How do I deal with this?

[mjmooseface]

Hello all!

I'm really angry and upset and I don't know how to address this. I'm just looking for some advice on what steps to take.

I've just picked my son up from Nursery. My son has ASD. He had what looked like a pen lid and about 6 pebbles in his mouth! There was one member of staff in a room of about 16 two year olds. Maybe 10 were 'asleep' (some were stirring/lying there awake).

The staff are aware that my son puts things in his mouth. This has happened once before where I have picked him up and he had a whole mouth full of stones and pebbles and dirt.

I didn't say anything just now because I was too angry and emotional and just wanted to get my son home.

Do I contact the nursery manager? Do I complain elsewhere?

There has been no talk of an EHCP. We have an MEP of 15 minutes of water play/intense interaction a day and we'll meet again in July to see if my son has made any progress. Should I just go ahead with an EHCP myself?!

He's non-verbal. I want him to have 1-1 support. I'm thinking of moving him to a specialist nursery now. I was going to see how this nursery handled things as my son has bonded with his keyworker and the SENCO and I didn't want to break up his routine, but I am not impressed today.

What upsets me is they are aware of this issue and didn't prevent it - it was an 'oh, has he got something in his mouth?' after i'd already picked him up and had noticed it; I am sure they are breaking with policy having just one member of staff in the room at that time and just the blatant health and safety risk this is! If he were to choke or try to eat these things?! I don't want to even think about that! :(

I think normal complaint policy is go to the manager. I would put all of this into writing via a email to her then phone to follow it up.

Can you find out who your nursery improvent officer at the LA is? Contact them as well. I would urge you to do the later as this is someone who can really make a difference.

Being over ratio is also a major no no. My sons nursery can't even leave the room to get a child if they go under ratio.

Thank you 2boysnamedR.

I will email the manager today. I'm just taking a few hundred deep breaths to calm down before I do so! lol

I will look into who the nursery improvement officer is at the LA and express my concerns to them, too. Thanks for that.

The thing is, the member of staff was saying how she couldn't put my son's wet clothes in his bag on his peg as she couldn't leave the room. Yet, the room had way too many kid's in for it to just be her in there in the first place! This is a regular thing, tho. When I go to pick him up at 1, there'll be some kids asleep, some awake and only one member of staff. Some are being picked up, but still more are being dropped off. It's not right and it needs to change.

If you point the ratios out to the manager - not sure what the ratio is for two year olds? 1:8? Id put it in writing and if she can't explain why ( kids asleep is no excuse) I'd ask the improvement officer to look into that as well. Ofsted would not be happy to put it mildly.

2boysnamedR for 2-3 year olds, the ratio is 1:4! That is why I am so upset. Also, there are 2 autistic children in that room and were at the time this happened. On closer look at my son's daily diary, he had his nappy changed half an hour before he was picked up, meaning he had these items in his mouth for at least half an hour and it wasn't noticed when his nappy was changed either. He is also clumsy and prone to falling - something else the nursery know - and if he had fallen over with all of that in his mouth, it could have been a lot more worse!

I can't find anything to do with the LAs improvement officer but I will be writing to the early intervention team involved with my son also.

Google early years for your la. Once you find a number give them a call and tell them you need to improvement advisor / officer/ for that nursery. I could pm you my county's details if that helps with the search

Thank you for all of your help 2boysnamedR! :)

I emailed the nursery manager on Tuesday who then rang me straight away. She investigated the incident. It turns out I wasn't the only parent who complained that day. We met on Thursday for her to tell me what measures they'd taken to make sure something like this doesn't happen again. Now, the children who are there all day/have an afternoon nap, nap in a separate room so at pickup time, the lights are on in the room and we're not tripping over sleeping kid's and disturbing them!

My son now has 1-1 for 3 out of the 5 hours he is there, three days a week. They've applied for funding but are implementing this straight away. All of the staff have signed declarations that they know and understand the standards expected of them and what the staff to child ratios are, so that if this happens again, they can go down the disciplinary route. And it's all in writing, too. And we'll meet again in 2 weeks to see how the changes are doing.

So all-in-all, I was happy with the way the nursery manager handled this. And the changes have happened straight away. But then I get home to an email from the early intervention team saying nursery had cancelled the ASD training on Monday, and it can't be fitted in until September now.

Urgh! One thing after another, isn't it?! lol I was looking forward to all of the staff receiving this ASD training, especially as there are two children with ASD in the same age group so I'll have to see why they cancelled that and go from there.

Thanks again!