Nursery won't take child in 7 weeks after injury

[AleenaM]

Child age 4y had a broken leg, in a cast for 5 weeks. Was not allowed in at all into their nursery as it's an outdoor setting (private nursery setting not a pre school ) and quoted "not safe". Made us go through hoops such as obtain a letter from surgeron that child can attend, arrange an OT to visit the nursery. Then still deemed it unsafe.

Post cast they've allowed child back in for 3 hrs daily for 2 weeks, however now into week 3 and still insisting on only 3hours while they best figure how to support child with toilet etc. and make a plan for next week.

Is there anything I can do to get them to accept child ? I'm struggling to work if I have to drive up and down to there after just 2:30hrs. They haven't even accepted I bring them in 1hour earlier to be at morning snack and welcome time due to not enough staff to support this.

At home child is mobile on all terrains. Struggles with toilet just as before. Can't help but think it's their own staffing issues and reluctance to accommodate my child. Is there anything I can do, do they have any legal duty to accommodate temporarily disabled children ?

I'm lucky I WFH else I would've long be sacked by now. I've no family around.

Dig out your contract /terms of service. There should be details in there about the service they provide and importantly what the process is for complaints etc.
Assuming you are not paying for the place whilst the child isn't using it? If you are continuing to pay for full time and they are only provide part time then I'd be complaining strongly. Follow their process and see if you can find anything in their terms of service that they've not followed

She asked for advice not for your unnecessary comments. People like yourself should be banned from posting

If you've been paying full fees all this time, I'd start going down the official complaints route.

I suspect as paying customers of a private business, there's very little you can do for recourse. I guess the "regulator" is Ofsted?

What an absolute twat of a comment.

Yeah, that's the real issue here 🙄 Well done on your insightful contribution.

So do you have advice or suggestions please?

Christ. Really? Go start a fight on another thread if you’re that bored.

Sounds like the nursery being outdoors isn't suitable for your child. Find another nursery. You can't keep attempting to wfh and putting chair in front of Netflix which I'm sure you know. Maybe a childminder might be a better fix if struggling with toilet. Good luck

Your child is still crawling because they had a broken leg? If they are not fully walking/running as before then I can see the nurseries point. Have they had physio?

Perhaps you could arrange to meet with the nursery staff to walk through the nursery environment to help them assess how mobile your child is there (it may be that they feel confident to climb furniture and move around in a familiar environment, but slightly more trepidatious elsewhere)
Also, a fact-to-face chat with staff is always better; they can help you understand any rules/limitations of the environment that they feel is making them feel they cannot care for them appropriately. Perhaps if they are short-staffed, they feel your child won't be safe, even if you are confident in their ability; it's a biggie, caring for other people's kids (even tho this is their job!)
Could you spend a morning at the nursery with your child. That way, the staff will be able to talk to you if any problems arise, your child will feel more confident, and you can assess how safe you think they are

Tibia and femur fractures. Not walking as well as before yet. No running.

This is the NHS so ' children do their own pyshio' and 'we can see after 6weeks from cast being off'

they can walk or crawl to the toilet and get on and off, but continue to have accidents (which they did before all this anyway).
If a 4 year old is crawling they're not fully mobile yet. We didn't have an issue with childcare was in middle of lockdown, but my child that had a very significant break took 5-6 weeks post cast removal to be fully mobile and trusting themselves on their feet again. He was in hospital for a few weeks though, it was a very big break, hopefully your LO wasnt so big and she recovers fully sooner than that. It's really unfortunate, but especially if things are outside I wouldn't be confident looking after a 4 year old that isn't fully mobile. It's different when it's your kid to someone elses. The setting unfortunately sounds like it makes it harder for them to look after leas mobile children. FWIW we're in a different country and no physio either. He was fine without it.

Sorry but that does sound difficult for the nursery, how are they meant to supervise a child who isn't fully mobile? For safety, they would need a higher ratio of staff. If they've had OT in, they have done what they can to accommodate. But they have to think of their insurance, their staff ratios and unfortunately that will impact your child. It isn't fair obviously, but it sounds like a significant injury that they aren't recovered from yet.

After a Dr letter and a risk assessment, it's either safe for the child to be there or not. I don't see how half days make sense.

I’m sorry your child was injured. Sounds nasty. If your child is out of their cast, shouldn’t they be walking well by now, not crawling? What does the fracture clinic say about their progress? Could you get private physio if there’s none on the NHS. Also unless your child has delays, daytime nappies at four is late and ideally you’d be working on that too. However, if your nursery offers funded places they are bound by same rules re disability as state schools & nurseries even if they are private and must abide by the equality act which means they must not discriminate, and must make reasonable adjustments and offer all children equal opportunities to play etc. I’d make much more fuss about getting him back in asap & would be mentioning the equality act and Ofsted if they dig their heels in.

Exactly. The child has been doing 3 hours a day for the last 2 weeks. The nursery can't say the setting isn't suitable, but also also offer half days.

I also hope the OP isn't paying full price.

I worked in an office for years, the little amount of work some people do in the office is astounding. I used to do lots of admin cover for 3 to 6 months. The amount of times I would be able to complete people's jobs in about 3 hours and be asking for more work to be told I had done it all was so often.

If you are using government early years funding they have obligations to make adjustments. It might be worth speaking to LA for advice , if so.

No 5-6 weeks recovery after cast removal isn't unusual for a big break of a femur. My LO wouldn't even put weight on it for 10 days after the giant cast came off. His cast covered all of one leg, half of the other leg and up to his belly button. Nappies in ths cast were essential and it took a little while for everything to get back to normal.

I was gonna say this, they don't sound recovered and if its an outside terrain the risk of injury again is huge.

If the risk is that great, then you have to wonder why the nursery are allowing the child to attend for 3 hours a day.

Like other posters have said, it's either safe or not. If the child can be there for 3 hours, why can't they attend all day?

I would imagine the nursery needed to explain that. I have no doubt that they will have reason though.
Op needs to speak to them.

If a member of my staff had emergency childcare issues caused by an injury I would be happy that we muddle along together whilst the problem is sorted

If an office based person wanted to temporarily WFH in such circumstances I would support that

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