Nursery front door was unlocked

[Diamond345]

DS attends a nursery which on 3-4 occasions the
Front door was unlocked, in these scenarios below

1. front door mechanism has not locked (its one of those doors they push a button to open from the office)

1. The other reason is , the lock has been twisted open to prevent closure

DP has experienced issue no. 1, issue number 2 i informed the reception staff of and they said children often twist the lock when their parents are talking at the door.

The office is in the reception area and they can see the front door from where it is. If they are in there they would see who comes in, there is not always someone in this office 24/7.

This is something i think i should formally address with the nursery as a big security risk via email, may i add that it is a chain nursery and i'm sure complaints like this could he sent further up the chain if required.

They are aware of this issue and i'm sure it is much more frequently happening than iv experienced.

What do you think i should say and how would you address this?

Anyone?

Why are you still sending your child there when they have such a blatant disregard for your child's safety. They have no idea who could wander in off the street.

There are large waiting lists elsewhere, i cant just move him that easily unfortunately.

Can anyone help provide some insight on how theyd handle this conversation with the nursery?

Speak to the manager first, they may not be aware of the issue. There could be a simple way of fixing the door if they realise there is a problem.

If you don’t get a helpful response then you should be able to ask
for their complaints procedure and inform their head office.

I’m a nursery manager. If the manager is aware and hasn’t done anything about it yet, I would email either the area manager or head office.
If you don’t get a satisfactory response and action from that I would go to Ofsted. It’s a basic safeguarding that the nursery door is locked at all times.

Sorry you asked about how to handle the conversation.
if you’ve already mentioned it in person, I would email now so that you have a paper trail.
along the lines of “on several occasions we have arrived to find the main door unlocked. We feel that this is a significant safeguarding issue and would like to know how you plan to resolve this”
keep it short and simple.

Is țhere another door to be buzzed through or just that one? I'm extremely surprised any nursery would have lock so low a child could reach it and twist it. That's actually more concerning, a very basic childproofing. The lock should be at the top of the door and is simple to fix.

Just email and say you're concerned the door isn't working. Send it to the nursery and head office.

Is it a "big security risk"? If children are always supervised, then any strange adult who chances it by walking up to a nursery with a usually locked door that has to be buzzed open, finds it unlocked and walks in, so gets into the premises, still wouldn't find any unattended children to kidnap. It would usually be a parent walking in, which is not ideal but fine, and if it was anyone threatening then the police would be called the same as if a threatening person came up and forced the door or broke a window. It's a nursery, not a prison. It's usually a bigger problem if doors/gates are unlocked and children aren't supervised, and an older child wanders off without staff noticing.

It is definitely a security risk and shouldn't be happening.

The nursery will be non-compliant with their own risk assessment.

Interesting - when I ran a playgroup (that was a long time ago!) I was instructed by SSD to leave the front door unlocked to facilitate escaping if there was a fire.

I maintained it was safer to lock the door so the children could not run out on the road when our back was turned, and that if the door would not open I could chuck them out of the window - it was ground floor!