Head injury from nursery

[Fatpugchu]

My 3 year old came home from nursery with blood in his hair, he told us it was from falling over at nursery. When I examined his head I was shocked to see there was still fresh blood oozing from his head and that no one at he nursery had informed us he had been hurt when we picked him up. If my son hasn't mentioned the incident to us I'm not sure when we would have realised that he had hurt himself. We ended up in A&E and he needed glue to close the wound. I'm extremely angry about the whole situation - whoever was watching him was negligent if they didn't notice that he had hurt himself. Is this something I should complain to Ofsted about?

Personally , yes I would .

They are duty bound to inform you of a head injury so that you can observe for signs of nausea, loss of conciousness etc.

In similar circumstances I informed ofsted and they completed an unplanned visit.

You need to follow your setting's complaints procedure first, if you are not satisfied then contact Ofsted.

You should contact the nursery and ask what happened

Ask them to investigate and report back to you

If you report to ofsted first, it will possibly trigger an unannounced inspection and if the nursery was unaware of the injury, they may just deny it happened there

Unless they have CCTV it will be your word against the nursery

Its better to complain to the nursery in writing and then complain to Ofsted if you are not happy with their response
The nursery have a legal duty to make all complaints available to Ofsted
That way you have a paper trail

I am shocked that the nursery didn't notice a head injury that requires hospital treatment

If you hadn't noticed straight away, would the nursery staff. Definitely ask them whether anything happened and what procedure was/should have been followed. It can still go in their accident book but details may be hard to ascertain from a young child unless an adult witnessed it.

Your son is a couple of years younger than my daughter was when this happened to us. It's no excuse but I just wondered if he had exceptionally thick hair like my daughter? She was 5/6 and told me the dinner lady and on duty teacher had looked through her hair and couldn't find anything after she had fallen backwards. As soon as she got in the car she said "my head hurts" and like your DC it was still bleeding into her hair and had to be glued. I told school who apologised but said they had checked it and she hadn't told them it hurt in the afternoon. Somehow yours being nursery seems worse though!

I spoke to the nursery today, they said my son fell over but landed on his bottom, not his head. They asked if he hurt himself at home - I was at a loss for words, he definitely did not sustain the injury at home. The manager said that she spoke to the staff and he didn't hurt his head at nursery. It looks like they are going to deny it happened at nursery. He does have thick dark hair, but I find it hard to believe he wouldn't have cried after hurting himself in such a way. I know they can't stop accidents from happening but I'd expect them to notice if a child hurt themselves in such a way that required a trip to the A&E. Whoever was watching them wasn't paying attention. Not sure if I should complain to head office or go directly to Ofsted.

Is there any way it happened after you collected him, knocked it getting in the car or on a cloakroom peg perhaps , rather than at the same time as he fell. 3yo aren't the most reliable in their accounts or sense of time. If he hit his head in a fall I'd have expected them to notice.

Do a formal written complaint to head office first
It will give your complaint to ofsted more gravitas

Didn't you notice the blood when you collected him?

Wolfe that's why I asked about his hair. My DD had such thick and curly hair that it took me a few minutes to find the bleeding hole.