Child injured at summer camp

[PenSmudge]

ooking for some advice on something which happened to our five year old.

We sent him to a multi sport summer camp, on the second day he broke his nose, it was a head clash with another child, however, breaking his nose is bad enough but what made it so much worst is nobody noticed and he spent half a day with a broken nose untreated. It was first noticed when his dad collected him and saw his nose was wonky his face swollen and bruised.

When it happened no adults were there, one of his friend when to a coach to till him our son was crying, the coach came over looked at him and said to him "you're fine"

We spent the evening in casualty, nobody from the summer camp contacted us to see if he was okay, next day he didn’t attend, we expected a phone call to see if he was okay but we heard nothing from them, finally my husband texted them asking to see the incident report and got a text saying we'll look into it, then nothing till my husband texted them again asking if anyone was going to get back to us. Finally someone phoned us at 7pm the day after the incident to ask us what had happened. Then a day later (two days from the incident) we got an email saying we're sorry your child got a broken nose but we followed all our policies and procedures and we're not at fault. We emailed them back pointing out their policies allowed a child to be left with a broken nose. Now they’ve stopped communicating with us.

At every point we have been polite and reasonable but I'm absolutely raging inside that a child can receive a serious injury and be left unattended and that they think they can brush it under the carpet. However, I'm not sure what to do next.

Did his nose bleed? They don't always bleed when broken which often leads to people thinking it isn't broken.
Based on your son's age, I would expect his group to have a much higher staff to kid ratio than say the older kids. Someone should have noticed. Even if they didn't, once they were made aware he should have been seen by a first aider and an accident form completed.
I would ask to see their accident/incident policy and/or first aid policy.
I would also raise a concern properly (ie not over text). Email what happened with as many details as you have and specific requests for policies.
If you get blanked, I'm would definitely leave a review.

Oh sorry, just saw that they did email you. Keep going. Keep emailing and calling.

That's absolutely shocking. Definitely leave a review and contact head office

Are they registered with Ofsted? I would expect someone to notice so formalise your complaint and ask what was the supervision.

Accidents do happen but you expect some level of care and certainly a report/feedback.

Are they regulated by anyone? I'm not sure how summer camps work. This is awful though and I would be angry too.

Obviously not the same but I'm a Guide leader. If one of our girls has an accident we complete a form for our insurers. Usually no further action is required but if the girl needs additional medical support then the HQ team support with insurance support for extra treatment.
I would expect a holiday club to have a similar insurance set up.

It’s worth thinking about what outcome you’re looking for.

Possibly a refund for the unused day? At most.

They’re not going to admit fault. It’s not an unreasonable incident to get the injury in the first place. Children crash into each other sometimes when they’re doing active stuff.

If your husband noticed the wonk rather than met a hysterically upset child in a lot of pain then they weren’t ignoring his distress. A few hours delay in medical attention doesn’t change the outcome.

So while totally get you’re disappointed, and would never choose to use them again, it’s pretty limited what you’re going to get from a lot of effort in pursuing it. If they’re regulated you could raise a concern with their regulator.

Accidents happen, especially when physical activities are involved. Everyone says to kids oh you’re fine.

5 is a bit young to be without a parent in the first place.

A few hours delay in getting medical treatment doesn't change the outcome?!? Wtf?! Are you for real?! Hope you're not in charge of any organised sports activities.

My son broke his arm at a summer football camp when he tripped on a net, he came home with a wet paper towel on it.

The coaches don’t have X-ray vision and unless a child is really upset then they probably thought he was ok. I’m sure if they realised it was broken they would’ve contacted you.

These things happen all part of being a kid, not sure it’s a legal matter?

Overreaction. Both of mine have broken a bone at a summer camp / sport in neither case did the organisers say or do anything really. It’s just life if kids are running around being sporty, are you usually so litigious? Didn’t occur to me to get all angry about it let alone take legal action and we are both lawyers.

This. I think given it was the first day therefore they hadn’t met your child before it’s not unreasonable to suspect that they didn’t know his nose was “wonky” as they wouldn’t have been familiar with his usual appearance. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for kids to clash heads and cry, in that situation I wouldn’t automatically assume a facial fracture especially if they then stopped crying and went back to playing. It’s unfortunate and a shame for your DS but these things do happen.

