Moment boy, 3, escapes nursery through broken fence and runs into busy road
This is the worrying moment a three-year-old boy escapes from his nursery through a broken fence and runs into a busy road before being rescued.
Little James Maguire managed to run into a town centre without staff noticing, his mum said.
Video footage shows the boy crossing a road in Stone, Staffordshire, for around 23 seconds before running further into the town.
A member of the public who had seen a little boy on his own away from Elmhurst nursery was initially assured the child could not be one of its youngsters - but staff denied this.
Nursery workers eventually retrieved the boy and described the incident as "its responsibility and its failure", adding: "We were all deeply relieved that no harm came to the child.
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James Maguire standing in the middle of the A520 Newcastle Road in Stone (StokeonTrentLive/BPM)"No such event has ever occurred at the nursery before and, following an immediate investigation, we have taken urgent steps to ensure that this could never happen again."
Ofsted launched an investigation after the incident, and said the nursery has taken all the actions demanded of it.
But the boy's family said they are furious at how the incident happened and also how it was handled in the aftermath, reports StokeonTrentLive.
His mum Fiona, 46, said she found out about the incident several hours afterward and added she does not believe she and her husband were given a full account.
She said James, who is non-verbal, "needs extra attention, and for them to not even notice he was gone is just heartbreaking."
Mum-of-three Mrs Maguire added: "First, we were told he had been found on the school premises and had only been missing for a few minutes.
"They said staff had found him in the nursery car park, but that clearly wasn't the case.
"When my husband got to see the school's own CCTV, you could clearly see him going through the broken fence.
The boy escaped from his nursery through a broken fence (StokeonTrentLive/BPM)"And the CCTV from the high street clearly showed him well away from the site. He was standing there, in the road, for ages. James would have no idea of the ramifications of running out in front of a car."
NHS worker Mrs Maguire said her husband was contacted by nursery staff after 2pm on the day of the incident. The CCTV footage of James running through the town is time-stamped at 11.37am.
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According to Mrs Maguire, the nursery's own CCTV footage showed him going through the fence at 11.34am.
The nursery said James managed to escape "briefly", but would not confirm that in total he was off the premises for 14 minutes, returning at 11.48am.
A woman who lives close to the nursery had reportedly seen him in a car park on Station Road, out of the eye line of the nursery.
The woman allegedly went up to the nursery staff in the playground and said there was an unaccompanied little boy round the corner, but she was apparently told he could not be from the nursery as the children had only just come out to play.
She was then said to have headed back to try to find the boy, at which point two nursery staff were said to have run past her and into the town centre.
The incident took place on May 16. James' family complained to Ofsted the following day, and the nursery informed the regulator - who rates Elmhurst as ‘good’ overall - on May 18. It came out the same day.
Elmhurst nursery said the incident was 'its failure' (StokeonTrentLive/BPM)Mrs Maguire added: "We were not contacted by the nursery until several hours after the incident, and at first they were just telling us we needed to come in. They wouldn’t tell us what had happened, we were in an absolute blind panic."
Since the incident, the family has been in touch with the police, Staffordshire County Council, and Ofsted.
Mark Sutton, the county council’s cabinet member for children and young people, said the authority's designated officer had been "liaising with Ofsted on their investigation into the circumstances of the incident", adding: "The safety and welfare of our children and young people is paramount to this council and this was clearly a very upsetting incident for the family."
Staffordshire Police was contacted by the Maguires but said it "left the inquiry in the care of the regulator, Ofsted".
The regulator asked the nursery to improve risk assessment arrangements and staff knowledge of this, ensure that staff are deployed well enough to supervise children effectively, and adhere to ratio and staffing qualification requirements at all times.
Ofsted also said the nursery needed to ensure all children are given a key person and this information is shared with parents or carers when their child first starts attending.
Elmhurst was given until June 1 to implement the changes. Ofsted has since said: "On 06 June 2023, we carried out a further monitoring visit and found that the provider has responded to the actions set.
"We found that risk assessments have been improved and staff demonstrate a clearer understanding of the role they play to identify and minimise/remove hazards in the environment so that children can be kept safe from harm.
"At the monitoring visit, we also found that the provider had taken steps to ensure they meet the required ratios and staffing qualification requirements.
Fiona Maguire with her son James (StokeonTrentLive/BPM)"We also found that staff were deployed more effectively to ensure that children are supervised well as they eat and play. All children now have a key person assigned before they start attending the setting and this information is shared to parents/carers."
The nursery denied claims that a lady had told staff that a child was missing and added staff was "shocked and distressed when one of the children in our care managed to escape briefly from our nursery playground."
It said in a statement: "We were all deeply relieved that no harm came to the child. No such event has ever occurred at the nursery before and, following an immediate investigation, we have taken urgent steps to ensure that this could never happen again.
"We regard this event as our responsibility and our failure. It should never be possible for a child to escape in this way, whatever the circumstances.
"However, we are also concerned that a number of circumstances surrounding this situation have been misrepresented in public statements. It has, for example, been alleged that there were just ‘two apprentice girls’ supervising the children.
"This claim not only understates the size of the supervising team, but, more importantly, it misrepresents the reality that the staff in question were qualified professionals, not ‘apprentice girls’.
"The same sources have also stated that Ofsted ‘have put the nursery into Special Measures’. This is untrue.
2Ofsted have rightly investigated the situation and we have been happy to cooperate with them. We have also worked closely with the Local Authority. But there has been no question of the nursery being put into Special Measures.
"A further claim falsely stated that ‘an old lady’ had told our staff about the child’s escape three times before action was taken. This again is untrue. This was a very upsetting situation for all concerned, and it is not helpful when the facts are misrepresented.
"We are proud of our nursery and our track record, and we love the children we are privileged to care for. But we offer no excuses for what happened on this occasion. We can only redouble our efforts to ensure that we provide the finest possible professional attention and support for the children in our care."
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