Child alone at nursery

[MrsBridge]

I’ve just gone to pick up my 3 year old from nursery. I went into the room they didn’t know where she was and said to try the other room. I did, still no sign and they had no idea either. So they said try the garden, (the garden can’t be seen from the room windows) and there she is completely on her own in the garden. I had words with the manager as I was so angry. What would you do/say?

This is a safeguarding issue- no child should be on their own whether inside or outside not even for a split second. If everyone else had come in and she’d been left behind the leader should have known straightaway when they did a headcount. I would put something in writing to them so they have to formally respond

My actions would depend on how the staff reacted. In this case I think I would be removing the child with immediate effect and reporting to Ofsted. If I had gone into her room and asked where she was and a member of staff immediately started looking and then apologised profusely and gave a plausible explanation then I may have accepted that and moved on.

She doesn’t go in Thursdays so I’ve got a bit of breathing space

I would also echo to report to ofsted if they havent already done so

We had the meeting with the manager this morning, apologetic, won’t happen again etc. she said we’re not allowed to see cctv because of data protection but described what happened. Does anyone know if we can request formally to see cctv?

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/advice-for-small-organisations/news-blogs-and-events/blogs/data-protection-tips-for-early-years-settings/

That can be tricky but it’s not a blanket “no you can’t see this” - this link is from the information commissioner.

If they won’t provide footage due to other people, then as the link suggests, they can provide stills that they manually blank out other people from. As a minimum, I would want these, with time stamps, so I could see exactly when she went into the garden and how long she was there with no one noticing

Very helpful thanks

It’s not neurotic to expect her to be supervised, don’t worry! If they make you feel crazy stick to what you know. It is a critical part of EYFS safeguarding that she must be in sight and hearing of staff - was she? (No) therefore, they need to improve and owe you the courtesy of taking the matter seriously.

Sorry I’d not seen your update. I hope they do provide the stills, if not tell them you’ll report them to ofsted.

phone Ofsted asap

Report them yourself.

The fact they mentioned showing cctv in the first place and then backed down would worry me.
what don’t they want you to see? How long was she out there?
report them immediately and don’t send dd back untill you’ve seen what happened.

That’s not true. You should be able to view it in her presence, on nursery premises. We did when my son had an accident at nursery. Push back on that. Perhaps they have a different policy but to tell you you can’t review cctv footage of your own child- well, I wouldn’t be impressed.

All nursery staff should be doing regular headcounts so clearly these were missed.

I’d be very concerned indeed. The nursery should have reported themselves to Ofsted because they have had a huge lapse in safeguarding. If they’ve not done this, I’d be reporting themselves without delay, as soon as the manger had given me a typed version of events.

You've had lots of advice on this specific incident, but I would echo the comment of one or two others that regardless of their response to this, a good nursery is not generally chaotic. The children should be busy and engaged, and obviously some of that will be very active – but most of the time it should still be purposeful, engaged active play.

I've been in and out of our nursery a lot at random times, and I've very rarely seen it head anywhere towards chaotic, and when it does, a member of staff steps in quickly to redirect the energy or provide a calming down activity. (I suspect it also gets pretty lively when they have water fights on hot days, but I've never actually witnessed that!)

I’d be looking for a new setting honestly. The way they handled the situation and the description of the setting as chaotic rings alarm bells. Mistakes do happen, big ones in this case, but they should have immediately been looking for her. It is not my experience of the nurseries I have worked in, for it to be chaotic.

You need to report this to OFSTED immediately and ursery should have self reported such a serious incident too

How did the meeting go, OP?

I work at a nursery. We absolutely do not lose children, send them home with other people or not know where they are!!!! That is NOT normal!!!! Im so sorry this happened to you OP. I can't believe they didn't even help you look!!!! Outrageous.

Hope your DD and you are both OK.

OP, did they tell you how long she was unsupervised in the garden? The fact they won't show you the CCTV implies to me that she was left unsupervised for a very long time.

Hi there sorry to jump on but I'm actually going through something similar just now and wondered how you got on?

My little ones nursery got quite a bad report during the summer but since she's happy and we've never had any problems we decided to keep her there. On the second day back I got a call to say she had accidentally been left outside in the garden out of sight and unsupervised for around 15 minutes. A member of staff has been suspended and an investigation in underway. I have made sure they contact the care inspectorate and will be contacting them myself. I have also requested cctv footage as they cannot be sure how long she was out there for and of course they are saying they can't but I am not letting this go.

We have found her a new place and she starts this week but the whole thing has left us feeling so uneasy. I hope you managed to get to the bottom of things and i also hope you have recovered from the ordeal!