Completely missing the point. The injury wasn't their fault, but everything that happened (or rather, didnt) absolutely was. Then when they finally respond its all about damage limitation and ensuring they minimise the chance of getting sued. They completely failed in their duty of care at every single step post accident - and I think they know it, hence that response.

I think the issue isn’t the injury itself, it’s how it was dealt with and that it didn’t follow what I would assume is standard safeguarding procedure. Sure kids get broken bones a lot - especially if it’s a physical club with lots of activities that involve sports etc. However I’d be concerned that first of all nobody noticed it happened, 5 year old children should be being supervised at all times so I’d maybe check their policy on adult to children ratio and check if what they have in place matches up with legal requirements set out by the government. I’d then want to know why when the incident was brought to the attention of the adults, it wasn’t examined properly, I get sometimes a broken nose is hard to determine if you are just looking at one and you aren’t medically trained, but from what you have written it wasn’t even properly assessed. I work in a school , and no matter what accident a child has, big or small, we would stop, sit a child down and assess. If it just looks like a minor injury, that’s fine , treat it as needed and fill in the accident log straightaway. If a bigger incident like a suspected broken bone or head injury/ bump, treat, phone call home and then accident log. Even with the minor injuries, even a graze ( I’m in year 1 so see these daily!) we would inform parents at the end of the day. If , for example, something we deemed minor, then transpired into something that was actually quite serious, I’d be more than happy to invite parents in and have a discussion and listen to any issues they had, going through our process throughly with them and making them aware that everything was followed as should be and that in future we will call these parents if that was something they felt was necessary no matter what accident may occur, for example. So the fact they are being defensive and now effectively ignoring you would make me uncomfortable. They have a duty of care to look after the children they are supervising, and if corners are being cut and processes aren’t being followed that’s a serious cause for concern and whilst this didn’t end up in a tragedy, at some point that could happen, so complaining and raising your concerns around this are certainly valid. If this was a one off and actually they genuinely made a mistake and did follow the procedure properly then fine, nothing more will come of your complaint. More than anything you want to make sure parents and children feel safe enough to return to the summer camp I’d assume , and surely this way of treating you has made you feel anything but safe!

What?

5 year olds go to school…. no parent there when they’re running about in the playground…….

I would make a formal complaint and also ask to a) see their policies and procedures and b) evidence that these were followed.

For me it wouldn’t be about any kind of recompense but I’d want the outcome to be them reviewing their procedures to make sure they are appropriate and training their staff to ensure they are followed so that another child in future doesn’t end up in the same situation.

Do you know if they are registered with ofsted? Because it sounds like a sport club they don’t have to be unless they are providing care for children below school year 1 for more than 4 hours a day. This is the issue- nobody regulates unregistered settings to check things like first aid training, staffing, insurance etc. if they are registered you could complain to Ofsted.

What? 5 year olds are at school without a parent and many need to go to summer camps if their parents work. Do you home school?

Thank you for all your helpful responses. My husband has asked for their policies and for a copy of the incident report, however, they are now ignoring us. I understand accidents happen, 5 year old boys tend to bounce off each other, its how they dealt with it directly after and then when we raised concerns that makes us feel leaving a bad review just isn’t enough.

Is the holiday club registered with the local LA ? They should have the appropriate risk assessments/ insurance etc. has the incident been reported to local H & S under RIDDOR ?

If your son wasn’t particularly upset then they may well have been following their policies.

I can't speak for OP's intentions, but if 'getting litigious' improves safety standards for the next kid - who might have a more serious injury - surely that's a good thing?

You ask for their insurance details and make a claim.

Kids bash into each other and get injured it’s what kids do. How can they prevent this?

Did not even occur to me to complain when mine broke bones playing sports. Sure go in all guns blazing but don’t whine when these businesses shut down as they are not viable as too risky and their insurance costs too high so your kids have no clubs to go to.

I think you are right to be so concerned.
I work in a school, and it is our policy to always phone a parent immediately if there has been any sort of head injury..this is because we know we are not doctors, we do not have xray machines on site, and therefore we are not actually equipped to judge how serious an injury is.
There should have been an accident form filled out, you should have been contacted, the child should have been monitored. If his face was obviously bruised and swollen, if he was crying for more than a few minutes, then I would be wondering why it was not treated more seriously.
They made a bad call to start with, and carried on failing to do the right thing.