This report was produced by BBC Local Investigations
A brand-new BBC investigation will uncover how reports of ‘serious incidents’ in England’s nurseries are 40% higher for the year 2023-24 than five years earlier– with former and current nursery workers admitting to having witnessed poor care.
How Safe Are Our Nurseries?, which will broadcast on BBC One in the North West region on Monday 4 April and on BBC iPlayer, will also reveal how some nurseries deliberately manipulate Ofsted investigations.
BBC Investigation found serious problems
The BBC has found that there have been almost 20,000 reports of serious childcare incidents in nurseries in England in the past five years.
- That is an average of about 75 “significant events” reported to Ofsted each week – including incidents resulting in death, serious injury or significant harm.
- Nurseries made more than 4,200 reports of serious childcare incidents in 2023-24, compared with 3,021 in 2019-20 – according to Ofsted figures, obtained by the BBC through a Freedom of Information request. Incidents could range from injuries or illnesses, to serious accidents and deaths. They also include events affecting nursery premises, such as fires or floods.
- Ofsted – which regulates more than 27,000 non-domestic childcare settings in England – says these were reports it assessed as urgent.
More than 20 nursery workers were interviewed
The BBC has spoken to more than 20 former and current nursery workers all from premises across England who said they had witnessed poor care. Many said frequent short-staffing was a factor in children being put at risk – and that inspectors were not always able to spot this.
Many nurseries are now given advance warning of inspections
Until 2015, inspectors would arrive at nurseries unannounced – but only a third of inspections are now carried out this way. Most nurseries are informed the day before.
The notice period is used by some nurseries to deliberately mislead inspectors, some nursery workers told the BBC. Managers ask friends or family to attend, they say, to make the nursery appear fully staffed.
Ofsted may not see the real picture
One former worker said 15 babies had been left sleeping in a room with only a baby monitor and no staff members to look after them. But when Ofsted announced an inspection, managers called in staff from other locations.
An ex-Ofsted inspector says she witnessed workers man-handling children during inspections. “If you can do that in front of someone, what are you planning on doing if nobody is watching?” she adds.
The inspector, who did not want to be named, says inspections are a “tick box exercise” which are “very easy to manipulate”.
“As long as they can say: ‘We’ve asked all these questions, what more can we do?’ But you do that once every so many years… How is that safeguarding the children?”
Ofsted – which inspects England’s education providers – says the rise in incidents may, in part, be due to its increased efforts to ensure nurseries report such events.
Ofsted’s broad criteria for reporting can mean nursery workers “err on the side of caution”, the Early Years Alliance says. This means investigations often find no safeguarding breach has, in fact, occurred – it adds.
How Safe Are Our Nurseries? will broadcast on BBC One in the North West region on Monday 7 April at 8:30pm and will be available on BBC iPlayer.
CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO OUR CROWDFUNDER
HELP US BECOME STRONGER SO THAT WE CAN CONTINUE TO DELIVER POWERFUL CITIZEN JOURNALISM!
