Child ‘hit’ by nursery staff

[Supermathsdoc]

A bit long but I’ll try to summarise:

2 weeks ago I was called by my 20m old child’s nursery to say there had been an incident. My child went to scratch another and a nursery worker hit her on the bum to stop her. There was no mark. My child was fine afterwards. I obviously didn’t see this but another nursery work did and called it out.

There was an investigation, while this took place the person was removed from the room. Nursery staff (who I think were junior) told me she wouldn’t be back and that she didn’t seem aware that she’d done anything wrong. They obviously couldn’t tell me who it was, butdid say it was a permanent (but new) member of staff rather than an unknown agency worker.

The investigation is now complete, the nursery have done all the right things, they’ve told ofsted, there’s been a disciplinary hearing etc and the person is now back in the room with some extra support.

I feel super uncomfortable with this. We have had no other issues with this nursery and my child seems happy there. I guess what im asking is what others would do? Would you disrupt your child and find a new nursery just in case? Is it just one of those things? I’m not sure what the best thing to do is.

For those who would remove their child, would you also inform other parents at the nursery? We have a WhatsApp group but I’m not sure it’s right to put people in such an awful situation.

So it was a punishement

I would 100% share on what's app!
You can be factual
It would infuriate me that this staff member hasn't directly apologised to you

I would inform whatsapp, facebook, instagram

Unless the person didn’t come back

They haven’t told me they’ve involved the police. But it’s something I’m considering doing myself.

I didn’t realise that the nursery decides whether to keep them on or not, it sounds like the LADO made recommendations that they then followed.

I really feel for you OP what a horrible situation.

Aside from everything else that's been covered, I would also be very unhappy if I were an innocent member of staff working there, because someone might think it was me who had done that.

This right here is the issue. It is illegal here whatever your culture.

but telling a child not to hit with a hit obviously makes no sense, and is now illegal.

It’s illegal in Scotland and Wales but not England. It may breach her registration conditions if she’s a member of a registered body, might be worth checking.

It was an illegal act of assault on a child

You don't actually know what she did and can have absolutely no idea she'd have done anything worse if unsupervised. Whose reputation would you have damaged?

It was an illegal act of assault on a child

Smacking a child isn’t illegal in England.

Smacking your own child isn’t. Smacking someone else’s is.

It absolutely is when it is a member of staff I'm a nursery/school/professional setting

I think I’d want to understand the full outcome of the investigation ie why the decision was made to keep the nursery worker on. Was it determined that the actual incident was a tap/ nudge rather than a hit and so no further action required? Is the worker to receive some sort of training? Is it deemed acceptable to hit children now? What actually happened and then you can determine whether you’re comfortable with the outcome.

The conclusion of the investigation was that she was ‘low risk’ to others in the room of supervised.

I agree.

I wouldn’t be so sure. It’s incredibly hard to sack people, the risks of litigation are huge, and the costs would destroy a small business. I’m a GP and we hired a new receptionist. In her first week she stole a prescription for temazepam and tried to present it to a local chemist. The pharmacist was suspicious, refused the prescription, and told us. We informed the police, she was cautioned. We took legal advice and were told that if we sacked her she could sue us for unfair dismissal. Luckily she was embarrassed about it so she resigned, but we still had to pay her a months notice!

So I wouldn’t judge the nursery on the basis of them keeping this staff member on.

yes

and not done as prevention measure as someone suggested above

Yes. I think this is where I am at. I’m also a single mum and sometimes you need a sense check. Almost every other mum I know has kids at the nursery and I’m trying to be thoughtful about how I share this, and even if I should.

I think they have followed a process, given you a choice to move rooms, and followed procedures as regards the employment rights of the employee and taken it to the LADO. I think this is reasonable. I would stay. Pursue any questions you have.

In England do early years staff not need to be registered? I'm in Scotland and all early years, care workers and social workers need to hold a qualification that allows them to register with the SSSC. If something like this happened in the nursery I work in the staff member would be reported to the SSSC who would investigate and then decide whether or not to remove their registration. A parent could report, another staff member or management but it would be expected that they were reported.

The nursery’s reputation

I'm an ex nursery worker. A staff member did something similar to another child whilst I was there. They lightly tapped a child over the head to tell them off for doing something and it was seen by another staff member. The child was unharmed but the staff member who did this was suspended immediately then later sacked. The policy of the nursery I worked in was that if there was an allegation of child abuse that police would be involved, and they were though no further action was taken. If you're still concerned, I'd be going down that route to be honest. Maybe some of us tap or slightly smack our kids which is a whole other debate but it's inappropriate for a paid worker to do this to your child.