Ofsted won't talk to me!

[itdidntworkout]

Serious accident at nursery and my son was sent to a&e in an ambulance from nursery. Several nights in hospital and numerous outpatient appts. This happened in February.

I've called ofsted to ensure that the nursery have reported to them. They won't say whether they have not not and won't look into it.

Don't want to go to nursery directly, but I do want to check up on them.

What should I do?

Do ofsted have to look into all serious accident? Would they contact me (the parent) at all?

IME Ofsted are pretty lacklustre and will do little. I would suggest you write to them outlining the circumstances surrounding the accident in the form of a complaint to them. If you complain about something serious to Ofsted, they should do something about it (probably visit the nursery).

Don't know if nurseries have to report accidents to Ofsted, I doubt they do.

Report to Ofsted, but even then I don't think they will check what happened to your DS, but will just check that the nursery has the correct processes/paperwork in place etc.

Sorry to not be more help, hope your DS is OK.

I would also read the thread "Nursery failings led to horrendous incident..." in this section of mumsnet for more (and better) advice.

Nursery has to report the incident to ofsted if it resulted in the child being taken to hospital.

yes they should report to Ofsted also complete a RIDDOR form to be sent to local council (as required hospital treatment over 24 hours). ask to see this, if they haven't then most likely they have not informed Ofsted either. why do you not want to speak to them? are you unhappy with the accident, handling etc?

I am happy with the nursery and know that accidents do happen, but the piece of furtniture that caused the accident was removed and is now back in the room two months on, with no safety modifications, so the same accident could happen again, perhaps worse this time.

If it's back in the room and another accident happens, they are negligent. Makes me wonder why it's back in the room and whether they have been bothered to fill in forms.

Do you know anything about the risk assessment of furniture? Have another thread in this section. Really looking for advice.

Have posted on your other thread.

Write to Ofsted to notify them about the accident from your point of view, rather than phoning. The letter will then be in their system. They may not respond to you at all, or may just respond with a simply worded standard letter.

Following investigation, CIE team will add something to the Nurseries page on the Ofsted website. For example... here is a recent complaint against a nursery, serious injury resulting in hospital treatment. Worth a read as it says about what Ofsted does with such a complaint.

Thanks nannynick. What does CIE mean?

Compliance, investigation and enforcement

You can send a written request to Ofsted to see if they hold any information about your child - that comes under subject access to your own (in this case your child's own) personal data - it's under Data Protection legislation, they must confirm what they hold and disclose anything within 40 days of a request being made. Just send a written request giving the details of the nursery and the date of the accident, and ask whether they have a record of your child's accident logged against it. They'll probably ask for prood of ID (eg. a photocopy of your passport/driving licence) and proof of your child's identity (eg. a photocopy of their birth certificate with you listed as a parent). Just send it all in to their main office, preferably by recorded delivery if you want to be certain it gets there.

When notifications of accidents and incidents are made to Ofsted they might not give full details of the child involved because it's not necessarily relevant for Ofsted to know; they want details about the circumstances of the incident so they can see whether anything dodgy seems to have happened, who it involved isn't really necessary information from a regulation standpoint. So if a notification was made they might have just anonymised things and put "child A, aged 2 years" and then the details of the incident - in which case Ofsted won't be able to confirm anything because they won't be able to tell it was your child. But it's worth a shot.

I would email Ofsted directly and make a complaint against the nursery. The details are on the Ofsted website. I would base my complaint on the fact that your child was injured at nursery, requiring hospital treatment but the nursery have not taken steps to prevent it happening again.
Ofsted investigate complaints on whether the nursery is meeting the specific legal requirements. They will ask to see the nursery's risk assessments and accident records. If they uphold your complaint then they will publish it on the website after the inspection report. It is likey that the nursery will know that it was you that complained but you have every right to know that your child is safe.
I would try speaking to the nursery again though before complaining. Put it in writing as nurseries are legally obliged to keep all complaints and show them to Ofsted if they ask.That way you have your paper trail (which Ofsted just love)

Can I suggest you also email a copy of your letter to them, or at least send your letter recorded delivery?
Their admin seems to be an utter shambles at the moment. Good job they aren't graded

Make an official complaint to Ofsted and if all else fails write to your MP. That's what they're there for.

My DS had a serious accident at nursery (unsupervised on age inappropriate equipment = broken leg)
I only found out that it hadn't been reported to Ofsted (or RIDDOR for that matter) when I rang Ofsted about something completely unrelated.
I rang to ask about stuff they were expecting 2 year olds to do, whilst on the phone I said "you do know about my sons accident don't you?"
Ofsted lady said no

So I contacted manager of nursery and asked to see EVERY report on the accident.
All came to light that they'd not reported it to anyone and were utterly negligent (coincidence?)

Ofsted were great to me. Investigated, smacked their bums and there's a lovely complaint "upheld" on the nurserys Ofsted listing.

I'd try again if I were you or ask the nursery for copies of Ofsted and RIDDOR report (or do both )

Good luck and I hope LO is doing ok

The nursery should have reported this to various bodies, not just Ofsted. Be aware that Ofsted will only look to see if their actions were in line with Ofsted's (very woolly) requirements. IME they can give the nursery a couple of week's notice to provide reports into the incident and evidence of safety checks

If the nursery has met Ofsted's requirements there will not be anything posted on Ofsted's website. However if you have written and complained (setting out in detail what happened and your concerns) Ofsted will give a copy of the complaint to anyone who writes in and asks to see what complaints have been made about the setting. It may well be worth doing this to see if anyone else has complained.