Withdrew DD after lack of care - can i get my deposit back?

[jorange5]

I withdrew my 11 month old DD from her nursery without notice and I have asked for my deposit back but they say they are 'investigating'. Two weeks on and still no word so what do I do? What are my rights?

What happened was this - I took DD to nursery at 1pm (she was only in for the afternoon). At 6pm I went to pick her up and found her sat playing alone. When she looked at me i noticed spots down one side of her face so i called a member of staff who said she hadn't noticed them. I was concerned so undressed DD to see if there were more spots and she was COVERED in raised red patches, particularly on her legs. By this time other parents were there and loads of people were having a look. Then I noticed that DD was wearing the same nappy that I dropped her off in (I put her in a tesco nappy whereas nursery uses posh biodegradable ones) which explains why nobody had noticed her appalling rash. I didn't say anything about the nappy at the time becasue until then i was so happy with the staff and DD loved them so I didn't want to embarrass anyone but now i wish i had said something. i was sent home with a daily report saying a nappy change was done at 3pm.

Also, when I we got home DD drank 8oz of water (most odd for her) which suggests she was not offered sufficient water.

The rash seems to have been caused by an allergic reaction to something (dont know what though) and it took some hefty steroid treatment to treat it. As a result I would not trust that nursery to look after her any more.

I paid 100 quid as a deposit and I want it back but am I entitled to it?

Sorry this is so long!!

But surely if not changing the nappy is sooooo trivial then Ofsted won't mind. So why would you have to be "a nasty piece of work" to mention it to them?

If you're being paid to take care of children in nappies, but you don't change nappies, then I would call it professional negligence.

I've always been a bit unclear about what 'bad practice' means. It sounds like another PC phrase designed to cause the minimum of offence to people who are being ... negligent.

Jo, I think they are hoping you will just go away quietly. They have been negligent twice over; leaving a child in an unchanged nappy for five hours and failing to notice the rash. If they had bothered to look at her, they would have seen it, by your description.

I would go to Ofsted and Trading Standards. I have experience of a nursery messing me about financially so given they haven't bothered to contact you so far, I think they just want to hold onto your money.

Trading Standards will advise you on getting your money back - if all else fails, you can take them to the Small Claims Court although I'm not sure if the fee would cancel out the value of your claim. Worth it to hold them to account, possibly (check the website of your local county court, should be info there).

(bobby'smum, this wasn't a 2.5 hour session, this was five hours with no nappy change and failing to notice a severe allergic reaction.)

if it wasn;t important,bobbysmum, why did it have to be covered up with a lie? and why is it nasty to report it? if OFSTED would not be that bothered, why would someone be nasty to report it

i thikn that this sort of thing would be a deal breaker for me, you have to have implicit trust in the people you pay to care for your children

IIRC, bobbysmum is a nursery owner or manager.. therefore i am pretty sure that should her staff be in this position, she would much rather know about it, and deal with it correctly.. rather than chastise the parent for reporting the lack of care to OFSTED...

I own a nursery, that's right, and if it happened in my nursery, I would talk to the member of staff involved to get her side of the story and then take whatever action was necessary to resolve the matter. Obviously, the child's nappy should have been changed. But from what the op wrote, there was no actual proof that it wasn't - just a suspicion based on the fact that the nursery generally used a different brand of nappies to the one the child went home in (which also happened to be the one the mother used at home). But what if the nursery had run out of their usual brand of nappies that day and bought different ones? What if the mother had brought in spare nappies at some point and the nursery happened to have those handy? What if she had a spare nappy at the bottom of her bag that she'd forgotten about?

The rash is a different matter. But as I said before, in the absence of other symptoms (swelling, breathing problems, etc), an allergic reaction is that not easy to detect. Then there's the fact that allergies flare up quickly. How do we know that this didn't happen just before the mother arrived?

There's two sides to every story, you know.

i thikn you are absolutely right, that there are two sides to every story, but the mother obviously feels she cannot trust the nursery and that is not a good way to feel about hte people caring for your children.

But she doesn't feel like she can trust the nursery based one this one incident, which might not be the nursery's fault at all. The child had never had an allergic reaction to anything before so we know that the nursery staff didn't feed her anything they weren't supposed to. She was wearing the same brand of nappy that she arrived in, but there's no actual proof that her nappy wasn't changed. And she had spots on her face, which may have developed just before her mother arrived to pick her up.

Where in any of this is the proof that the nursery was negligent?

it is almost immaterial who is at fault.. as the mother has lost faith .. also, she complained 2 weeks ago and has not heard back, so it hardly restores or instills faith .

good point lulu I'm sure bobbysmum would respond to a complaint immediately

It's not good that they haven't responded to the letter. It wouldn't appear that they are making any effort to address your concerns.

I would follow up and copy in either the area manager (if it is a chain of nurseries) or the relevant body, presumably Ofsted. It's amazing what a good cc can do!!

If it was me, I'd pay back the hundred pounds, just to placate the mother.

It doesn't sound to me like the nursery is really at fault though. The child could have developed spots at home and the mother might not have noticed immediately.

So it's ok to leave a child in a dirty nappy...We don't know where the rash comes from, but still they lied on the daily report.
I am absolutely astonished by your comments Bobbysmum07...

You haven't read my comments. We don't know whether the nappy was dirty or not. All we know was that it was the child's usual brand (i.e. the same brand she was wearing when she arrived at nursery), rather than the brand the nursery usually used. Without knowing whether the nappy was changed or not, we can't say for sure that the nursery liied.

As for the rash - how could that be the nursery's fault? They didn't know she had any allergies.

Sounds more like the child had a virus in any case. Rashes caused by allergic reactions fade very quickly, so long as whatever is causing the reaction is removed.

Why does everyone's response always have to be so hysterical on these boards? It's like everyone wants - needs - to believe the very worst all the time. Why?

just read these posts as my ds starting nursery in a few weeks. I am absolutely shocked! You should, without delay report the incident to OFSTEAD - I think the nursery then has to list this as a formal complaint for future parents to make note of. Changing of nappies is surely the most basic of childcare responsibilities - if they are not even doing this what else are they not doing with all those other children that are still there!!

We withdrew our son from his nursery following an unsatisfactory settling in session. The place smelt of urine, a baby picked up a very small item and was about to swallow it when I intervened. The staff were at the other end of the room and did not show any concern when I pointed out the choking hazard.

The manager got very aggressive with me when I asked her about something in the contract.

I asked for my deposit back and the advice from Trading Standards was that I did not have a good case for it. I look at it as a small price to pay for my son's welfare. He is now very happy with his lovely childminder.

Have read the thread and bobbysmum makes some fair points, eg that we don't know what actually happened, but that's because the nursery hasn't responded and that's bad

sleepycat, not all nurseries are bad. We had a really bad experience with a childminder and withdrew DD and she is now very happy in a lovely nursery. We did get our deposit back from the childminder.

To be fair, the nursery should have responded to the complaint sooner, but it is a tricky situation. If they refund the deposit, they have to admit liability, and it might not be appropriate (we just don't know).

Nurseries can't just refund deposits everytime someone screams "lack of care" without good reason. If they did, no one would ever give the required notice. They would just leave, demanding their deposits back due to "dissatisfaction" (I'm sure this happens all the time anyway).