Good Morning Britain investigates - are Nurseries safe???

This morning’s GMB programme highlighted some bad practice in 1 particular Nursery. This may have raised some anxieties and concerns for parents who use nursery provision.

The issues reported within the investigation included:

·      Inadequate staff suitability checks

·      Poor levels of supervision

·      Health and Safety concerns

Staff Suitability

At St Mary’s Nurseries the Safeguarding procedures are robust and inform the recruitment and selection process. We ensure that at least one member of the interview panel has completed the ‘Safer recruitment’ training.

All staff including volunteers and students are interviewed, DBS checked, references sought, qualifications confirmed and receive a thorough induction.

Supervision of children

The legal requirements for adult:child ratios are

0-2years - 1 adult: 3 children

2-3years – 1 adult: 4 children

3-5 Years- 1 adult: 8 children

These requirements are never compromised although there are times when a member of staff will be working on a 1:1 ratio during certain periods ie nappy changing, dealing with an accident, speaking to a parent.

Volunteers and students are NEVER left unsupervised with the children. It is on a very rare occasion that any member of staff will work alone due to the open plan layout and position of the office.

Health and Safety

Plug sockets – during the investigation the reporter found that the nursery in question did not have plug socket covers. Recently it has been advised by electrical experts to remove all plug socket covers in care establishments, they are more dangerous when in use as they release the safety mechanism within UK electrical sockets.

As with all NHS establishments St Mary’s Nurseries removed all socket covers in October 2016 following this advice.

Resources - During the report a child was playing with stilts  

The child apparently had one of the stilts hanging around his neck. This piece of equipment is appropriate for the age and stage of development for 3-5 year olds. The problem was that this activity was not adequately supervised. Although we do not have any stilts we do have pieces of equipment which children do wear over their heads such as handbags, scarves, capes etc.

Accidents – The presenter informed viewers that ‘children are having accidents, head injuries, burns and breaking bones whilst in Nursery’.  This is true but children also have accidents, receive head injuries, burns and broken bones at home, at school, in the garden, at the park, at Grandmas, etc.

At St Mary’s Nurseries the children are closely supervised at all times but, inevitably, we do get our fair share of bumps, bruises, bites and scratches. Every precaution is taken to avoid accidents; risk assessments are carried out but it must be remembered that children do receive knocks and bumps as a part of development, during play and physical activities. These unavoidable rough and tumble little accidents of childhood are mostly shrugged off fairly quickly by the children. We record in detail any accident/incident of whatever nature, and we ask the parent to read and sign our report.

As far as we are concerned this investigation had some valid concerns for example ‘not vetting staff appropriately, leaving volunteers unsupervised and poor supervision of children’. However there were some scare mongering tactics in relation to  ‘no plug socket covers’, the use of equipment ie the stilts and children’s accidents.

If you have any concerns about this investigation or our response please speak to a member of the Management Team.