AIBU to think that a stranger collecting a baby from a nursery is a massive safeguarding issue?

[Peterrabbity]

I saw on @jodyriley_ ‘s Instagram account last night that her 1 year old daughter was incorrectly collected by the grandfather of another child recently. The man seems to have had the child in his care for over 15 minutes before returning to the nursery.

From what I can gather, the nursery have been incredibly shady in what they’ve told the Mum and as more information has been slowly released, it seems that despite the nursery initially saying the child was asleep when collected, CCTV has proved that she was awake and alert. The nursery have also refused to pass on the names or contact details of the person who picked up the child.

I cannot believe how awfully the nursery have handled this. If I were the parent of a child in that nursery, there’s no way I’d be staying there considering how lax their safeguarding seems to be.

he wasn’t handed the wrong child. He entered the nursery and picked up this little girl. She started crying and he was comforting her and handing her her dummy and blanket.

It’s 100% the grandfathers fault that he couldn’t recognise his own grandchild. 100%. He carried that child awake around the nursery for 10 minutes before leaving and didn’t notice. 10 minutes! He wasn’t given a sleeping child. She was awake. CCTV proved this. This is on him as much as the nursery

You have no business trashing another business on the say so of a Stranger you follow on instagram

i have reported your post for legal reason's

Presumably the grandfather is the grandfather of another child in the nursery. If he was an opportunistic paedophile I don't think he would have returned the child.

The nursery made a huge mistake, and if the staff handed the child to him he will have initially assumed it was the right child, they may look quite alike, but he obviously doesn't know his GD very well or has poor vision or both. He may not be an absolute stranger he may be known to the nursery if he picks up his GD once in a while.

I would immediately pull my child from that nursery and find another one!

But that's for the nursery to do.

Your anger should be directed at the nursery for deflecting and not answering questions, assuming they've not spoken to the parents in detail.

The GF will be mortified that he's made a genuine mistake, embarrassed he took a child that wasn't his grandchild and potentially fearful as people are easily and freely labelling him a potential danger to children when he was being a normal GF helping out his DC.

The information is literally in the BBC news article I shared…

A huge number of the population have facial blindness. I'll post the stats. The fault lies with the nursery not having proper systems to safeguard the children.

"Face blindness (prosopagnosia) affects approximately 1 in 50 people (2% to 2.5% of the population). In the UK, this equates to roughly 1.2 to 1.5 million people, including an estimated 300,000 children, making it more common than autism yet frequently undiagnosed."

So it's entirely possible this Grandad made an innocent mistake..child spends time talking in his company and he realises

Probably got back home and Grandma noticed! Really seems very remiss .As a former Nursery Teacher cant believe this has happened .Strict passwords ,photos and so on .Hopefully they will tighten up their rules on collecting children from now on!

The first port of call shluld be taking the grandfather fir an eye test. Especially if hes still driving.

The police can't investigate because it isn't a crime.
It was a shocking mistake and I would be uneasy if my child was there but it is not a crime.

How is this not child abduction?

The story is all over the media. The nursery has made a formal apology. Ofsted is investigating. Jeez, the grandfather! Jeez, the nursery staff! I’m not easily shocked these days but how in the name of whatever did this happen?

Criminal negligence is absolutely a crime.
Not abiding by the vast safeguarding that nurseries are held to by ofsted is negligence.

There are so many safety precautions in place in nurseries to remove a child and clearly this nursery followed non of their own protocol.

this can be the next specsavers ad !

seriously its an ofsted issue and they would be in serious trouble if grandads name and address were handed out as casually as they hand out kids !

you are over invested in a strsnger on the internet

step back and let the professionals handle it

....and now do you see why the Grandads name is being protected??

It isn't child abduction ...that would need mens rea (an intention) and wouldn't have been facilitated by the people who had a duty of care for the child 🤦‍♀️

Nope ...no such crime as "criminal negligence "

Of course he's not guilty of anything, other than not immediately realising the child he was given by nursery staff was not the right one, as said that little girl may look very like his GD and or he may not see her very often and or he may have poor eye sight. What do you think he did in that 15 minutes? I assume child came back fully clothed and uninjured or the police would be interested. Do you think the GF is a very fast working, while leaving no clues, closet paedophile rather than a loving GF doing his son/daughter a favour picking up his GD from nursery.

@Peterrabbity the only agencies that should be investigating beyond the actual nursery are Ofsted and Social Services to ensure that safeguarding practices are tightened to protect all children

OP, how has the nursery workers mistake led you to belive and plaster all over the internet that Grandad is a paedophile?

He is clearly trusted by the child's parents to collect from nursery. He got given the wrong child, he didn't take the child out of a group of children, perhaps the child looked similar to his grandchild - you don't know.

He took the child back and for that, in your eyes, he's a paedophile. Do you think that your DC's grandad is a paedophile for collecting them from school/nursery?

Nursery are the only ones at fault here and their whole collection system needs looking at urgently.

You are being extremely patronising to the OP. People post here about news stories all the time. Why are you so upset that the OP is doing this here? I would be properly Mumsnet ‘fuming’ if my toddler (and I have teens and pre-teens now) were handed to another family. I can only imagine the trauma for all involved.

Criminal negligence like not exercising the appropriate duty of care to a child under the care of the nursery absolute can and does result in prosecution, making it a crime.
As for what specific crimes took place for this negligence to occur, an investigation will uncover that.
But doing absolutely no safely checks before handing a child over to an adult absolutely is negligent on the nursery’s part, and completely unacceptable.

Grandfather picked his own grandchild up every day so you would think he could recognise the child he was holding wasn't his own grandchild.
Child was awake and was referred to by name by nursery worker.
You've no idea what this man did or didn't do while he had the child.

I am sure that it’s likely that you’re right. But personally, if it were my child, I would hope that the grandfather had his mobile phone checked by the police for images, and I’d also want to know where he had driven with my daughter.

If he is simply a loving grandfather, I’m sure he would have no problems answering these questions and helping a mum put her mind at rest.

There are lots of things that could have happened in 15 minutes.

I'd also be concerned with how little Grandad knew his own grandchild, bearing in mind there was another little child waiting there for this man who was little more than a stranger. I know sometimes family members pick up in an emergency but surely they would know the child. It makes you wonder if the man had dementia or something and shouldn't be minding a child at all.

My first reaction is this is a serious breach of policy but at the same time innocent mistakes can happen. They still need to be treated very seriously and the whole system revised, but it can still happen.