At what point do you complain, or take your child out of nursery?

[chocoraisin]

I'm really, really cross.

My son's nursery has just recently gone downhill, it's a mess. The front doorbell has been broken for weeks, how hard is that to fix really? The guttering is all leaking and it just looks awful. Worst of all though is that they've left the garden in an AWFUL state.

I complained today about the state of the garden. Basically there are toys everywhere that are clearly not tidied up or checked at the end of the day, because they are still there at 8.30 the next morning when I drop him off. I'm talking about boxes of duplo all over the grass, muddy and wet and dirty. A plastic pirate ship with small parts and plastic people/moving bits just dumped on a pathway and sitting in puddles after a night of rain. All the wheely toys etc left exactly where the children got off them at the end of the day. It's hard to describe the mess, but it's like this across the whole garden - those aren't the only examples. There are also rain butts filled to the brim with water, surely a risk??

The staff said that an Offstead inspector told them to have as much as possible available to the children outside. But surely this means during play sessions, not just littered around getting dirty, plastic items being bleached in the sun and brittle, and just left for kids to pick up when they come out day after day? I am really, really cross.

I've just had another baby, who is 6 weeks old and this is why I'm reluctant to pull DS out immediately, as I'd like him to have the stability of somewhere familiar, if they can sort it out and clean up. But I'm worried that the whole place just looks unloved and a mess. Their manager went on mat leave a month before I had my baby, and it's taken a nose dive since then - it's not been like this for ages, just the period directly around me having my second DS!!

I'm tempted to pull him out next week though if I go in on Tues and it's not been cleaned up properly.

Am I overreacting? How long should you give a place to action a complaint and sort themselves out?

So the manager went on maternity leave and staff have got lazy about tidying up at the end of the day basically? Who is in charge now?

I would speak to them about the untidyness and the safety risk of the water butts and see what they plan to do about it.

You need to speak to the acting manager. Make an appointment.
You are right it is lack of understanding, awareness and lazyness.

We found ourselves in a similar situation when the manager at our twins' nursery went on maternity leave and things started going downhill. Fortunately, things were held in place because our kids' key worker was fab and she was also the room manager, so if there was anything that affected us directly, she would immediately do something about it. She kept us there for another 2 months, but when she handed her notice in and jumped ship to another nursery, we decided to jump with her, especially as they weren't replacing her and our kids (18 mths at the time) were going to be lumped in with a group of babies as young as 4 months because they were just combining two rooms to save the staff.

It was a very difficult decision to make, because the kids had settled and the location was ideal, but they ended up pushing us away because the kids came back with half cleaned bottoms, horrendous nappy rash and their sleep patterns were all over the place because there were no routines in place (well, how can you when you have such a big age range in the room?). We moved them to a better nursery that was further away and never looked back.

Then we found out last week that 6 months down the line, the old nursery has gone out of business! Must have got much worse after we left........

I think you definitely have to go with your gut instinct - this is such an important phase in a child's life, they deserve to have the best experience you can provide. Good luck!

thanks for all the advice - I've spoken to the interim manager, who sounded a bit shocked that I was so unhappy. She tried to explain it away as a one off, and agreed to talk to the girls about tidying up. I said I didn't like to make a fuss, but I really wouldn't be bringing it up if it were a one off - it's been a dreadful state every morning since I've been bringing him in after having DS2 and my parents (who dropped him when I was recovering) say it's been like that outside for weeks and they were a bit surprised I was happy sending him there! Anyway since I've complained now, I've decided to see how it all looks on Tuesday when I drop him off, to see if there's been any improvement. That's 4 days for them to have a proper tidy up so there's no excuse really for things to be in the same condition by then.

If they aren't sorted, I'll complain again while I'm there and actually ask the manager to come outside and see what I'm talking about if she can't understand what the issue is.

I'll have to go with my gut though after that, and will view a new nursery next week if I think I need to. The only other one near-ish is a drive away so it would be a big deal to move him, but I think I have to stick to my guns on this one. The new one just got an outstanding Offstead report, in May. I can't see where he is now getting a good report in the state it's in, while I realise the reports aren't gospel you can't really ignore them entirely! After all is said and done I can deal with things looking a bit tired when staff are engaged, positive and responsible. But dirty, unsafe areas is a step too far...

ps aiwaah good grief dirty bottoms?? I would have whipped my DS out of there too!!