Safety

[Melba]

In light of the program on this evening about safety in nurseries, I am wondering if anyone has done a study on the mistakes, or not, that were made whenever there was a serious injury or death in a childcare setting?

The thought of a child being seriously hurt in our care is one of the things that keeps me awake at night (not the only thing, of course!) and I would like to be able to consider our practice in light of these incidents.

For example the playhouse involved in the incident described in the program had been altered to stop the roof blowing off but not checked by any standard of safety afterwards. Obviously not good practice but isn't that sort of thing possible anywhere?

And staff members were on their mobile phones, which most of us would not allow but it does help to have such a clear example of why we don't for any doubting staff.

[finleysmaid]

Its such an awful thing to happen. Ihave read the serious case reviews that appear after tragic incidents and i often make note and take those to the staff meeting to discuss. I can tell you now that my staff would be really angry about this one...their problems would be with the mobile phone issue, the fact that the child was not attended to for 20 minutes, the lack of emergency first aid (though this may have been done but is not in the reports that i have read) and the supervision of the child in the garden. When the review comes out we will examine it and see if there are any things we need to consider.

Sometimes it is difficult to see accident hot spots until someone points them out to you......like the school who had their indoor climbing equipment next to the glass doored trophy cabinet!! :blink:

[lynned55]

I'm off sick at the moment so therefore watched This Morning. where her poor, poor parents were interviewed. What struck me the most were 1) The staff were on mobile phones (surely you do not need an incident as serious as this to show you why you shouldn't be on a mobile phone when looking after small children) 2) They were out of ratio.

The father mentioned this specifically, he said there were two staff and 14 children (as she was under three I am assuming there should have been a 1:4 ratio- which they were quite clearly not)

3) There were 20 minutes she was unaccounted for and as they were out of ratio for sometime- it was quite easy to not notice a child missing for that amount of time.

4) Despite this our ratios are going to change??????

 

All so sad, isn't it and none of this will bring the poor little mite back

[TORO]

Hi all.

 

I also will be watching the show, i told my staff to also watch hopefully they will. My question regarding the ratio is if the children are in the garden, and staff are on breaks, lunch breaks can yo keep the ration in line, what we do is to make sure that there is a staff on premises within hearshot to be called in case of emergencies.

[lashes2508]

Tragic case and as Finsleysmaid said a good learning tool to review cases and use at staff meeting to reflect on practice.

our access to the outdoors was picked up on as children have to go through kitchen but always supervised . my thought is if you are ever in a situation where safety or ratios are compromised it don't happen - rather the children missed out than not be safe.

Our garden is L shaped and we always ensure a member of staff is at each end and regularly headcount .

I introduced walkie talkies straight away at our setting too so when we go outside , we are able to speak to staff member inside .

Our mobile phone policy states- any staff member using phone , this will be considered as gross misconduct and lead to disciplinary procedures.

[Guest]

For me reading the press articles, it highlighted that all the policies in the world does not make a difference if people aren't adhering to them! The staff admitted they knew the phone policy, had been reprimanded by the manager previously and did not do it whilst she was on site. However, they flouted this when she was not around!!

 

The same could be said for RA...too much and people become 'tick box blind' and stop actually reading and carrying them out effectively

 

Absolutely agree that following this programme it would be absolutely ludicrous to go forward with the ratio proposals...it was devastating to see the pain those parents were in :-(

 

We too use these types of occurrences to dissect and reflect on practice, policy etc; wish we didn't have anything to judge against though, but it does actually hit home and stir feelings which can only be a good thing

 

Lets hope those in power do something and dispatches push their point harder to ensure someone listens

Edited February 11, 2013 by gingerbreadman

[Guest]

What a tragic and devastating thing to happen. I would hope that in the light of the Plymouth George Case, staff would no longer have personal mobiles on them. (I believe this accident happened in 2007 )

 

I felt this case really highlighted the responsibility of the Manager even when they are not on the premises as it stated on the programme that 2 staff were taken to court one has been found guilty and the manager (not at work on the particular day that the accident occured) was found not guilty,. I'm not suggesting that the manager should'nt have been taken to court, but no wonder Managers have sleepness nights! The most robust risk assessments and policies are useless unless everyone follows them.

[TORO]

Hi Lashes 2508,

 

Can you pls tell me where you got your walkie talkies from, i think i definitely need one too.

 

Thanks

[Guest sn0wdr0p]

From what I read in my paper a staff member performed CPR incorrectly - I got the impression that she was not first aid trained.

 

A nursery in my town was visited by Ofsted in October and they had no paediatric first aid trained staff on the premises - I am horrified that nurseries get away with this when the consequencies can be so serious. The nursery got a satisfactory! Surely they should be inadequate as it is a breach in regulations. Every member of my staff has their paediatric first aid certificate as I believe that the person nearest a child should be able to deal with something instantly not have to wait for a first aid trained member of staff to come.