Edinburgh mother left traumatised after missing toddler found in closed grit bin at nursery
Incident reported to Care Inspectorate as council says ‘urgent steps’ have been taken to prevent it happening again
A missing toddler was discovered limp inside a grit bin by his traumatised mother after a frantic search for him at his nursery.
The woman, who did not want to be named, initially feared her two-year-old son was dead when she found him curled up inside the yellow bin in the playground at Maybury Primary School in Edinburgh.
She had arrived to pick up the toddler from the school’s Early Learning and Childcare service shortly before 12pm on Friday, January 16. But after waiting outside for 15 minutes, she was left terrified when staff told her he hadn’t been seen for almost an hour and that the police had been informed.
After a panicked search of the nursery rooms and playground, the young boy, who should have been under ‘tag team’ supervision as per an agreement with his parents, was found ‘cold, shivering and disorientated’ and ‘covered in grit’ inside the closed container.
The mother-of-five said: “When I opened the box I thought he was dead because he was curled up in the fetal position and wasn't moving. He was cold, shivering, his skin was pale and his face, mouth and nostrils were covered in grit.
“When I picked him up he was disorientated and just slumped into my arms. And once we were inside he didn’t appear to be his usual self and he was shivering and gulping down water.
“I didn’t know how this could have happened or how long he had been in there or how much salt he had ingested. Staff told me he had last accounted for at 11.10am, and I arrived to collect him at 11.50am. So I don't understand how nobody noticed that he wasn't there anymore.”
He was later taken to A&E where he was found to have elevated salt levels in his blood. He was kept in for further tests before being discharged later that evening.
The youngster returned to the nursery in Turnhouse Road last week but his mother later made the decision to keep him home as she said ‘it just didn’t feel right’ to leave him. She said a range of factors - from lack of transparency to risk assessment measures being neglected - had eroded her trust.
The 36-year-old said: “They still haven’t told me what actually happened to my child on that day. They described it as an unfortunate incident but that is just completely not acknowledging how serious this situation actually was. After everything that's happened I just I can't send him back there. No one has actually admitted to what went wrong on that day.
“I asked to see the CCTV on the day that it happened so I would have more information to give the doctors. They said they would check it but I didn’t hear anything back. The next week I was told the CCTV didn’t cover the area where the grit bin was and then a few days after that they told me that the CCTV hadn’t been working that day - it just doesn't make sense.”
An incident report said her son was playing with the grit bin earlier in the morning before a staff member at the nursery closed it and told him ‘not to play with it’. He was last accounted for in the garden at 11.10am when he was ‘seen going towards the door to go inside’.
But the toddler’s mother said the report fails to explain how he could have been left alone for 50 minutes before being found.
She said: “My son is very active and energetic and loves exploring. Last year it was identified that he lacks safety awareness and his keyworker described him as ‘determined and very quick’ - we actually had to take him out of nursery for a while because he was accessing the nursery toilets.”
Following a Child Planning Meeting in November, it was agreed her son would have ‘tag team supervision’ – a safety measure which meant staff had to make each other aware when her son had moved between nursery zones. But she was shocked to learn this system had been discontinued without her consent.
She said: “When I brought this up with them they said ‘oh we didn't think he needed it anymore so we stopped it’. And I just can’t understand how nobody noticed he was missing for so long and the incident report doesn't reflect what actually happened.”
The incident has now been reported to the Care Inspectorate and the City of Edinburgh Council said ‘urgent steps’ have been taken to prevent this from happening again, including extra staff in the outside play area to monitor children. It is understood CCTV is in use and the grit bin has been locked.
Council Leader Jane Meagher said: “I was shocked to hear about this awful incident and can only imagine how frightening it must have been for the child’s mother and family. I’m so sorry they had to go through this.
“It’s simply unacceptable that such a young child could be unaccounted for and put at risk, particularly in a place where they should be safe and cared for.
“I want to reassure the family that the Care Inspectorate were immediately informed, and urgent improvements have already been made at the nursery. I am insisting that these are independently reviewed to make sure all lessons have been properly learned and that this can never be allowed to happen again.”
A spokesperson for the Care Inspectorate said: “The Care Inspectorate has been appropriately notified of an incident involving a child at this nursery.
"A concern has also been raised with us about this service and we will consider all information given to us carefully. We will continue to liaise with the service and provider to ensure that the health, wellbeing and safety of children is paramount and will take any further action as required.
“If we uphold a complaint we publish the outcome on our website. Every child in Scotland has the right to good quality, safe care which meets their needs and respects their rights.
“Anyone with a concern about a service can contact us on 0345 600 9527.”