Serious accident at nursery

[Incywincyspidee]

My child had a serious accident at nursery whilst playing with a piece of equipment (not a toy/should not have been accessible). He was playing with this unsupervised for 2 mins or so whilst the staff were distracted. He subsequently had to go to hospital and have the injury attended to under general anaesthetic. He has been going there for several years and I have never had an issue with this nursery, but I’m unsure now of what to do. The staff/owner were apologetic and take full responsibility. My child loves this nursery and has friends there, but I’m not sure what is best to do going forward? If you were in my shoes what would you do?

I would report to ofsted to see if they need to send them a visit. Regardless of whether the likes it, he has been able to play with a dangerous piece of equipment long enough to require a hospital visit.

Report them. Can you say what the equipment was?

How old is he and what was it? Am assuming something like a knife or saw or similar to require surgery?

How long until he starts school?

They should self report to Ofsted, but you need to do so if they haven’t. Here’s some info www.google.com/search?q=nursey+accident+refer+to+ofsted&rlz=1CDGOYI_enGB916GB916&oq=nursey+accident+refer+to+ofsted&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDg2MzhqMGo0qAIAsAIB4gMEGAEgXw&hl=en-GB&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8&sei=Dm-raIWjC5ijhbIP66Dq8Ac

Appreciate you've been deliberately vague but for me I think it depends on what the equipment was and what sort of injury was sustained. Also the nurseries response to ensure it won't happen again.

A friend's child was seriously injured at nursery and they didn't report it or take their child out because they liked the nursery and the staff. Their child was left with suspected temporary brain damage which has resulted in continuing developmental delays. I was flabbergasted that they didn't report and put the safety of their child and every other child first. Not adequately supervising children is a safeguarding fail and needs addressing.

This is exactly the sort of thing that needs reporting to Ofsted. The nursery should also be reporting themselves but not all do. It doesn't necessarily mean the nursery will be disciplined or closed but Ofsted need to ensure that the nursery is keeping children safe. If they are a good nursery they will have learnt from this and ensured it doesn't happen again. At the very least you need a meeting with the nursery to ascertain what steps they have made to address this serious safeguarding fail.

Can you say what the equipment was?

It needs to be reported through the proper channels.

Beyond that, I agree that it depends on what it was (e.g., something the staff regularly use left accessible in a moment's inattention versus something that should never have been in the playroom during working hours), how foreseeable the injury was (e.g., something sharp is a clear risk; a bottle of paint left around preschoolers clearly risks mess, but if one slipped over and badly broke their leg, that's more bad luck), and finally the nursery's response.

When my eldest was in nursery she got a concussion and needed stitches after cracking her head on a sharp cupboard edge. Obviously this is different to what happened to your child. Although I was obviously upset she’d been hurt, it was an unforeseen hazard that would have eventually hurt a child and it was pure bad luck that it was mine so it never occurred to me to do anything other than accept their apology. For me, the line would be is it bad luck or negligence and plan your actions from there

Any incident like that should be reported to Ofsted and think Health and Safety lot. They nursery should have done it or they've broken ofsted regulations but obviously not all do so maybe follow up?

If the nursery are admitting responsibility they have probably reported it to Ofsted already. As previous poster said, it really depends on whether the accident was foreseeable, if risk assessment was in place etc. You say it was a piece of equipment that should not have been accessible, but it’s not clear whether it was something dangerous such as a bleach spray, or something not inherently dangerous that your child ended up hurting themselves on?

I am an EYFS lead and we often have parents asking us to remove things that are not actually dangerous when a child hurts themselves with it. A notable example was when a child tripped on the skirt of a costume and the parent insisted dressing up was unsafe and we should not allow it.

If you feel the Nursery are not supervising the children properly, take your child out. If you think they are taking it seriously and learning from it, and you feel he is safe there, leave him where he is. Trust your gut.

Like Princess Scarlett’s friend, my DD needed stitches after tripping and cutting herself on the corner of a climbing frame at nursery. DD was back at nursery as soon as she was well enough (I think it happened on a Thursday, she missed the Friday and, as she didn’t go on a Monday, was back on the Tuesday).
They were very apologetic and took full responsibility, had sent me their initial investigation report by the Friday lunchtime and copies of their report to HSE and Ofsted by the Monday as well as letter they proposed sending to the manufacturer of the play equipment. They also offered to change DD’s key worker and had a more senior member of staff with that group for the next fortnight or so to make sure everything was being done properly.
It was a complete accident. If DD had been a cm to the left or right or hadn’t happened to be running so fast, it wouldn’t have happened. We had some play equipment by the same manufacturer at home and DD was a dare devil always climbing trees & things so it was chance that it happened at nursery and not at home or under mine, DH, grandparents or friend’s supervision. I go faint at the sight of blood so I was always slightly relieved that it had happened at nursery and that, by the time I got there, they’d dealt with the initial aftermath.
She’s now a teen and does have a scar but it has faded over time and has stayed the same size whilst the rest of her face has grown so it isn’t obvious. There would have been less scarring had she not been treated so badly at A&E that they had to unstick it 24 hours later, clean it out and then stitch!

I think it’s a case of you need the full story and facts to make a judgement call on this

so any advice on here is just a guess rather than useful constructive advice

Hi all, I have been deliberately vague to avoid doxxing myself but the equipment was a metal water channel stand, that my child was playing on unsupervised for around 3 mins or so while the key worker was distracted.

I'd never heard of a water channel stand so I googled, and they are sold as children's play equipment?

Also had a Google. How old is your child and what was he doing with to get so injured he needed surgery? There doesn't look to be sharp edges?

They are for holding tubes for water as part of water play - but one was left out and my son climbed on top of one and fell off whilst unsupervised.

He is 3 - he climbed and stood on top of top it and fell off

Is it like the one I posted? How did he manage to climb it as they don't look sturdy enough at all!

Something happened to my DC whilst at nursery. He wasn’t injured, as such, but it scared the living daylights out of me. They let me withdraw him without the usual notice period. Measures were put into place so that it didn’t happen again.
I didn’t report it to Ofsted and not doing so haunted me for years. It was wrong of me not to.
The nursery closed down a while ago, for unrelated reasons, and I was so relieved.

It is no doubt something that would tempt a child to climb onto. And should therefore be promptly put back into storage as soon as the children finish playing with it. It seems like common sense.

If your son was able to wander into an unlocked storage area unnoticed to access it, that’s also concerning.

Either way, it is the lapse in supervision that !s worrying. The staff are probably very upset (as any normal person would be) about it. Have a chat with the manager and take it from there.

Must have been a scary phone call to receive, OP. And I know how stressful it is having a child under GA.

I would never ever trust a nursery with my child. Far too many of these "accidents" happen all too regularly.

Hope your child is recovering well. Report to Local Authority Environmental Health who are also responsible for H&S in most nursery settings. Nursery need to formally submit a Riddor report. Apologies if somone has already advised you of this.

The nursery should declare this incident themselves. However, you still have to. It’s a shame and it was an accident but if we turn a blind eye to these things, it’s how things end up in serious case reviews. Safeguarding the little things matter as this helps to prevent the bigger things. Although, I wouldn’t say in your case this was a little thing having needed surgery. An accident yes, faultless no.