Nursery firm fined £3,000 over boy’s injury

The boy fell head-first onto a hard floor from a 3ft high nappy changing unit when a member of staff was distracted at Lilliput Lodge childcare nursery in Sykes Street, Hull.

The infant, who was less than a year old, suffered “a large bump and bruise” to the head and was found to be concussed when he was taken to hospital by ambulance, but the incident could have been “much more serious”, Hull Council said.

An investigation was launched after the council was informed of the incident on September 13, 2011.

It found that a childcare assistant had been working alone in the baby room with three children under her supervision and left two of them unattended and unseen while taking the third into another room for a nappy change.

The assistant was distracted when someone entered the baby room and she turned to look.

The investigation found the assistant had not been adequately trained in all aspects of nappy changing and the risk assessment for this activity was “not sufficient”.

The nursery had no records of staff health and safety training prior to the accident, and the manager had no specific training to assist in managing health and safety.

A further inspection by Ofsted revealed that the nursery did not deploy staff “appropriately”, and the watchdog served the nursery with a notice to improve.

The nursery was also advised it should have provided an additional member of staff to supervise the other two infants to prevent the assistant carrying out the nappy change from being distracted.

Lilliput Lodge Ltd admitted two health and safety breaches at Scarborough Magistrates’ Court.

The company was fined £3,000 and ordered to pay £1,000 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

The premises is no longer owned by Lilliput Lodge Ltd.