Accident at nursery, not sure if I should be really worried...

[SydneyB]

I have always been really happy with the care DD, 12 mths, has had at nursery but something happened yesterday that really alarmed me. Her fantastic keyworker is leaving which we are very sad about and a new girl, who we don't really know very well yet, has started doing handover. Yesterday I got there to find that DD had taken a fall head first off the changing table onto the floor and had a huge bump on her head. Apparently her new keyworker had turned round to pick another child up and DD had launched herself off the changer on to the floor. Now, I know accidents do happen but I really don't think something like this should ever happen. Its a first and basic rule that you never leave a baby unattended on a changer, even for a second, and I am really worried that this new girl might just be really inexperienced. Everyone looked very worried when I got there but at the time I didn't want to make a big deal of it in front of DD and the other babies but have since been wondering whether this is something I should take up with the management. Any thoughts as to how to handle this?

Sorry but all our staff would recieve nappy changing induction as part of their overall induction. And we state that they must never leave a child unattended and this includes turning away with one hand on the child (a lady i know once had one of her staff doing this and the baby rolled off). Also for what it is worth the staff member should be disciplined as they have made a very serious and dangeroud error (all be it a mistake but it needs to be on her file so if this is indicative of poor child care the nursery could take action)

An update: we've now scheduled in a face-to-face meeting to discuss everything. Although we have already come to the conclusion that we won't be happy unless we are allocated another keyworker. Thanks so much for all your posts and I'll let you know how it turns out.

Bit shocking, that lack of care. I would, even if changing keyworker, find out how long new one has been in childcare and her qualifications- also does this nursery have an induction as mentioned before (not had one ever myself, worked in nurseries 5 years!)

The thing that has shocked me a bit was the idea of floor high changing- I find it next to imposible to change wrigly toddlers on the floor, takes extra time which could be spent actually being with the children! Also it does your back no good. Perhaps OK in smaller settings, but in the nursery I spent longest at, I could change up to 50 nappies a day, we were open till 10.15 and had so many children!

Since some of you were very kind as to post on my thread I thought I should update you. We had a series of meetings with the nursery before Xmas during which we became convinced that this accident was a total one-off. They'd assured us that they'd made the necessary assessments and we decided to stick with this new keyworker. However since then we have become concerned about the general running of the nursery. The management are incredibly chaotic and now this new (third in 7 months) keyworker has hardly been there this year. There seem to lots of staff in the baby room who change daily and who we're not really introduced to and as I said, DD's new keyworker is just never there. We suspect she may be leaving and that no-one has told us. Anyway, the upshot of this is that this nursery is no longer the place we thought it would be and we have decided to look for alternative care. I am now looking for a childminder or nanny share in Stoke Newington and will post under the relevant topic on Mumsnet. If we want to move quickly I doubt it will be another nursery as they are all so oversubscribed. Thanks again for all your posts.

oh no!
How horrible.
You probably don't want to say but can you give us a clue which one it was?
Good luck with finding someone to look after your DD

I feel a bit like I shouldn't say anything until we've sorted everything. Its one of the better sought after ones though! And I can only speak for the baby room - seems to have a lot of staff turnover and the staff there seem pretty unmotivated. And the management is well meaning but just totally chaotic - slow to return phone calls, general lack of communication between each other AND us. And it aint cheap. Do you have your LOs in a Stokey nursery?

I do
And I think it's fine
But I always worry....

not a busy bees is it??
ds2 is at a bb nursery and they are now looking for their 3rd manager in less than a year, makes you wonder whats going.

Worley No, its not a BusyBees. I think perhaps that we're encountering problems that are common at many nurseries. I guess in a low-paid profession where you have to work incredibly hard its going to be difficult to motivate everyone and to keep staff and that this is obviously made harder if the management aren't up to it. Sigh. I hope I haven't worried you moo. I think you do have to trust your instincts and if you feel its ok then I'm sure it is. Don't suppose you're willing to tell me where your LO is are you...?