Conflict with nursery manager....help please!!

[bakermum15]

Advice please. I've come home from dropping 20month to nursery in tears! I voiced my concerns to the nursery manager about cleanliness as I noticed the stair & hall carpets haven't been vacuumed in over 10 days. She did not seem to understand nor empathise with my concerns. I heard numerous excuses and reasons but no acceptance of my concerns, no acknowledgement or agreement and certainly no apology. I generally felt ignored and patronized. In fact what she actually said was that considering I was pregnant?!! And considering I had complained twice before in last 12 month's I obviously was not happy and should look to take my son elsewhere!! I was shocked to say the least. I felt this was her personal opinion of me rather than her professional response as the manager. I also don't know what me being pregnant has to do with it. The previous times I complained were: my son coming home repeatedly with scratches under his clothes and when I felt they were unhelpful with swopping a day/ giving a days holiday. Balance of power feels all wrong here, I've been made to feel bad and unable to voice any concerns for this(expensive) paid service. I should add I chose this nursery a year ago as I was impressed by the low staff turnover and homely feel, but they have recently lost 2 FT long serving staff so it's lost some of its stability, my son also loves it and is very happy here. Anyone else experienced this or have any thoughts??

Me too, I got fed up with childminder chopping and changing her hours/conditions and then having a strop at me over text when I complained. I gave notice, I was fed up with giving her my hard earned money for back chat and attitude. I found a place at another nursery where they are just lovely. DD took some time to adjust but is fine. I wouldn't do it on a regular basis but your cash, your rules.

Change nurseries. You don't like it, they don't like you bed want you to leave and the nursery sounds dreadful! Also consider writing to theowners and informing ofsted

Inform OFSTED of what?

Your previous complaints seem a bit trivial tbh. Most nurseries just won't do day swaps because it's a nightmare from an administration point of view. So I think you'd be pushing it to expect that. Scratches under clothes are also normal when you have lots of little children playing together - there will be rough and tumble, so it will happen. I think the cleaning is a bit more of an issue, but less so if it's a hallway and not the main room where your ds is cared for. But I think your earlier complaints about less important things may have made them less inclined to pay attention to what you're saying now.

To be honest, it sounds like you might be better with a childminder. There would probably be more flexibility for you, fewer children scratching your ds and probably a cleaner environment.

Nursery manager here and I'm wondering what the op has to complain to Ofsted about
All of your complaints are very trivial and certainly don't warrant informing Ofsted. Ofsted are the regulatory body that ensure nurseries are meeting their legal requirements under the eyfs
We don't do swap days fie holidays as patents sign a contract to send hhsur child in on x days so we employ staff the cover the numbers expected. If you chopped and changed days then RBIs would affect my child to adult ratios
Scratches under clothing are hard to see. Sometimes accidents do happen and we miss it. But if children don't make us aware of what has happened then we can't deal with it. We don't remove clothing and look for scratches as that would be an invasion of privacy
The hoovering- maybe the cleaner has left and they cant replace them. Or maybe the hoover has broken and they don't afford to replace it. Maybe the staff are expected to hoover after a 9 hour shift.
Who knows?
I am open to any parents concerns and always try to please but sometimes parents think they can tell us how y do our jobs because its children we deal with, so we must be thick or just need "talking to"
Op, just take your child out if you care not happy

Thanks everyone for taking the time to
feedback. The scratches were an issue and certainly not trivial, they were deep, bloody, inflamed and under his nappy area, Some as long as 4inches, so not from other children. after a nursery investigation at my insistence it was discovered staff wearing jewellery whilst doing nappy changes were catching his (and other babies) skin. A no jewellery policy was implemented as result of this. I understand about ratios and the difficulty to be flexible I had asked the nursery 2 weeks in advance for the holiday / swop in this instance, not something we've ever done before but exceptional circumstances arose.
Incidentally the nursery owner has since contacted me to apologise for how it was handled and thanked me for raising awareness of the cleaning. I have been to view an alternative nursery, as I think it will be difficult to move forward with current nursery manager, however I want to try and make it work as he's so happy there and struggles with change.

I have been a nursery Manager and ANY concern raised by a parent would always be listened to. Being pregnant should not have been brought into it and is (in my opinion) very condescending. You have every right to complain about the cleanliness of the nursery. You have a right to complain about anything as you are sending your child there and paying for the place.
As for swapping days,each nursery would have different policies and it would therefore be at their discretion but if it was a one off and there was a space I would not see a problem with it. You were right to complain.

Thanks alexD that's reassuring to hear thank you for replying

I think you're right to bring up the scratches and the dirty carpet. Doesn't need to be as antagonistic as a complaint, but if you notice something you're unhappy with then the nursery should want to hear about it.
Adding a one-off additional day should've been fine if they had space; DD's nursery charge more for an additional day than they do for regular days which is irritating but they are a business after all. Swopping a day wouldn't be possible at DD's nursery.

The nursery manager is right about one thing - you need to move your dc. She sounds awful.