New to working in a nursery and witnessed horrible treatment

[Emrald1]

Today, my colleague was in a bad mood and just wanted to do tasks like clearing drawers and not interact with the children. She was frustrated with a DC crying and said 'right, this is what we're going to do' and she forcefully grabbed her by the hand and marched her over, plonked her hard down on the floor and then chucked her doll that she had brought in from home down on the ground next to her really hard. A bit later on, she aggressively marched over to the same DC with a angry look on her face and forcefully removed her dummy from her mouth. Whilst having dinner, the same DC was trying to take food from another's plate and she again grabbed her hand away in not a nice way and shouted NO. I don't do nappies as I am lunch cover so I let her know that this DC had soiled their nappy, as she was on nappies and there was no other staff present. She gave a look of disgust to the DC and didn't say anything. I made a note of these things. I was looking for advice as I know I need to report this but this member of staff has been there a long time whereas I haven't and I have a feeling I won't be believed as I think she is seen as a very competent member of staff but this was witnessed by just me. How can I approach this please

I agree with those. I was a nursery manager for many years and some staff can discipline in an unsuitable way. Even though nurseries have an ethos and policies in place, staff are often not up to quality and have pre conceived ideas on how to handle situations which should not be tolerated at all.
Nurseries are struggling to recruit at the moment and the quality of staff will be affected.
Please report.

I am totally appalled what l have just read. The nursery worker is abusing this poor child and should not be working with children. You must report this as soon as you can. I would hate to think if l was working, leaving my child to be cared for and find out he/she is being treated terribly. This abuser needs not to work with children again, they obviously irritate her, she shows this by her actions.
Wether you are new or not, whether she has been there 10 minutes, or 10 years there is no excuse for her behaviour. Put it this way Ofsted wouldn't be happy at all.. You have a duty of care for this child and you know what you need to do, so do it. Speak with the care manager, or whoever is in charge, make notes exactly what you witnessed. If this piece if crap does this when another member of staff is about, what does she do, if alone just for a minute or two....Please sort it out, for your own piece of mind but especially for this small child, who needs you to stand up for her .

Oh my goodness that is awful, that poor little child.

This has to be reported as soon as possible.

I used to work in a nursery when I was about 19 and saw this kind of thing quite a few times to be honest. Parents were quite oblivious as staff would put on v different face to them. One member of staff didn't feed a 2 year old for most of the day once because she refused to say thank you for the food. I challenged her and did get something for the child after i found but other staff were on her side, and she was my senior so it wasn't easy.

This thread is heartbreaking. I gave up my career when I had DCs because we didn’t want to put them in nursery. There have been many times when I’ve questioned that decision but I’ll never wonder again. So very grateful we were able to keep them at home until preschool. Those poor children who’ve been treated badly in any nursery. I could cry for them.

I have done my masters in this area of early years. Don't forget 90% of the brain is formed into the first three years and our experiences around us contribute to healthy social and emotional development. Please whistleblow or have a discreet word with the manager.

@oakleaffy

There were quite a few people in our family who wept buckets when my beautiful grandson began trying to make himself understood.

The police came to see him a few times - sometimes with LADO representatives sometimes alone. He was too overwhelmed to actually speak to any of them. They only got here-say - our reporting of what he had said. They had to conclude that it was our word against theirs (nursery) and that DGS was 'unreliable because of his speech delay'. I remember saying 'but what about all the children who can't speak?'. My grandson had absolutely no reason to lie/make something so horrific up and probably was not sophisticated enough to deceive.

They explained that this complaint would be left on file and reinvestigated if another child or parent complained about the same member of staff. The member of staff was my age. And the nursery owner's mother.

We were also advised not to put anything detrimental on social media because if we did we would be taken to court by the nursery. The policeman said that the nursery owner had told him to tell us that but he felt embarrassed to have to say it.

He told us that it's frustrating for them to not be able to get the evidence to prosecute. He also told us that the woman accused was definitely in the wrong job as he said that she had been far too defensive and evasive when questioned - he said he knew she was lying in trying to cover up her behaviour because she repeatedly tripped herself up by telling completely different versions of events.

I'd guess most nurseries and preschools do not have CCTV, I've never visited or worked in one that does.

100% report to your LADO. Details will be on your local authority safeguarding website. I would not trust the nursery to deal with this as they haven't even told you how to report safeguarding issues which is mandatory for any childcare setting.

