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Is this acceptable?

20 replies

na03 · 10/07/2019 22:24

Hi all,
My friend recently mentioned that her son's nail came off his finger in an accident that happened in the nursery. The picture attached shows the finger. The entire nail has come off. The people at the nursery wrote her a note and asked her to sign with a message saying what happened. The message said that another child was trying to close the door and his hand was trapped in it and the damage was in the left index finger (clearly it's the middle finger!) And a small cut, a slight bruise and a red mark can be seen. They also said that the person responsible to watch the children was in the toilet at that time. My friend signed the note but I think they got off easy by stating what isn't completely honest. It definitely isn't a small cut or a slight bruise. His entire nail has come off! Is this acceptable? Should me friend take some action against them?

Is this acceptable?
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na03 · 10/07/2019 22:25

I also want to mention that they did not have the courtesy to inform her. When she went to pick him up he was sleeping (I am sure after crying his heart out) and just gave her this note!

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Heratnumber7 · 10/07/2019 22:30

What kind of action is your friend thinking of taking? What outcome would she be looking for?

RightMover · 10/07/2019 22:35

The person responsible for watching the children was in the toilet? Either I've read it wrong or the children were left unsupervised?
I'm a nursery practitioner. Your friend needs to raise that supervision issue with the manager at the very least. Anything could happen while the children are unsupervised, I find it hard to believe that practice is being allowed.

Onesailwait · 10/07/2019 22:36

Well it's a nasty accident ,poor kid that must have really hurt.. but accidents happen especially with young children. Yeah they wrote down the wrong finger it shakes you up a little bit when a child has an accident . They will probably comforting the kid and made an honest mistake on the report.

RightMover · 10/07/2019 22:36

And also, how do they know how it happened if they were unsupervised? Wow I'm actually fuming on your friends behalf!

na03 · 10/07/2019 22:42

Yes that's what she mentioned. There are always two people who look after the children yet when she asked the lady said she was in the toilet. So maybe another was available but still unsupervised right? She just sent me another picture of how her son's finger was the day he left. I still cannot digest the fact that they didn't feel the need to let her know! They call her when he vomits to take him home and something this big was did not require a call?

Is this acceptable?
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na03 · 10/07/2019 22:43

I'm fuming too on her behalf. She's really kind and gets upset and let's things go but I feel this is unacceptable. I don't know if I am being too critical.

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na03 · 10/07/2019 22:46

She hasn't said anything about taking action. I was telling her to take some action but to be honest I have no clue what either.

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RightMover · 10/07/2019 22:48

How old is the child? Staff to child ratio is 1:4 for 2 year olds, 1:8 for preschool age..but if that 1 needed the toilet someone else would step in to supervise, there would be no situation that the children would be left on their own. That would be my issue here, yes accidents happen and it might have happened even if she hadn't been in the toilet- but still, it's an issue.

na03 · 10/07/2019 22:49

@Onesailwait but does is make sense that they call her when her child vomits to take him home yet did not feel the need to let her know that he's had an accident like this? I could understand trips, falls or fights but this was a bigger incident in my opinion.

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na03 · 10/07/2019 22:53

@RightMover he's 3 years 3 months. I'd have thought if he was being supervised it definitely wouldn't have been so bad that his nail would come off. Yes his hand would still be caught in the door but not that bad. Is there anything she can do? The note has got signatures from management and senior staff so I don't think there's any point taking it up with the manager?

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Onesailwait · 10/07/2019 22:58

I guess it depends how the kid was after the accident and how close to pick up time it was. I don't know the answer to either of them things so I can't comment.

Todaythiscouldbe · 10/07/2019 23:02

At the time of the accident it was a small cut, slight bruise and red mark though. The supervision is an issue but I'm not clear if you are saying there was only one adult or no adults at the time.

na03 · 10/07/2019 23:08

@RightMover She didn't ask because she was very worried but the one who was the key person for her child was in the toilet. The incident happened 2 hours before she came to pick him up. I'm cooling down now. Thinking maybe I'm making a big deal of it unnecessarily?

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IncrediblySadToo · 10/07/2019 23:15

It’s not a matter of ‘size of the incident’. Vomiting might be s contagious bug so yes they going to want a vomiting child collected ASSO, but if they’ve settled a child and he’s I don’t really see the need to worry the parents

Children have accidents and accidentally hurt each other, that’s just life and they can do it while standing right next to you so I wouldn’t expect a nursery to be able to prevent all accidents

I feel very sorry for him because I can imagine how it must have hurt, but I think ‘fuming’ and ‘wanting to take action’ Is OTT but that’s easier to be objective about when you don’t know the child

Pieceofpurplesky · 10/07/2019 23:50

As today says at the time of the accident the record was correct. Nails are weird things to injure as they can take ages to fall off - when did her DS's come off?

As for unsupervised that needs to be checked -
Or was it just that his key worker was out of the room?

na03 · 11/07/2019 01:01

@Pieceofpurplesky think i'm going to close this post now. She hadn't seen the other key person for sometime and on asking where she was today, they said she passed away. I'm all over the place now. It's just probably best to leave the incident now after this news. Thank you all for your answers. I apologize I posted without having full information because I was concerned about her and her child.

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serenadoundy · 11/07/2019 01:08

Does your friend know you are posting these pictures online?

itsaboojum · 11/07/2019 07:40

If she has any concerns, your friend should speak to the manager. If she wishes to raise a complaint it’s a simple matter of obtaining a copy of their complaints policy and following it. The policy should explain how to escalate the complaint if she is unhappy with their response.

The nursery may wish to review the relevant risk assessment with particular reference to supervision and consider whether door guards might be needed.

I wouldn’t like to second guess anything. Just because the key worker wasn’t present does not necessarily imply poor supervision. Neither does the fact that an accident happened. But they should consider the full circumstances. Trapped fingers can be very nasty or even result in fractures/crushing injuries. It depends on the type of door, but they must factor in the possibility that a similar incident in future could result i not a more serious outcome.

It has become quite common to make a big thing of anything that happens at nursery, but if the same thing happened at home people are much less harsh. Would your friend be considering taking action if this had happened on a play date/sleepover? If it happened at her home, would she think it reasonable for someone to tell social services?

As bad as it looks, this is a very minor injury from a medical point of view. Nurseries wouldn’t necessarily inform a parent before pick up time unless the child needed collecting early. In all honesty, parents will kick off if their childcare provider disturbs them at work.

I don’t quite understand the point about mum not being informed. She got the accident form and signed it. How is that not informing her? Have I missed something?

na03 · 11/07/2019 22:09

@serenadoundy I informed her that I am going to post.

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