Messy play turned a bit messy.....

[venus89]

I failed in my duty of care to my mindees yesterday, although I feel justified that I was working in their best interests at the time, by leaving them briefly in the care of a non childminder at messy play.

I was hanging around in the doorway between the inside room and garden of the children's centre at messy play as I had one mindee indoors and one outdoors (why do they do that?!) so I needed to keep an eye on both. Then one of the mums came past with a ****** child in her arms asking 'where's x's mum?' Kid had tripped over a soft mat and cracked his head on a bead frame, poor thing. So I went in to get the creche leader who initially went to the mat, which was covered in blood. So I told her to go get the first aid box and that I'd deal with the mat, grabbed the mat, asked another Mum if she'd keep an eye on my two briefly, and went and depositied the mat in another part of the children's centre with a member of staff.

So technically I have failed the children and parents by leaving the children in a non childminders care but I felt that this was in the best interests of all the children (and it was really really busy) to remove the blood as soon as possible. And if I was ever asked by Mrs Ofsted then I'd say the same.

(The child, by the way, went to hospital for stiches - I don't know how he's doing)

Would you have done the same or asked somebody else to take the mat out of the room?

[amirose]

I think you did fine hun, you could only have been out of the room for a matter of seconds anyway.
You could of asked someone else to remove the mat but we often don't even think about those things till after the event - we just do what needs to be done.
I wouldn't worry at all :)

[venus89]

Thank you Ami - it's nice to have reaffirmed what I think anyway!
I don't think I feel guilty - well, alittle - just thoroughly relieved that it wasn't one of my mindee who went to hospital. I did wonder if I ought to mention to the parents but I'm thinking that as - as you say - it was a matter of seconds I was out of the room it probably isn't necessary. x

[huggableshelly]

what if you had have left the mat to someone else and then one of your children fell into the spilt blood that could lead to further complications!

you did what you felt was best and ofcourse you assessed the situation and knew your children were safe for the few seconds you spent dealing with a potential hazzard.

as for informing parents I'm not sure if i would, not to be secretive but its a trivial thing to be honest and you knew the children were safe.

well done for acting and keeping all children safe from possible danger!