Another nursery worker at Genevieve Meehan’s nursery in court over mistreatment of babies

[Jellycats4life]

Police reviewing CCTV footage find evidence of a nursery worker mistreating four children

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13710965/Nursery-worker-playgroup-Genevieve-Meehan-killed-child-neglect.html

The four charges stated that through assault, ill-treatment or neglect she had cause 'unnecessary suffering or injury' to her young victims.

Gregory had slammed one boy hard down on the floor, Ms Begum said, causing an 'audible thud' and an 'outburst of distressed crying' - and she was then heard to say: 'What you f*ing doing kid?'

Ms Begum said Gregory had swaddled a second boy tightly, picked him up from a cot facing outwards and told him: 'Put your arm through and f*ing go home.'
She picked up a third boy from play mat by the arms and put him in a high chair, causing his head to 'slam' the back of the chair, Ms Begum said.

On a separate occasion, she swaddled the same boy tightly and put him down on a blanket and, with reference to a dummy, told him: 'Put that in your gob and shut up.'

Sadly, none of this surprises me. A working culture that allowed a baby to die, face down and restrained on a bean bag for 90 minutes, was clearly going to be neglecting other children.

Oh God.

How awful for the children, as well as the parents who trusted their kids were being well cared for.

I suppose it isn't surprising that more than one staff member was failing these babies.

I'm not surprised. I worked in numerous nurseries as bank staff as a uni student and regularly saw staff being unkind to children. Staff were completely different when they knew that parents were watching them. All nurseries (and nursing homes and special needs school) should have CCTV that is randomly reviewed by a governing body.

That is dreadful. I worked in a nursery and the thought of people being able to hurt any child in their care makes me feel sick.

Can see why some parents are against nursery tbf when you hear stories like this!

Stands to reason that there was a culture of cruelty. Absolutely shameful.

My cousin also does agency nursery work and said she isn't surprised at all by this.

So cctv is no deterrent at all.,,

Here's another one..
https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/woman-charged-child-cruelty-abh-gbh-1900-month-nursery/

Having worked in lots of nurseries, I do think this is particularly bad.

Overworked, stressed staff being disrespectful, unkind or heavy handed with babies and toddlers is not unusual though. I can definitely see how the circumstances and poor management in a particular nursery could spill over into actual violence.

We need a big change in the way nurseries are run in this country, particularly baby units. It's not good for adults or children.

It will get worse as the government decide to dumb down the qualification requirements. With more funding so an increase in kids and an increase in SEN, what could possibly go wrong?

I worked as a cleaner in a nursery and saw loads of behavior like this. Very young staff who are knackered and stressed out. I would never use a nursery for any child of mine.

I would say it’s more about the temperament of the carers, rather than qualifications.

The nursery already had CCTV which is how they knew this worker had abused children. It obviously didn't work as a deterrent.

I wonder how many other nurseries up and down the country are also mistreating babies?

My cousin would agree and disagree with you on that.
A lot of unqualified nursery workers she says are amazing. But then you have others who cannot speak English well and have very little knowledge of children, especially babies.
Knowing safe sleep practices, stages of development, what falls outside the norm for a child of that age only comes with experience and qualifications.

It’s hard. CCTV can be referred back to but it won’t deter someone who has lost their temper with a child as they are lashing out in the moment. Nobody will have the staff to survey the cctv all the time either. There needs to be experienced room leaders and a whistle blowing policy (I know this exists but with no consequences for failing to report ) which means other staff who witness and do not report can also face prosecution for allowing harm to a child .

If they knew that the CCTV was reviewed by an independent governing body at random then I think that it would be a deterrent. They didn't care about the CCTV when it was just other staff who could view it as they were likely all similar.
I've seen how quickly nursery staff can switch when they know parents are watching them.