Accident at Nursery

[Pixar1]

My son (3yo) had an unsupervised fall at nursery (he’d only been there a month) from some climbing equipment. It turns out he was pushed by another kid off the equipment, landed on his head and his body flopped over to one side. He was about 70cm up at the time, although the play equipment goes higher.

It wasn’t witnessed, and we were told he just fell a couple of steps. But we were so confused when he developed a dropping and black eye that afternoon. We took him to a minor injuries unit and requested nursery watch the CCTV.

The next day, when they watched the CCTV we found out the true extent of the fall, and he had to go to A&E to be checked out given the height he fell from and how he landed.

He is ok, but after being reassured by the nursery that safety processes would be reviewed, he had another unsupervised fall on Monday! 4 nursery sessions after the last one!

This time they watched the CCTV immediately, he wasn’t pushed and it was less serious as he landed on his back.

Their response has been - we can’t supervise them all the time while they’re playing on equipment at height and we can’t prevent him from going on climbing equipment.

AIBU to take him out of this nursery?

The nursery must have filled in an accident form. They can't not have if they haven't that is a serious thing in itself.

The fact they lied to you my child wouldn't be returning.
If there has been a accident like that the nursery has an obligation to further risk assess the equipment.
A member of staff should be at the equipment when in use.

I would report them to ofstead if you are in england.

The ratio at aged 3 is 1:13 (depending on staff training level). It's fine people saying that they would would have eyes on all children, but to be realistic they wouldn't. It is almost impossible to keep an eye on all 13 children whilst actually interacting with some of them (you wouldn't want to send your child to a nursery where the staff just watched the children and never interacted with them). The worker could have be sorting out or playing with another child at the time. There is often plenty of equipment that is 70cm or taller for children to be accessing. It is often impossible or impractical to watch all of it at once.

Accidents happen, accidents will always happen. They shouldn't have said he only fell a few steps when he fell further - that bit is wrong. However, there's a lot of people here claiming children can be prevented from falling or watched every second, and I'm afraid that's simply not the case with the allowed childcare ratios.

The equipment should be safe, inspected regularly and risk-assessed - however, this does not mean a child would never be able to hurt themselves on it.
The children should be watched in the correct ratio - some children may need a higher ratio (remember though this is set by government and higher staff ratios come at a much higher cost).
Accident/incident forms should be filled out as accurately as possible.

Accidents will sadly always happen at nurseries, it doesn't that people shouldn't try to prevent them. It also doesn't mean that if you no longer trust a nursery you should still send your child there. Or that some nurseries are better than others. However, even in the best nursery, with an allowed ratio of 1:13, staff cannot prevent or witness every accident as much as some people would like them to be able to.

Complain and follow up on the way they treated and reported the accident to you, but also be aware that there will be other accidents/incidents throughout childhood (though hopefully resulted in less injury).

I don't think 70cm is that high and wouldn't expect safety mats for that. 70cm is only a few steps high up a climbing frame or ladder. Play equipment at the park is sometimes over 2/3metres high.

I do find it odd they didn't immediately watch the cctv to check how serious the fall was.

Climbing frames make me a bit queasy- 2 serious incidents at one school I worked at. Broken bones and damage done from falling off standard EYFS climbing frames. The equipment has since been removed. Not out of date or faulty, but nobody wanted it there after that.

I used to work in a preschool we had a lot of outdoor climbing equipment and we always made sure there was a member of staff placed anywhere where a child could potentially fall.
There have been accidents which the staff didn't see, you really can't watch every child but they would be trip and fall accidents, you always watch the climbing equipment.
It has occurred to me that an accident report is actually a legal document so that falsifying this is an offence, (I may have got this wrong) you should definitely report them to offsted.

We watch the children all the time.
They are lying. Sometimes you can't catch them if they fall or trip quickly but you can prevent children climbing too high.

RamblingFar Are there really that many settings though that operate on the 1:13 most of the time? My nursery is no where near that ratio judging by the number of staff in my child’s room.

It's the lying for me. I'd pull him out immediately.

@Bunnycat101

RamblingFar Are there really that many settings though that operate on the 1:13 most of the time? My nursery is no where near that ratio judging by the number of staff in my child’s room.

