Rise in serious care incidents reported by nurseries

Ofsted - which inspects England's education providers - says the rise may, in part, be due to its increased efforts to ensure nurseries report such events.

Industry body, the Early Years Alliance, says most providers prioritise safety and that safeguarding breaches are extremely rare.

Ms Wheeler and Mr Meehan are now calling for more frequent Ofsted inspections and for CCTV footage to be checked by inspectors.

Genevieve had been at the now-closed Tiny Toes nursery in Stockport, Greater Manchester, for a week when she died.

CCTV footage showed her struggling and coughing, but nursery worker Kate Roughley did not check on her properly until she was "unresponsive and blue", her trial heard. Roughley received a 14-year prison sentence for manslaughter in May last year.

"I couldn't understand how a baby of this age could go to sleep for a nap in the afternoon and then not wake up," Ms Wheeler told us.

"I completely lost who I was, that night in hospital, holding her."

Parents often rely on Ofsted's inspections and subsequent ratings to help them choose the best childcare setting.

Full inspections usually happen every six years, but the regulator can inspect more often if a nursery is graded as inadequate or requiring improvement - or if concerns are raised.

Schools rated good or outstanding are usually inspected every four years - and more frequently if graded lower.

More than 1,500 nursery inspections had been brought forward after receiving reports of serious childcare incidents - Ofsted told us.

But a former Ofsted inspector told us the regulator is not conducting enough inspections to identify poor practice and protect children.

The ex-inspector, who did not want to be named, says inspections are a "tick box exercise" which are "very easy to manipulate".

"As long as they can say: 'We've asked all these questions, what more can we do?' But you do that once every so many years - how is that safeguarding the children?" she says.

As police reviewed nursery CCTV as part of their investigation into Genevieve's death, it revealed a second staff member had also been causing harm to children.

Rebecca Gregory was jailed for three years last September after being convicted of the wilful neglect and ill-treatment of children, including threatening and pushing babies younger than one.

Ofsted inspectors do not routinely check CCTV footage - and the regulator says it cannot mandate CCTV use in nurseries.

There is no government guidance on checking footage during inspections and it does not have the resources to do this, it adds.

The former owners of Tiny Toes in Stockport say they cannot comment because of an ongoing investigation by Stockport Council.

Local authorities are responsible for investigating any safeguarding concerns at nurseries.

In light of our findings from Ofsted about a broad range of incidents, we asked councils across England about the specific number of times harm had been caused to children by nursery workers.

Seventy-two out of more than 150 councils responded to Freedom of Information requests with figures indicating there had been 5,795 reports or allegations of children being harmed by nursery workers, over a five-year period between 2019 and 2024.

There were like-for-like figures from 36 councils for both that period and the five years up to 2015, when Ofsted stopped routine no-notice inspections.

Reports of harm to young children almost tripled over that time - from 1,303 between 2010-15, to 3,342 between 2019-24. These figures may include cases where the incident was either accidental or unproven.

Standards of care are low and if something does not change there will be "more accidents, more harm to babies, more unhappy parents and children," says early childhood professor Helen Penn.

Ofsted says it is giving "conspicuous care and monitoring" to reports of harm to children.

More frequent inspections may be a solution, says Ofsted's Yvette Stanley, but she says the regulator does not currently have the resources available to do this.

"We think we do enough no-notice inspections to reassure ourselves in the cases where the data is worrying," she adds.

The Early Years Alliance added that children's safety should "never be compromised" and it welcomed any action which strengthens this.

The Department for Education (DfE) has said it will introduce stronger safeguarding measures in early years settings in September, including "enhanced recruitment practices" intended to prevent unsuitable people from working with children.

A spokesperson said the department will "continue to closely monitor whether any further changes to safeguarding requirements are needed in early years to keep children as safe as possible".