TW. TV programme on nursery safety.

[Mysterian]

BBC programme How Safe Are Our Nurseries? On BBC iplayer

An interview with the parents of Genevieve Meehan, the baby who died in a Stockport nursery, and interviews with others about nursery safety. A hard watch but important.

I've worked in nurseries for over 30 years, quite a bit as supply so I've been in many more nurseries than most. It's shocking to hear and see such uncaring behaviour towards babies, but at the same time I'm not shocked because I've seen pretty bad staff and management over the years.

There are many people who should not be working with children who are because nurseries are so desperate for staff they'll take anyone, they hide it well, or because managers are poor themselves.

It's also pretty clear that to anybody working in childcare that ofsted inspections are unfit for purpose. An Outstanding grade means a nursery is really good, or can fake it for a day.

Ofsted inspections need to be unannounced. I worked in a nursery that always had staffing issues. They also had a training unit above the nursery that they used to train young unqualified staff. On the day of the inspection all training was cancelled and the trainees worked in the nursery. They got "Outstanding". (Small chain).
Even the mostly good one I work in now made sure they had extra bank staff in when they knew they were being inspected. Why wouldn't you?

Back in the days before ofsted the nurseries in my area were inspected by Daycare Advisors. They did announce their inspections, but they had ongoing relationships with the nurseries and would often pop in unannounced for "a chat". Yes, you could refuse them permission to visit for "a chat", but everybody knew that would be a huge red flag and lots more visits and inspections.

Ofsted also needs to do more inspections, but doesn't have the funding. Up to 6 years between inspections is ridiculous. So much can happen in that time.

Worked In childcare for 20 years. Yep seen awful staff and awful managers. Agree about Ofsted.

Adding to your concerns, before my role has a headteacher, I was an LA Early Years Advisor. I had an allocation of PVI settings ( and school's) that I worked with.
Every setting in the LA had an allocated advisor.

As a team we provided advice, support and development. We quality assured, including safeguarding, during regular visits and reported back so that team decisions could be made about more frequent visits, unannounced visits, training for staff, liaison with other agencies etc. We acted as the SENCO too.

Scarily, under Conservative Government cuts to LA’s, the whole EY team were made redundant. There are no visits, no advice nor support. These settings are left to get on with it. Some are fabulous with highly trained staff, however, some are not.

I work in a nursery and I don't understand or agree with the Ofsted process. I know it's hard to fake a lot of things but the fact is there is still time after the phone call to have a sort out,prep things,sort staffing out for the day doesn't make sense. Know you can't fake the knowledge staff know but they must know a lot of what they see isn't always a accurate picture so what's the point.