Lots of school nurseries do. More will work on ratios somewhere between 8 and 13 or will use the higher ratio to cover lunches.

I'd take him out straight away. Accidents do happen but children should be supervised on a climbing frame. That and the fact they lied to you is very poor. He could have ended up in serious trouble with a head injury and you wouldn't think to get him checked out.

Accidents happen. Its the response that matters.

My DD was the proud recipient of many accident firms in nursery and reception. Head injuries were doubly careful.

Seems like your trust has been broken. That's enough to look for another setting.

@Bunnycat101

RamblingFar Are there really that many settings though that operate on the 1:13 most of the time? My nursery is no where near that ratio judging by the number of staff in my child’s room.

Yes, it depends on the type of setting.

A nursery/preschool with a variety of ages will likely have more staff.

A school or holiday club would likely have 26 children with 2 staff or 13 children with one staff member.

There may be more staff around the area (managers, admin, etc) or more at pick up time. But often it doesn't work financially to have more staff for most of the day. There may also be more staff if any children have 1:1 requirements.

It also depends on qualifications. If staff have less qualifications then they have to have more.

It is quite common in childcare settings to have one staff member to work 8am to 6pm with a revolving group of 13 children (some coming just in the morning, some afternoon, some all day).

I used to work for an agency, it would be quite common to end up doing holiday childcare with 13 unknown 3 year-old children in a location I'd had been to before or been to long! I also have worked in many nurseries and schools.

OP, if you’re concerned i would be contacting Ofsted and your Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO). Their approach to safeguarding the children sounds inadequate.

I went to pick up my 3 year old once and she had a gorgeous looking black eye.

Nursery had no idea how she did it and were extremely apologetic. Made a report there and then and promised to keep a closer eye which they did.

Luckily it was reported there because I had just had ds and was still under midwife care. Bloody health visitor came one day and was extremely concerned dd’s black eye. Ignored ds’s health visit and kept going on and on about her eye and was everything ok.

Told her to ring nursery if she didn’t believe me

There should be a member of staff standing by the climbing equipment at all times it's being used.

It wouldn't 100% prevent any falls as they can happen very quickly. However, it would reduce the risk and a staff member would be able to see exactly what was happening at all times.

The nursery does not sound like a good one.

Not good enough imo. I used to work at a school and for example we'd station adults at climbing frames whether nursery or older (we still did this at year 1 and 2 - infant school)

They either properly supervise the climbing frame or they don’t have climbing frames high enough for kids to fall off and get a black eye from. YANBU.

RamblingFar Thank you for taking the time to explain. I honestly don’t know how you managed with 13 unfamiliar 3 year olds in the holiday club. I’d be so stressed.

Bloody hell! How scary for you. I work in a Primary School with an attached Nursery & children would NEVER be unsupervised whilst playing on climbing equipment: or indeed any other equipment!
I'd definitely be removing him immediately & reporting the incident formally as a safeguarding issue. Of course they can't stop accidents happening but they CAN be there to try to prevent things as much as possible, assist immediately if a child is hurt & be aware of exactly what happened. And tell the bloody truth about it!! God, imagine if you hadn't got your little one checked out as they'd assured you it was a minor fall??!!

we can’t supervise them all the time while they’re playing on equipment at height and we can’t prevent him from going on climbing equipment.

Well, what the hell are they paid for then?

Also, they lied to you.

Contact ofsted or local council. If they cannot supervise the use of the equipment they should not be using it. They have a duty of care. What they really mean is they use this time to stand and chat. When in fact one of them should be supervising this piece of equipment.

@Veryverycalmnow

Climbing frames make me a bit queasy- 2 serious incidents at one school I worked at. Broken bones and damage done from falling off standard EYFS climbing frames. The equipment has since been removed. Not out of date or faulty, but nobody wanted it there after that.

I find that really sad . Children need that ohysical challenge!

I think I would report them tbh. That attitude is too blasé. They HAVE to supervise them! Accidents happen, sure, but that doesn't mean we don't hover around to avoid conflicts and whatnot! Especially in high equipment