a duty of care was owed and this was breached and this resulted in a serious injury. If your daughter would require any long term intervention eg physio or if there are likely to be long term effects then it may be worth looking into through an injury solicitor. There is no rush to do this though, you have years to think about it, but I'd suggest keeping evidence incase. Also ask them if they have notified insurers, as they should have done for such a serious incident

I wouldn’t just accept this under the banner of ‘accidents happen ‘ at all although in the past I probably would have. The reason is that I have been on training courses where it was very clear that gates should be designed and installed specifically to prevent this kind of accident. I would be delving into this further. I hope your little girl is doing ok.

I maybe wrong but i believe this level of accident is reportable under health and safety legislation. It may also need to be reported to ofsted so I would be checking they are doing this as required.

Great post @AmIRightOrAMeringue

My daughter had a similar injury, was horrendous so I totally understand how you feel. The up side is after the surgery she recovered well and now you would hardly know. Little fingers can recover remarkably well.

I would want to know how school are going to respond but I also think it's a total accident and unfortunately accidents happen. It wouldn't stop me sending her back, unless they were not taking it seriously and recording the accident appropriately.

I'm both a parent and a ta.

As a parent, I warned school of something that wasn't safe, ironically a week later my daughter was injured by unsafe thing that hadn't been sorted. DH went in and complained to the head about it...staff member responsible was given a warning and unsafe item made safe. We were lucky my DD injury wasnt as bad as it could have been.

As a ta I am very cautious... Checking everyone is away from doors and gates, at the very least some procedures in the school need to change. Especially when settling in New children who don't know the routines or safety rules.

Someone has been lax....they probably feel terrible but they need to answer for their actions. At the very least you deserve to know exactly what happened and how they plan to keep your DC and the other DC safe in future.

Will this be the school your DC will be starting in reception?

Your poor DD and poor you OP. So upsetting. I hope your DD makes a full recovery from the op. Agree with amiright about the way forward generally. Only you can decide about whether DD should return to the pre school and presumably later transition to the primary school. Take some time to think about this and see what the school say about the incident.

The key word here is ‘accident’. Children’s fingers get trapped all of the time

^^

I'd say the key word here is negligence. They have special devices to put on doors for small kids. A preschool needs to know this!

Choices- sue you will get about £3-5k (based on my knowledge of similar LA nursery accidents)

Do nothing and chalk it up as an accident.