Welcome Nurseries commits to improving Smarties Nursery after concerns raised

Last week, it came to light that a number of incidents, including a child being left in the bathroom on their own and an outside gate left open, took place at the setting, which is owned by Welcome Nurseries, between July and September last year.

The nursery group, which took over ownership of the Smarties Nursery in the village of Endby in January 2021, said it was not aware of the incidents until the beginning of this month when it received an email of ‘concern’ and launched an investigation.

The group alerted Ofsted and LADO [the local authority designated officer] at Leicestershire County Council.

A council spokesperson said, 'We have very recently been made aware of concerns raised by a parent and will be working with the setting to ensure the appropriate procedures and policies are in place.'

Following its own internal investigation, the nursery group says it found that a gate was left open which was seen on CCTV by the receptionist, who acted immediately. It adds that ‘no child ever left the premises.’

With regard to the incident of a child being left in the bathroom, Welcome Nurseries said that a member of staff didn’t realise he was there and closed the door. The nursery group said the child’s parents had been notified of the incident.

According to Welcome Nurseries, the incidents took place when the setting was under a different management team who no longer work for the company.

Since learning of the incidents, the nursery group has re-trained all staff that work at Smarties Nursery.

A spokesperson for Welcome Nurseries said, ‘The local authority visited the setting to check our policies and did not make any recommendations. We have new management in place at the nursery and will continue to move forward and provide good-quality childcare and education.

‘In summary, there were two incidents that appear to have been “buried” by the previous manager and when we were alerted to them we launched an investigation. The nursery has moved on a lot since then, with new management and new practitioners.’

Under its former owner, the nursery was last rated good by Ofsted in 2018. The setting has yet to be inspected by Ofsted under its new registration.

An Ofsted spokesperson said, ‘We have been alerted to these concerns. While we are unable to share information about individual providers, we take safeguarding concerns very seriously and consider all the information we receive when deciding on the appropriate action to take.’