nursery accident, ofsted?

[Idk92]

My DS had an accident at nursery which was quite bad. He tripped over a toy, landed and hit his head on the side of a big easel and bit down on his lip causing a big chunk of lip to be bitten off and lots of bleeding. I have since found out he was in a room with 3 members of staff all unqualified and I believe unqualified staff shouldn't be alone with the children without a qualified member of staff.

I don't know what you mean by unqualified?

That they don't have qualifications, I expect.

Sorry, apprentices and one just being a member of staff who covers lunches etc but has no childcare qualification

How does someone having qualifications stop a fall?

I get what you mean BUT all the qualifications in the world wouldn't stop an ACCIDENT where a child trips over

Well, it doesn’t sound as if anything would have been any different if he’d been with trained staff. Unless the staff didn’t know what to do after he was hurt?

i hope he recovers quickly. Sounds very painful for him, bless him.

Did he get taken to hospital?

It sounds like a genuine accident that could have happened with a "qualified" person there.
It doesn't sound like it has happened because 3 "unqualified" people were supervising.

No, I would not involve Ofsted.

The most senior member of the team couldn’t prevent an accident happening OP. Sounds like he’s had a hell of a tumble! One of mine fell off a bike at nursery and had to have his head glued, it happens.

The room needs to have one member of staff at level 3 and half the other staff need to be qualified, but I don't think this necessarily means all those staff need to be physically present at all times.

Your poor boy, it must have been a shock when you heard.

That sort of accident can happen in front of a parent/someone qualified though.

It was an accident and could’ve happened regardless of who was nearby.

If you’re going to report to Ofsted please also remember to report yourself to social services when your child falls over at home.

I think there are two different issues here really.

With regards to the accident, it’s highly likely it would have happened with even the highest qualified staff member in the room. It does sound like a genuine accident, which is horrible and I hope you’re little one is ok.

The main issue/concern here is staffing and how that is structured, if it was me I’d like to know if it was a one off that no trained member of staff was there or is this a recurring theme. If they are using apprentices instead of hiring the required amount of trained staff that is completely unacceptable, if however the trained member of staff had nipped to the loo that for a few moments when the accident occurred they would be an unfortunate coincidence.

I would think with a bad enough accident the nursery themselves should inform Ofsted. My son’s did when he had a similar incident. In his case they found it could have been prevented after watching back the cctv, so they took steps to change things going forward (it wasn’t to do with staff, it was due to room layout)

And no, three unqualified staff should not have sole care of the children, there absolutely needs to be an NVQ qualified person in the room at all all times. It’s irrelevant whether they could prevent an accident or not- those are the rules. Can’t believe some posters are being so blasé about that. What if that’s something that happens regularly and a preventable accident does go on to happen?! Like choking or an unsafe sleep practice or staff not being careful with objects that children shouldn’t be able to reach?

Sorry I meant I didn't understand what that meant in practice. Apprentice, the cleaner, a person off the street?

OP has kindly explained.

This is not an Ofsted ‘thing’ OP. Nothing would have stopped this accident from happening.

There will have been qualified people on site and that is all that needs to be in place…as long as the ratio of adults to child are adequate and they have all got DBS checks, it’s fine!

E.g. Schools employ ‘lunchtime staff’ who will be with many hundreds of children in the playground at lunchtime…these staff are often just mums or grandmas who want a bit of extra cash. The vast majority of them will have no qualifications other than a willingness to get there each day (and a DBS).

Accidents happen all the time 🤷‍♀️

He tripped. I'm not quite sure what you want Ofsted to do about that

It was just an accident, I think a call to ofsted would be unkind.

If you report it to Ofsted they’ll phone the nursery and ask some questions about ratios, number of qualified staff on site and training most likely. They’ll listen to the nursery say that your child tripped. They’ll then do nothing else but at the next inspection the inspectors will know that this was raised as a complaint. That’s all. It sounds like an accident but I’d follow the nursery complaints process in the first instance (Ofsted would expect you to do this too) if you want to complain.

A level 3 childcare qualified professional being in the room wouldn’t have stopped your son from falling.

Rooms don’t need to have someone qualified in them as long as there’s someone qualified on the same floor within shouting distance. Also when I used to work in a pre-school I was technically unqualified, but held a first class honours degree. It just was taken off the DFE just before I graduated. So unqualified but also definitely not.

All the qualifications in the world couldn’t have stopped this. It sounds more like the layout of the room needs to be looked at or items need removing and made safer.

All staff including lunch cover will need to hold paediatric first aid. Which needs repeating every three years.

Accidents happen. The nursery should have already informed Ofsted as it was a bad accident but you could check.
The staffing sounds wrong. Unless the apprentice is studying for their level 3 and is already level 2 qualified. I think that the qualified staff is a bit confusing. Had they just popped out of the room briefly? Or a this a usual set up?
As others have said an accident like that could happen regardless but I would question why it was only unqualified staff there

Yes, this is what I was thinking. If they’d been qualified in all likelihood they still wouldn’t be able to stop him tripping.

I think it’s bad that they didn’t have any qualified staff but it sounds like a genuine accident that couldn’t have been prevented. I would ask about their first aid policy though and who are first aiders.

Does there have to be someone who is paediatric first aid trained in the room? Did the unqualified staff know what to do when the accident happened? I know unqualified doesn’t mean not first aid trained though.

The point is they are non-compliant for insurance purposes so if the child had had a more serious injury that was life-threatening or life changing the nursery would be fucked

Are you sure the member of staff who covers the lunch break is unqualified? In my country the person who covers the qualified room leader (key worker) has to have the same qualification. How can a qualified staff member get a lunch break if the lunch reliever is unqualified and can’t be left unsupervised?