Who was more in the wrong at work today

[Safarigiraffe]

Work in a daycare nursery in Kitchen however today at work me/chef did not provide a no dairy child with a no dairy meal as we didn’t notice him on dietary (our mistake there & we admitted that as well) and at the handover no mention from the room members was made & dietary sheet was signed to say all was good and well (all children have tent cards with their dietary requirements on them). They gave the no dairy child a dairy meal and the child reacted with a rash. Parents of child informed they not too happy but said they will keep a look out for him however if parents complain this could go into an investigation with not only us but room members suspended. So who is more at fault - kitchen, room or both the same.

You ‘didn’t notice him on dietary’. Why not. You need to look at the processes and understand that you had a narrow escape. You could have killed this child. I wouldn’t concentrate so much on who was to blame, but sorting out procedures so that it doesn’t happen again.

The first line of preventing harm is for the kitchen staff to check the dietary.

The fact you didn't and clearly don't by routine and are looking to blame others says a lot about how seriously you take checking the dietary. You simply aren't doing it religiously.

You shouldn't expect others to be picking up on where you have failed. They are there to spot it if you've failed, but you shouldn't be failing to spot this in the first place. It smacks of you being too reliant on others to stop a potentially fatal mistake.

Who is to blame overall is irrelevant for this reason. You shouldn't be even at a point where you are thinking about blame - it shouldn't have happened.

We (kitchen) forgot to give child no dairy food & room member served child dairy food (4 members of staff) however dietary was signed at handover

If the protocol is to check that dietary requirements have been met at handover, then clearly the room staff share in the blame. If that is not the protocol, then it's clear that the protocols need to change.

Either way, this is a collective failure and a child's safety was put at risk. Just think about what could have happened!

This really isn't about who is to blame. The error has taken place. How are you all going to work together to ensure that it can't happen again? What additional measures are the kitchen staff going to implement? What additional measures do the room staff need to implement? You are all responsible for the safety and wellbeing of the children in your care. Stop worrying about who was at fault and make sure that the mistake is never repeated.

Noone was "more wrong". You were all wrong. I have a friend who is a nursery chef and has been in this position (though thankfully staff realised before the child actually ate anything).

He admits he was wrong for missing the child on the list (but accidents happen)

And the staff admit they were wrong for habitually signing the sheet rather than actually checking (but accidents happen when staff are busy and trying to do several things at once)

Procedures were changed and now food for children with allergies have to be plated up in the kitchen on a different coloured plate and a name sticker stuck on it. Children have still been missed but they are no longer served the wrong food - chef just has to go down and plate up an extra portion.

I think its your fault.

This is awful to read. Mistakes happen but your focus on who to blame is disgusting. I work in a hospital. Human error happens so when it does, we investigate and look at how we can introduce a new process to mitigate future risk. The blame game isn’t helpful, learning from errors is what you should all be doing.

It's your fault for not noticing there was an allergy when preparing the meals

It's also the room staff fault for actually giving him the food.

Neither is more to blame than the other and it's irrelevant.

This is unacceptable. Parents send their children to day care expecting their children to be safe and well looked after.

I'm.a hospitality manager by trade, and I can't comprehend how blasé you appear about this. I'm also struggling to actually follow your processes from your story. You had a list of dietary requirements and you didn't follow it. Major, MASSIVE fail. At what point does anyone conform the special meals? What verbal or visual cues do you use? As someone else asked- what changes will you immediately bring in?

What do you mean you didn't notice him on dietary?

Don't you have a list of each child's requirements if they're not standard?

I used to work in restaurants and it was everyone's responsibility, but mainly the kitchens if they had been explicitly told about someone with allergies

All of you are responsible.

Write out your version of events and if you go to disciplinary admit where things went wrong at your end and what you are doing to ensure it doesn't happen again, this will hopefully minimise any sanctions that may be considered.

I have a coeliac daughter and would be raging if this was her!

The nursery procedures aren't good enough. Hopefully they will be reviewed so this can't happen again, I dont expect any of you are fully to blame. All could do better.

Our school has photos of all allergy kids on the wall in kitchen. I have heard of different coloured trays being used. There is probably a lot your nursery can do. If asked about it I would show concern about the process and suggest any improvements.

I think some sort of double check where kitchen knows the allergy names, nursery says who is in and both check for any allergies. Perhaps a review of the list weekly or monthly.

So do you have a list of the children in that day, with their allergies on - is that what 'dietary' is? How did you miss the child?

What's the normal procedure then? Do you plate an allergen free meal? Are the other kids meals plated by you? Or are they served 'family style' at the table in the room?

How would the room staff know that the whole meal wasn't fairy free so no special food needed? Did they assume this was the case as no alternative food had been provided?

Of course it's relevant to the staff who is to blame. It's their jobs on the line.

As a parent my main question would be how are you going to make sure this doesn't happen again? How are you going to reassure me that my child is safe in your care?

Exactly whose fault it is depends on your procedures, which I don't know, but ideally there shouldn't have been a single point of failure. Does he normally have separate meals? How do they know when to give him the same as everyone else and when to give him a different meal?

The kitchen is responsible for providing the correct food. The room is responsible for second checking the kitchen and making sure they have don their job correctly. The kitchen I suppose is more at fault.

I can’t really see why that is the focus though. In this case a child got a rash the consequences could have been significantly worse. If it were me and I had been involved in a work activity where a child got hurt, I wouldn’t be worrying about who’s fault it was. I would be worrying about making sure it didn’t happen again.

God I would be absolutely fuming. YOU are to blame. You knew you’d not provided a dairy free meal and instead of saying ‘no that child cannot have this Meal it has dairy’ you just let them serve it in the hopes that would pass the blame. Fucking disgraceful, I suggest you take a long hard look at yourself.

I work in a nursery kitchen. So many procedures are put in place so that this doesn’t happen, you are all to blame & this needs to be so so seriously, I would hope there is a formal complaint & investigation.
As the main chef I am aware of every child’s allergies, whether I’m told on the day or not…did you as kitchen staff not recognise the child’s name on the list as someone who has had non-dairy before and think to question it?
For example ‘oh Adam in room 2 is down for a normal meal but I’m sure the on his last sessions he was down for non-diary, I’ll just check?’ Or the staff in the room when collecting meals ‘adams is non-dairy yes?’ These are kids that get fed everyday by the same people, there should be some familiarity by now surely?
if I managed at this setting, everyone involved would be investigated & disciplined/ retrained on allergies.

Aren’t their signs up in kitchen with kids face on it so you can always check?

Whoever is responsible for caring for the child. I'm assuming you won't know every child individually as well as the people responsible caring for them.

The initial question is whether the food, which should have already been allergen quantified, has been incorrectly prepared eg putting butter or milk into mash.

If it has, the blame lies squarely with the kitchen.

If the food on question was correctly labelled and given to a dairy intolerant child eg custard then the fail safe would have been the room.

All to blame.
Kitchen staff should have noticed dairy free meal on the list.
Room staff should have checked there was a meal for the dairy-free child before signing the sheet.
Nursery manager also to blame for not having a sufficient allergy procedure in place.

In future, the handover should also be done verbally, not just written sheets.

Allergy meals should be served first.

All at fault.

All off you, our chef has dietary sheets for every child but comes into every room off a morning to double check all is correct us staff know every child in our rooms with an allergy and if we are unsure we can check in seconds on there care plan. Who signed the dietary sheet? Who give out dinner without checking? And why did no staff question if allergy child can have it? Most important how on earth do you miss an allergy child off your list?

Unless we are given more detail we can't say that. The room asked (via the list) for a dairy free meal. The meal itself may not have been visibly containing dairy