Mysterious closure of day nursery (From Cotswold Journal)

Mysterious closure of day nursery

9:00am Thursday 7th March 2013 in News By Freya Leng

MYSTERY surrounds the closure of a Bourton day nursery which has been temporarily shut by watchdog Ofsted because of child safety concerns.

A notice posted on the door of the Barn Nursery School and Day Nursery, in Willow Court, by the schools inspection body said the privatelyrun facility, which caters for 75 children, was closed on Tuesday, February 26, and would remain shut until Saturday, April 6.

Ofsted confirmed it has received information about a “serious incident” but would not give any further details.

A spokesman said Ofsted was liaising closely with the relevant child protection agencies in relation to the investigation.

The notice read: “We have suspended the provider’s registration in order to make sure that children are safe while the investigations are in progress.

“The purpose of suspension is to allow time to investigate our belief that a child may be exposed to a risk of harm and for any necessary steps to be taken to eliminate or reduce the risk of harm.

“We will regularly review the situation and will stop the suspension within the period if we believe children are no longer at risk. Suspension does not automatically mean a provider is unsuitable to provide care in the future or that we will cancel registration.

“We only take steps to cancel registration if we consider the provider is no longer suitable to provide childcare.’”

A parent who has a two-year- old daughter at the nursery said she had been told about the closure last Friday. The woman, who did not wish to be named, said: “I got a letter from Ofsted. We had to make arrangements with an alternative [nursery] for the first week and booked a place in another nursery close by.

“Unfortunately we can’t wait. We don’t know when they will reopen.

“We haven’t experienced any problems. My child is quite happy there. It’s really nice. We like the staff there and were surprised.”

A Gloucestershire County Council spokesman said that the incident was being investigated.

When contacted by the Journal, the Barn Nursery declined to comment.