Nursery handing over child to drunk mother

[OldLadyKnowsNothing]

It's a story in the Sun today. Shouldn't the nursery have refused to hand over the child to a woman "reeking" (ie, stinking) of booze, and more than three times over the drink-drive limit? What's the law on this?

Most Child Protection Policies state that you will not release a child into an unsafe situation. So, it may have been reasonable if they thought the Mum was walking home, but as soon as they saw that she was driving, then that was unsafe, so they had a duty to report it - which they did.

We've covered this scenario in Child Protection training a couple of times.

The nursery (or childminder) has no legal right to refuse to hand over a child to a parent unless there's a court order in place.

What you can do is to strongly advise the parent not to take the child and warn them that you will immediately call the police if they do.

You cannot refuse access to parent unless a court order is in place. I have however delayed a parent in the past until partner turned up. Very sad but the nursery did what they could ie: call police. Luckily child was ok.

Thank you both.

oops, sorry, x post with atwork - thanks to you too.

well court order or not as a cm I wouldnt hand over any of my loved minded children to a drunk and let them drive away.. much happier arguing the toss in court than have a dead child on my conscience.

sad at the nurserys action but not suprised, as usual we all all so bloody well hung up on what is allowed and what isnt that we fail to use any commen sense what so ever.

as Jim Royal might say, 'child protection my arse'...

I am not big on interfering with domestic relationships, but in this case if I couldn't have sobered up the mother or got the dad over to help, I would have phoned the police as well.

Well done nursery.

thebody, I cannot see how the nursery did anything wrong. Their hands are tied legally. They did the right thing to call in the police.

OMG! I worked with this woman many years ago - probably as many as 18 or so! She was lovely, very good at her job, conscientious, and a wicked sense of humour. Shocked and sad to see she has this problem, poor her. I'm sure she is still a very decent person.

Lots of pissed mums at the school gate IME. Not a good situation.

No i do understand the nurserys position of course, as a cm I would call the police as well, but I would physically prevent any drunk getting into a car and driving if I could, but especially someone with a child in tow who I had a duty of care to protect.

I wasnt actually finding fault with the nursery but with the law here,I am quite sure that most drunk drivers who kill or injure others would turn back the clock and would have wanted someone to stop them.

all very sad though..