Yes, this could also be true, but there are parents who need to work for reasons other than financial, and there are parents who haven’t got the capacity to give their child a good start in life.

Our nursery has a lot of staff who also send their children to the nursery they work at. Hopefully that’s a good sign.

I feel heartbroken for the little girl OP. The imagine if he girls doll being taken from ere when she’s upset and thrown in the floor is so sad, poor little mite. I hope your report makes a difference.

Hi Emrald and Winter

I can understand being wary of reporting.

If you really feel you can’t go through management you are still able to contact LADO/Safeguarding direct but as an employee in a Nursery setting you will be asked if you have reported it to management, because this is the first step. It’s usually management, because they’re the ones who go on the courses to be the Designated Safeguarding Officer (that’s in Wales, but there will be an English equivalent). You may wish to start with “I’m an employee in a Nursery, I want to report incidents but am scared of losing my job/repercussions”. I hope they would tell you to report anonymously. However, if they don’t, hang up and instead report by letter, anonymously. You would need to be specific with dates, name of staff member, and with as much detail as you can. Example: Child A , 16 months, wet themselves. Miss X shouted and said “Why didn’t you ask to go to the toilet? You know what you have to do, why don’t you do it?” Miss X put Child A roughly on the floor in a sitting position and said “You can sit there until I’m ready to change you.” Child A was left to sit in urine-soaked clothes for 45 minutes. . When I saw the incident initially I wasn’t happy with her shouting or roughness but thought she would change Child A within minutes. I had to go and sort out a child who had fallen in the playground, had a head bump and needed to ……. When I came back, Child A was crying, and had not been changed.

You get the drift.

If you feel that saying “It was lunchtime “ may identify you, just stick to a date.

Hope this helps, but please do report.

I don’t think cctv is uncommon at all in private nurseries. Ours has it everywhere.

Ours does. You can see in the admin office theres a screen with all the cctv footage on. Think it's also promoted on their website. I thought after the major safeguarding incidents like Vannessa George they all brought them in? I wouldn't send my child to a nursery that didn't have cctv.

I agree. Instead of 30 free hours at 9 months old!

As a parent with a young child at nursery, please report this to management AND tell the parents. If it was my child, I'd want to know immediately.

I'm not doubting that some do, but in the last maybe 12 years I've worked in, trained in or used 8 nurseries or preschools and none have had it.
The two nurseries local to me in my town don't have it.

Poor little girl. Hope you can find a way to report it.

This thread has just triggered a memory for me, I hate crane flies never understood why but as I was reading this a memory of nursery came in my head. I'm early 50's so it's a long time ago. Outside in the back yard of the nursey singing incy windy spider ( I wasn't much of a talker though) being forced to pick up crane flies. I still can't do it.

@tacoxx same. I was so young but mentioned something to the manager and basically there was a meeting highlighted my behaviour.
Myself and one other girl were the only people who cared. The manager was actually sweet but unfortunately a family and their friends had a strangle hold in there and ruled the roost.
So does she believe me a young newcomer or the many family and friends working there for much longer? Does she risk loosing me part time and off to to uni soon, the hassle of an investigation or conviently manage me and keep the staff and bury the problem?

We are locked into chains of command.
We need work and pay to feed our own families.
I'd say very few places have open fair and transparent procedure for complaint and raising standard.

@Emrald1

There you go try and do what seran star said.
Op I am with you, wanting to report but not wanting to loose the job.

She's got a good stragety there and I would try and get a note to the parent also.

Way back when I was younger I did a day trial at a nursery where I witnessed a SEND child treat in a neglectful way. I emailed Ofsted and the manager, and refused the job.

These are the most vulnerable in society and extremely precious to someone, not worth the job to keep quiet about maltreatment.

Tell your manager the way this worker behaves with the children. Please. This little girl doesn't deserve to be treated like this.

Of course it was.

The mother of this child doubtless thinks the same thing, or she wouldn’t leave her there 🤷🏻‍♀️

Please report immediately. Over the weekend if you can. I know someone who got sacked from their nursery job because they witnessed similar behaviour but mulled it over for a couple of days then told management. She was dismissed because she hadn't reported immediately abd it was a safeguarding issue.

The first thing to do when witnessing poor care is to intervene.