Child hurt by staff member at nursery

[Pololo]

Posting for traffic.

I had a call from nursery today saying that a member of staff had been trying to get my son to take his shoes off, to go down for a nap. Apparently to do this they grabbed his leg and pulled him, knocking him over and he hit his head on a cabinet. This was witnessed by other staff members.

He is fine following the incident and we were informed and apologised to straight away. The staff member was moved to another room for the aftenoon. Nursery sought advice from LADO and have reported to police. Is there anything else I need to ask nursery to do, or need to do?

I'm a bit shocked and worried this will cause other staff have bad feelings towards my son. I've never had any concerns about any staff at the nursery. My son is 2 with a speech delay so he can't tell me about what happened.

If the nursery, who witnessed what happened, felt it appropriate to seek advice from the lado, and the lado, who typically is a very experienced worker, have directed them to the police, I don’t think it’s for people commenting to determine the force used and whether it was inappropriate. That’s the whole point of an investigation being required.
OP it sounds like you have a good nursery and they’re following all the correct procedures. Just query how and when updates will be shared, and what the plan is should the updates not be back by the time the worker is due back from leave.

I can see from what others have said that accidents happen. But a bruise is evidence of excessive force, that is completely unacceptable to grab a child hard enough that they bruise (save a life or death situation perhaps?)

Are the nursery aware that there’s a bruise? It needs to be properly photographed by a medical photographer. Safeguarding would take a non-accidental bruise extremely seriously.

The LADO is often a department of several different people based on the size of the local authority. They will often consult with the police for advice about whether situations meet criminal threshold and will be advised by them whether it does or doesn’t.
If nursery have reported to police separately, that is a different pathway but may end up with the same result ultimately.

Its hard to tell on description whether or not it would meet criminal threshold without the accounts of the witnesses which I imagine nursery have provided to LADO. But OP brought it to MN so people gave opionions.

I am using the nursery's language - odd to presume I am not. The nursery report specifically says "grabbed then pulled"

Apologies. I don’t think the nursery have given you a very detailed explanation of what happened and I would be asking for information.

Just wanted to send good wishes to you and your ds. This must have been such a shock and I hope you are both ok

To bruise your son there would have been excessive force used. To grab your son without regard to where he might land would imply to me that they lost their temper in that moment and were too focussed on making him comply.
what happened to your son was assault, not an accident. I hope he’s okay

Try not to worry about other staff and anything changing between them and your child. I understand what you mean, but incidents making staff more cautious is more like with behavioural issues which go wrong (e.g. issues which result in hitting, biting, excessive physical interactions- these can be hard to know how to manage especially after a big incident)

In this case the staff are bluntly saying he was grabbed and pulled. They aren't protecting the staff member in statements they are protecting your child.

I would probably ask them to let you know why they did not suspend on the day. Ask them to confirm this staff member will have no further contact with your son. And ask them to investigate the case with the safeguarding seriousness it requires, both internally and with the police. You may not get the outcome of the investigation, but I would 100% insist no further contact between the staff member and your child.

Sorry this happened :( I'm glad you were told the truth and no one tried to hide it at least. Hope the staff member doesn't continue working with children

It does sound like the staff member acted out of frustration rather than intentionally hurting your child, but it sounds like the nursery are taking it very seriously and doing everything correctly.
They could have easily just explained it away as an accident.

I imagine this will be the end of the staff members career in childcare.

@Mostlyoblivious @Amimaimia but maybe the bruise is from when the child fell rather than from being grabbed? We don't know so it's not helpful to assume. My nephew has had many bruises from just falling over, which I found quite surprising given how close to the ground he is.

Could you ask them for details of what happened immediately before the incident?

Had the nursery worked asked your child to sit/take shoes off several times and then pulled him out of frustration? (If so I'd be questioning why they didn't immediately send her home!).
You'd assume that there was no intent to harm, but ask them the question directly. Do they think it was an accident or deliberate? Was she just trying to remove the shoe or did she grab and pull his leg to get him to sit down?

Tbh, I don't think they'd have reported to the police if she'd just been trying to get his shoe off and the falling over was a total accident. Its good that they're dealing with it, but I would not be comfortable with her potentially working there until there is an outcome to any potential investigation.

On the other hand. It could have been an accident and she's totally devastated she hurt him and there was no malice or frustration in her action. An investigation sounds necessary.

You're worried about the wrong thing, op. Your child was aggressively handled by a staff member at nursery resulting in an injury. I'd be fuming and expecting more from them (staff sent home, suspension). She (or he) clearly should not be working with children.

It sounds as if it was from grabbing but yes this is an assumption. But that is exactly why you need a medical opinion. They should say the probable cause and if it was non accidental. (If it is non-accidental it is A BIG DEAL. )

Safeguarding need to look into this, it’s good they contacted the police but they have a very different burden of proof to deal with.

OP the bruise needs considering asap. I have professional experience, even small bruises are taken very seriously.

It wasn't an accident. If it had been a genuine accident, there wouldn't be a need to send the worker to another room, contact the LADO and then police.

It needs to be reported to OFSTED as well. When my son was at nursery, a member of staff witnessed the deputy manager pulling his arm very roughly. She reported it to the manager and there was an investigation. The deputy manager was sacked in the end. Don’t take this lying down OP.

Ofsted won’t consider a live investigation like this. They would only look in to a concern about whether proper processes have been followed after the investigation has been completed. Ofsted don’t do investigations themselves.

Hi I have been shouted at by strange man on road, while I was waiting to pick my son from school. I felt very intimidated and harassed. I did not respond to the guy and tried to ignore him. He wasn't happy because I was parking on road, obviously he lived near there. He was walking, looked like he was going to school as well to pick his own kids. These thing happens mostly there as residents of that area don't like parents stopping either to drop or pick their kids from school, school got very limited parking. So parents try to park away from school to pick up and drop off. After shouting he came back and took picture of myself and car on his phone.
I am a very sensitive person, get frightened very easily with these kind of or road rage incidents. Its hard for me to forget easily and this keep rewinding again and again. I can't walk to school as school is far from home.
Any ideas regarding this situation will be helpful as other mums might face these type of issues too.

@GoGogachogamoomao you need to start your own thread

Sounds like the nursery are on top of this and have escalated it appropriately. They have told you too . Hope your son is ok x

Ok sorry got mixed up here, as a new user, didn't know, how to start thread. I will try now.

I’m hoping if you can, you have permanently taken your son out of this nursery, go to the police yourself too. What if he had hit his head on something harder- concrete?!- god forbid!

I deleted my post as its a hijacked thread.

So just to update - when I posted this they did not have cctv of the incident. I've since been allowed to view the cctv as it shows this was not in any way an intentional act and was an accident where my son had been leaning on a staff members legs while she helped him with his shoes and fell through the middle of her legs.

The statements from other staff members did not in any way match what had happened (and one of these staff members left the setting a week later). They obviously can't share about any disciplinary action towards the other staff members.

I've sat down with the nursery to look at the outcomes and am really happy with how they dealt with this.

Glad to hear it was an accident not intentional

Wow @Pololo this is good news but why on Earth were 3 staff members describing it as being done purposely?