Nursery death baby - mother complained to staff

Last updated at 13:06 02 November 2006

The mother of a 10-month-old girl who died after choking on a piece of apple at nursery had complained about the standard of care her daughter had been receiving just days before her death.

Sharon Hollick told an inquest that some staff at the Just Learning nursery near her home in Cambourne, Cambridgeshire, did not follow her instructions and appeared "more concerned about the care of the room than the care of the children".

She said she had told nursery manager Julie Haynes that her daughter Georgia should be seated in a high chair while eating, after finding her sitting on the floor of the nursery among squashed pieces of strawberries four days before she died.

"Georgia was soaking wet and she had been feeding herself," Mrs Hollick told the inquest. "I told the nursery manager the next morning that I was not happy with the level of care and that I expected Georgia to be placed in a high chair."

Georgia died in April this year after choking on a piece of apple at the nursery. The inquest heard today from three members of staff who had been looking after Georgia at the nursery on the day she died.

None had any valid formal first aid qualifications. One was a qualified nursery nurse and another had yet to complete her child care qualifications and couldn't work on her own because she was waiting for a police check to come through.

The third initially worked as a kitchen assistant at the nursery before moving to look after the children and had completed an in-house nursery course. The inquest heard, however, that there were qualified first aiders in the building at the time of the incident.

Mrs Hollick said she had dropped Georgia and her other daughter off at the nursery on the morning of April 19. She said nursery staff called her at about 10am saying that Georgia had choked on a piece of apple and had been taken to Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge. She went to the hospital and was told that Georgia had died.

A post-mortem examination showed that Georgia had died of asphyxia. A piece of apple measuring no more than 0.8cm was removed from her right bronchus, the inquest heard. Mrs Hollick had previously been happy with the care her daughter had been receiving, but this changed after two new staff began to look after her, the inquest heard.

The day before Georgia died she was put back into the care of nursery nurse Carla Woods, who she had been happy with previously. Ms Woods said that her colleague Sam Lloyd had given Georgia pieces of apple that she had cut while she was out of the room.

"When I came back about five minutes later Georgia was coughing," she said. "Sam was patting her on the back but it was not working. I took Georgia off Sam. I started to do the back slap. I could see Georgia going blue and I sent Sam to get Julie Haynes. I recalled a GP coming."

The inquest heard Georgia had been sitting on the floor when she began to choke. Ms Woods told the inquest she had an NNEB qualification, but that she did not have a valid formal first aid qualification at the time of the incident.

When asked whether she had been given any health and safety training at the nursery as to what should be done in the event of an emergency she replied: "No." The inquest heard that three or four members of staff tried to help Georgia, and manager Julie Haynes gave the little girl cardiopulmonary resuscitation but without success.

It's not the first time the Just Learning nursery in Cambourne has been involved in a major inquiry into its standards of childcare. An investigation was launched after a 15-month-old girl suffered a broken arm in September 2004, but charges of cruelty against three members of staff were dropped after the Crown Prosecution Service decided there was insufficient evidence.

Mrs Hollick said she was assured when she looked around the nursery when she was pregnant that the members of staff involved would not be working at the nursery when her children started there.

"I later found out that one of those members of staff was working at the nursery. I wouldn't have allowed my children to be there had I known that one of these members of staff would be looking after my children."

The nursery - one of a national chain - was closed after Georgia's death for investigations. The Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) suspended the nursery's registration as a result of Georgia's death but inspectors later gave it the green light to reopen after managers agreed to "policy and procedure reviews".

After the incident Just Learning said none of the 29 staff at the nursery would face any internal disciplinary procedures, and police concluded that there were no grounds for a criminal prosecution of nursery staff.