FOUR SEASONS - WATERLOO STREET

[mummysweeangel]

Hey everyone, i just wanted to start this thread to say how important it really is to come forward if you have ever had any issues with your childs nursery. My family are in a horrible situation now after the very bad experience we had with the four seasons nursery in waterloo street and we have reported it to the care commission who i am sure think we are just blowing things out of proportion but we now how bad things were and we did the right thing by coming forward and making an official complaint. After all this is the people we are leaving our nearesr and dearest with, the most precious things in the world. I also have a few people from work that had to take their children out of this same nursery but unfortunately they didnt make it official and notify the care commission. I am also amazed at the inspection reports for nurserys, this one in particular had an inspection done in Aug 2008- which only lasted 6 hours, and during that time 22 people were spoken to and 4 rooms observed ? hardly a big picture. And i dont think it matters that these inspections are done on an "unannounced" basis, because as soon as the staff know that the care commission are in the buidling they know to be "on the ball" and paint a pretty picture if you like. I honestly think that a longer, more in depth inspection should be carried out for nurserys and more parents consulted during the inspection. I think alot of parents might feel scared to come forward about certain things incase their child gets less favourable treatment. I am just so shocked after what we went through and also by what happened at that other nursery that those poor children suffered the sexual abuse. It just shows theres not enough monitoring and supervision going on.

Please can you let me know what you all think and share any experiences you have had regarding care commission and complaints etc .

Thanks guys x

I just posted a few weeks ago asking if anyone knew about thus nursery as we were thinking of sending DD there. Reports are very good but something sits a little uneasy with me and I don't know what. Can you elaborate at all without being slanderous?

Also any other city centre recommendations?

Many Thanks

Hi Mcflumpy, basically to cut a very long story as short as i can- we were paying alot of money for a service that we didnt get. I feel that the manager could have communicated with us alot better and didnt take any ownership of issues that we raised at all whatsoever, she was always either off sick or away on holiday and very difficult to try and get a hold of. I also feel (and this is only my personal opinion) that when the four seasons opened their new nursery at sky park, it was treated differently, as if it was more important than the other 2, alot of the good staff went there to work aswell. Without getting into too much detail some of the probs we had was that there was constantly new members of staff in the babyroom that my son was in, and they didnt introdruce themselves (apart from one), which i didnt think was very professional or reassuring. During 7 months my son only got taken out for a walk in 2 occassions, according to paperwork that we have got. Yet we were promised at the start he would get out every day, and when we brought this point up to the manager she denied we would ever have been told this (yet we had documentary evidence of this- which we have given to the SCC), When my son first started he was only a baby and on formula , however most days they would advise me that he "refused" his feeds or slept through them and "missed" them - we all know our own babies and mine NEVER used to refuse his milk- and whilst i could understand it if he was having an off day and wasnt feelingwell etc this happened a good few times. Also had a few instances when we brough our son home to find that the nappy he had on was absolutely soaking wet and on far too tight, the daily log sheets that we were given often had completely different information on them from what we had been told on the phone e.g- sleep times etc. These were just a few of the problems we had, although there are more- unfortunately for us. I am so annoyed at myself that i didnt take my son out sooner as like you i had that "uneasy" feeling, and knew in my heart that something just wasnt right, but at the start i put it down to being "too fussy" and a paranoid mother , however when i then spoke to other people who experienced problems with the same nursery it made me feel even worse and that coupled with another few issues made me realise that i had to get him out of there and raise my concerns properly. Although to be honest i feel as if SCC dont really believe what happened and think we are blowing this out of proportion and have been told that alot of the things cannot be proven etc etc. Bottom line is my DH and i both know what we experienced and know it wasnt right in any way. Inspections go for nothing as far as i am concerned now. Especially after reading over some of the inspections for nurseries and seeing that they are only for a few hours on one day. It doesnt matter if they are unannounced, as soon as staff are aware that the SCC are in the building they can make things appear very differently.

Not sure about any other nurseries in that area mcflumpy? I havent went to see anymore yet as i dont think i can face it just now after our first experience with one but i will make sure that when i do i am going to ensure i speak with parents who actually have children in the room that my son would be going into at that current time , and not people who had kids there 3/4 years ago etc as things can change quickly in these types of places.

All the best mcflumpy i hope all goes well.

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer. I'm really sorry you and your LO have had a difficult time. I have to admit that the outside space was one if the things we had reservations about as it's clearly not used often if at all. We asked how often they take the children out and they said 'as aften as possible but probably not every day'. Again we were not convinced this would happen very often whch gave us a bit if concern. Your concerns about feeds seem well founded and a real concern they didn't take them seriously.
We also looked at Cadogan St but on the day we visited it smelled awful and despite the claim they changed nappies when needed and not as scheduled every room we went into (incl baby rm) were having their nappies changed.

Re the SCC reports, from what I can see a lot of credence is given to protocols eg is there a staff board - tick, do they provide daily reports - tick but not a lot written about the actual care and well being of the children IYKWIM.

Anyway thanks again and hope your concerns are taken seriously by SCC as they ought to be.