Incident yesterday - Should I be concerned about DD safety at nursery?

[proudmum74]

When i picked up DD (2.8 with Down's) from nursery last night she was in the process of being stripped off as she was soaking wet (head to toe, including her piedro boots); turns out she'd somehow managed to go into the bathroom, put paper towels in the sinks & turned all the taps on. The floor of the bathroom was absolutely covered in water of at least an inch deep.

At the time I was more concerned about getting her dry & putting on some warm clothes, as she was frantically signing 'wet' & flapping her arms (which is something I haven't seen her do before), so wasn't really thinking that much about how she'd done it. It was only after I got home that I realised she must have been in there on her own for at least 5-10 mins to get that volume of water on the floor, as it's a big room.

I've tried explaining to DD how dangerous that was, but DH is furious as she could easily have slipped and hurt herself in all that water. She's supposed to have 1-1 care to keep her safe (through an inclusion grant whilst we wait for the LEA to finish their statement assessment).

This is the first problem we've had with the nursery in the 1.5 yrs she's been there. Do we put it down to a one off, knowing her normal key worker wasn't around yesterday & she will get dedicated 1-1 care as part of her statement in the new year? Or do you think I should raise it with the nursery manager?

I think I would 'express' my concern that this incident was able to happen when your DD was supposed to have 1-1 support. Even when she has a dedicated 1-1 there will be times when that person is not available (sickness, courses) and someone else will step in, so it is not an excuse that it was not the usual key worker there yesterday. Your DD has 1-1 for a very good reason!

As it is the 1st incident, I don't think I would take it any further than that, but just make it clear that you know it wouldn't have happened if she had been supervised. Does your DD use the toilet? They may of course claim they had 'given her some independence' by letting her go to the bathroom on her own!!!

We had an incident involving DS as Secondary school. He got into trouble when the class were split into 2 groups to work on something. One group (which DS was in) was sent outside the class to work - the staff all stayed in the classroom - including DS's 1-1 TA. We were called in to speak to one of the management team about the incident - and I accepted that what DS had done was wrong and he should be punished. However, the look on the member of staff's face said it all when I pointed out that had the TA been with DS where they should have been, the incident would not have arisen at all. The stunned silence and raised eyebrows in the room said it all - and I was confident that DS would not be put in this position again!!!! (She had clearly only been given half the story by the classroom staff!!!

Thanks Bigbluebus, it's good to know I'm not over reacting to this.

No, DD is not toilet trained yet, she was assessed last month, as part of the statement process, as having a development age equivalent to a 16 mth old (so half her age). She has no consciousness yet of when she needs to go to the toilet and has only just started to take her first steps in the past few weeks, so no idea how she got in there in the first place, as she doesn't have the mobility to easily get there......

I would raise it with the manager. That's a long time for even an NT 2yr-old to be out of sight without anyone noticing, let alone a child who is supposed to have 1:1 support.

I agree with proud, I work in a preschool and this kind of thing does happen from time to time, especially with the older children who are "trusted" to use the bathroom safely.

I would be mortified if this happened to a child who was supposed to have one to one.

Luckily, your Dd came to no harm and I think lessons will be learned by all the staff.

They need to understand that if her development is that of a 16 month old they need to supervise her like a 16month old and I am pretty certain that they would not be allowed to the bathroom by themselves.

Glad she is ok though and great that she was signing "wet" bless her

DS has never been to the loo unaccompanied - he has ASD, is toilet trained and is 6. Staff will now wait outside the cubicle to give him privacy but no way would he be allowed to go on his own - he would never come back.

LOL, I have just got round to reading my thread and realised I had agreed with the wrong person.

It was bigblue I was agreeing with not you proud