Child escaped from Edinburgh nursery after nurse left gate open
An Edinburgh nursery nurse has been reprimanded after she allowed a child to escape by leaving a gate open.
Aimee Reilly, formerly an early years educator at Busy Bees Nurseries in the Capital, was handed a warning by the Scottish Social Services Council.
She was found to have left the gate of a baby room open and sworn to a colleague after being asked to change nappies.
Incidents in which she broke protocol by giving a child medication on her own and left another unattended on a worktop round off a string of misconduct episodes which took place on various dates in 2023.
Setting out its findings against Reilly, the watchdog wrote: “You left a gate open which resulted in child AA leaving the room and, on another occasion, left child CC unattended on a worktop.
“This placed children in your care at risk of harm, although no actual harm was caused.”
It added: “You also failed to follow your employer’s policy and procedure when administering medication to child BB. You left child BB unattended while they were taking their medication.
“As a result of your actions, this placed other children at harm as they could have taken child BB’s medication.
“After [information redacted], YY asked you to change nappies, you referred to her as “f****** c***” in the presence of a colleague and two children.
“There is no evidence that the children heard what you said. Nevertheless, your behaviour was unprofessional and failed to show respect to your senior.”
It was recognised that Reilly had ‘shown insight’ into her misconduct and that the risk of repetition was low. However, the incidents represented ‘public protection issues’ due to a risk of harm to children.
Reilly was handed a 12-month warning on her registration.