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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Another fatal incident at nursery

266 replies

TJk86 · 14/10/2025 11:59

I really dislike nurseries for under 3s for many reasons but it seems that they are not even safe anymore these days. Every other week a story like this pops up on the news. To think a reform is needed to make nurseries safer (Better ratios for example)? In this instance, it’s also been decided that no one will bear the consequences of this accident which must be awful for the parents.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15177433/Toddler-allergies-died-following-medical-episode-nursery-given-dairy-yogurt-mistake-parents-say.html

OP posts:
Differentforgirls · 17/10/2025 01:10

HelenaWaiting · 16/10/2025 23:01

What do you suggest, OP? Professionalise the staff, have smaller staff to child ratios? Great, but parents either can't or don't want to pay for it. The scramble for ever cheaper nursery provision pushes standards down. You all should be campaigning for the government to roll it into the education system - a place for every child, free of charge, from six weeks old, proper qualifications for the staff, proper pay and stringent inspections. It won't happen though.

6 weeks? Why have them 😞

Marcipix · 17/10/2025 08:34

Differentforgirls · 17/10/2025 01:07

They aren’t poorly trained.

How do you know?
I have worked with a mixed of well- trained, indifferently trained, and completely untrained people.
Some did not pretend to have any interest in the children.

SouthLondonMum22 · 17/10/2025 09:06

Differentforgirls · 17/10/2025 01:10

6 weeks? Why have them 😞

A 6 week old in nursery in this country is highly unusual, some nurseries don't even take them that young.

Differentforgirls · 17/10/2025 09:17

Marcipix · 17/10/2025 08:34

How do you know?
I have worked with a mixed of well- trained, indifferently trained, and completely untrained people.
Some did not pretend to have any interest in the children.

Was it a private nursery?

Differentforgirls · 17/10/2025 09:18

SouthLondonMum22 · 17/10/2025 09:06

A 6 week old in nursery in this country is highly unusual, some nurseries don't even take them that young.

That was what the person I quoted thought was reasonable!

SouthLondonMum22 · 17/10/2025 09:27

Differentforgirls · 17/10/2025 09:18

That was what the person I quoted thought was reasonable!

Even if that was to happen, which pp said wouldn't anyway, the amount of people that would take a place from 6 weeks would be tiny just as it is now with nurseries who do take 6 week olds.

Clonakilla · 17/10/2025 09:38

Goodness how tragic. It shouldn’t be possible for mistakes like that to occur,

I must say I can’t recall the last time I treated a seriously ill or injured child who became so in a childcare setting, they’ve all been from home with a handful from school.

Not sure what your ‘many’ objections to nurseries are - the majority of staff I’ve known working on seriously ill or injured children have used nurseries so that they can attend their life-saving work. I’m yet to have a parent turn to me whilst I run a paediatric resuscitation and tell me they have concerns about where our kids are.

TickyandTacky · 17/10/2025 09:44

SouthLondonMum22 · 17/10/2025 09:27

Even if that was to happen, which pp said wouldn't anyway, the amount of people that would take a place from 6 weeks would be tiny just as it is now with nurseries who do take 6 week olds.

That's because they have to pay for it. You'd be surprised what people will do when something is offered for free.

Sartre · 17/10/2025 09:51

Doesn’t surprise me. We had awful experiences in private nurseries, I was relieved when they started school. Swapped nurseries three times in total. Too many incidents to mention but they were all severely understaffed and oversubscribed.

Marcipix · 17/10/2025 10:04

Differentforgirls · 17/10/2025 09:17

Was it a private nursery?

Yes it was a private nursery.

Differentforgirls · 17/10/2025 11:26

Marcipix · 17/10/2025 10:04

Yes it was a private nursery.

School Nursery staff and those in partnership with the LA have well trained staff.

Helenalove · 18/10/2025 12:28

BluntPlumHam · 15/10/2025 08:25

It would be difficult to prove manslaughter but death by negligence for sure. You cannot hide behind low pay and over worked excuses. You have a duty of care to every child in your care, loco parentis. Parent’s can over look certain things such as cuts, bruises from falling or not wiping their children after the toilet etc but to suggest that giving a child a substance known to be fatal to them is simply an oversight isn’t good enough. Someone has lost their everything because of someone’s negligence.

Attracting people to the profession is a separate issue however I agree convictions and sentences will certainly be a deterrent and so be it. I don’t want people who don’t have a basic standard of professionalism and sense of duty entering said profession anyway.

There are far too many child care workers entering the profession so they can do a few hours to top up their benefits/uc or stay at home with their own children. It shouldn’t be a place for school drop outs or individuals who need a part time job.

You have definitely never worked in a nursery. I have.

There are huge systemic and societal failings.

People want their child to be well looked after , and then society pays nursery workers next to nothing, so nurseries cant hire enough staff. If a profession is badly paid - people do not want to work there. This leads to chronic staff shortages.

If nurseries are constantly short staffed, how can staff look after the children properly?

I used to work in a nursery. I left , because what I was expected to do was impossible. I was genuinely afraid that a child would be harmed in my care, as i did not have the time to watch every child.

We know how much care toddlers need,

To to put them in a place that does noy have enough staff is dangerous!

This is happening a lot!

The government needs to respect childcare workers more, pay them more, this would attract more staff.

CurlyhairedAssassin · 18/10/2025 12:36

HelenaWaiting · 16/10/2025 23:01

What do you suggest, OP? Professionalise the staff, have smaller staff to child ratios? Great, but parents either can't or don't want to pay for it. The scramble for ever cheaper nursery provision pushes standards down. You all should be campaigning for the government to roll it into the education system - a place for every child, free of charge, from six weeks old, proper qualifications for the staff, proper pay and stringent inspections. It won't happen though.

I don't want the UK to become a country where we routinely expect all very tiny babies to be put into institutional care. Come on, that is a very low bar indeed in terms of what's best for a child's wellbeing. I would be campaigning strongly AGAINST that.

TJk86 · 18/10/2025 13:53

CurlyhairedAssassin · 18/10/2025 12:36

I don't want the UK to become a country where we routinely expect all very tiny babies to be put into institutional care. Come on, that is a very low bar indeed in terms of what's best for a child's wellbeing. I would be campaigning strongly AGAINST that.

Exactly this. 6 weeks? You can’t be serious @HelenaWaiting

OP posts:
TJk86 · 02/11/2025 11:54

here we go again, do nurseries just hire anyone with a pulse these days?! Awful, those poor babies.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cze665j2y51o.amp

OP posts:
Differentforgirls · 02/11/2025 19:55

TJk86 · 02/11/2025 11:54

here we go again, do nurseries just hire anyone with a pulse these days?! Awful, those poor babies.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cze665j2y51o.amp

This can happen in a school setting too. I’m not a big fan of the current culture where children are put in nursery at a young age all day, every day and have a longer day outside their home than their parents do. However, situations like this happen mainly in the home. Best thing to do is to teach your children about consent. An enhanced disclosure just means that the person who has one has never been caught. If children are going into settings when they can’t go to the toilet, can’t sit and eat, can’t use cutlery, can’t chat about things round a table and see nursery staff more than they see their parents, then they are vulnerable because they can’t do every day things, never mind understanding consent.

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