Help a divided Family

[DadOf41984]

Good afternoon. First of all this is my first ever post and I'm clutching at straws a little bit I need advice.

My little boy who is 4yo has fallen in nursery yesterday. Yes accidents happen and I'm usually very understanding and calm in situations like this but........

I went to collect him at 5:30 and instantly seen he was in pain. He was teary eyed. He was holding his arm with some discomfort and he wasn't himself. I asked what was up and the girl said " oh he's had an accident " she was still filling the form in so I assumed it's just happened. It turns out it happened in the morning and I had no phone call whatsoever he was calmed down from crying with sweets and left to carry on his day.
I took him straight to A&E and waited there for 7 hours to be told he's got a fractured elbow and a disalligned Humerus.
My wife is very happy with the apologies from the nursery staff, The tears from the nursery staff seem real she says and they've reported theirselves to Ofsted and Health and Safety.

I'm a little less forgiving with this. 2 staff with well over 12 children and also the fact he's gone 9 hours in obvious agony. I'm very upset and angry at this and as his dad I feel like more should be done. Does anyone else feel like I'm being an overprotective dad.

No, I agree with you. I'd complain to ofsted, tge owners of the nursery and the lea safeguarding officer and I'd find a new nursery.

You are absolutely right to be angry. That’s not on at all.

We only have a max of 30 children in our nursery and we had 7 staff today. There’s no way we would leave a child in pain like that.

They should fill accident forms as they happen as things can be forgotten.

Poor.

Thank you both for your replies. It's very much appreciated.

Kind regards

X

I'm fuming for you. I'm a qualified nursery teacher and I would not stand for that. You should have been called as soon as it happened. The form should have been filled as soon as it happened. They should have a doctor/nurse or similar that they can contact in these circumstances just to check the children over and advise if they think they need seeing. Also how old are the children. I know you said your child was 4, but depending on ages then 2 staff for 12+ children is a very off ratio IMHO, and possibly legally too (I'm in Ireland so not sure as to ratio legalities in the UK).

In the UK the legal ratio for 3 year olds is 1:8, so two staff members could be acceptable with up to 16 preschool children. If one of the staff is a qualified early years teacher they can have 13 three year olds on their own.

The form is a different matter - it should have been filled out as soon after the accident as possible, and obviously the staff should have noticed that he was still in pain long afterwards. A phonecall for a simple fall isn't standard, but the bribery with sweets and then hours of obvious pain should have necessitated a call to you so you could pick him up.

This needs to be an official complaint, in writing, to the manager.

They will have legally had to report the injury to OFSTED as a broken bone constitutes a serious injury.

Thing is, given the injury the OP described, the limb would have swollen and looked off, so the child shouldn't have been left all day. Smacks of lack of care and observance to me.

Thanks for the clarification on ratios in the U.K. though.

Yes Potterhead, as I said in my second paragraph, the staff should have noticed that he was still in a lot of pain after the injury was attended to, and his parent should have been contacted. :)

I am also with you dad
He should never have been left in so much pain, you should have been called immediately they realized it was swelling up. The staff sound awful and at least need a bloody first aid lesson