An Aberdeen nursery where a baby boy was burned by bleach has been branded weak in a new report.
The Care Inspectorate carried out an unannounced visit at Little Dreams nursery on Bon Accord Street in December.
It came just weeks after one-year-old Blake Nilssen was left with severe burns when he toppled onto an unattended cleaning bucket.
Staff failed to alert the emergency services and his parents had to take the screaming tot to hospital themselves.
Blake’s mum Ellie Johnson said it was “blatant negligence” and is considering legal action against the nursery.
And now, the new report uncovers more issues, including children left unsupervised while eating and poor infection control.
Report highlights issues
The Care Inspectorate have released their inspection report, which was completed on December 15.
The document rates Little Dreams nursery’s quality of care, staffing and management as weak. The quality of environment was graded as adequate.
It also reveals that nursery bosses had failed to meet the majority of the eight requirements made following the incident involving little Blake Nilssen.
The latest inspection report said that children were left unsupervised for “short instances” during lunch. Furthermore, it added that staff were not following rules around wearing face coverings.
Parents of youngsters at the nursery told the Care Inspectorate they would like to hear more about their children’s day on a more regular basis.
Some said they would like the online portal updated because some of the entries were a week behind.
Parents also said they were would wait for as long as 25 minutes to pick up their children from the nursery.
Inspectors on children’s lunchtime
Care Inspectorate officials observed the children’s lunch routine. They noticed there were times when they were not always being supervised by staff.
The document said children were drinking from each others bottles and using their hands to eat.
It said: “Although the children were supervised most of the time there were short instances where children were eating without supervision.
“At these times, we observed there to be infection control incidents.”
The report said close supervision was required at all times. This is to reduce the risk of choking or youngsters eating foods they cannot due to allergy or dietary needs.
Care Inspectorate inspectors said children were waiting too long for lunch to be served and were becoming “agitated and upset” as a result.
Their report said that while staff were wearing face masks while in communal areas they were also wearing them around their chins when not in use.
Progress made on some requirements
Following the incident that lead to Blake Nilssen going to hospital the Care Inspectorate made eight requirements against Little Dreams nursery.
These included making sure staff are trained in first-aid and know emergency procedures.
Officials noted that some progress had been made with first-aid training. A full day training course was held on December 4.
It also said the nursery had met the requirement for updating staff on emergency procedures.
Staff had also received training on whistleblowing and child protection although this requirement was marked as “not met” in the report.
The Care Inspectorate said that a cleaner had been put in place to clean the nursery at the end of the day. That frees up staff to focus on children’s care and support.
Blake Nilssen’s family did not want to comment on the new report.
Little Dreams Nursery response
A spokesman for Little Dreams Nursery said that all of the requirements made by the Care Inspectorate had been met.
He said their team had “worked hard” to make sure they were up to standard.
The spokesman said: “We can confirm that following the inspection on 15 December that all the requirements noted for improvement in the report have been successfully completed.
“We have recorded the changes in an agreed action plan with the Care Inspectorate and the changes required were all implemented by the end of the year.
“The safe and effective operation of the nursery is always a priority, and our team has worked hard to achieve the standards required – we look forward to receiving a much-improved report and a positive rating at our next inspection.”
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