In a Guardian article this week, Lib Dem Education spokesperson Munira Wilson called for mandatory CCTV in nurseries to respond to a number of horrific abuse cases taking place in nurseries. She highlighted the structural failures in the childcare sector because of improperly managed implementation of childcare entitlements.

She set out the problem:

Yet the harrowing case of Vincent Chan, a former nursery worker in Camden, north London, who pleaded guilty to nine counts of sexual assault and 17 counts of taking or making indecent photos of children, hit the headlines last week, leaving parents with young children across the country feeling physically sick and asking the question: How did this happen? Tragically, this is not an isolated case.

In September, Roksana Lecka was sentenced to eight years in prison for 21 counts of child cruelty at Riverside Nursery in Twickenham Green and a nursery in Hounslow. Last year, Kate Roughley was jailed for manslaughter following neglect of baby Gigi Meehan at a nursery in Cheadle, Greater Manchester. The BBC’s Panorama investigation exposed a litany of cases of poor care and neglect in nurseries across the country.

She looked at how this could have happened:

Expanding entitlement to “free” childcare provision to more families has, in the words of some sector leaders, led to a “race to the bottom”. These places have been consistently underfunded by government, leaving childcare providers to fill the gaps. Some told me they’re now dealing with “crowd management” – as opposed to providing quality care. Minimum wage, long hours and an under-appreciation for the role have fuelled a recruitment and retention crisis that leaves good staff burnt out. With such a high turnover, providers are then hesitant to invest in staff who may leave after only a few months.

The Department for Education’s own report on hiring incentives, published in October, noted that many candidates for early-years roles lacked relevant qualifications, provided no evidence of soft skills and demonstrated little interest in the role or a desire to work in early years. If many staff don’t care about the children they’re working with, how can we hope for them to identify concerning behaviours before it’s too late?

And she said that CCTV in all nurseries was part of the solution:

Now is the time to mandate the use of CCTV in nurseries, with clear guidance that the footage should be regularly reviewed by management and form part of Ofsted inspections.

Yes, of course, there are always privacy concerns, but no parent I have ever spoken to would put their baby’s privacy over their safety. Babies cannot communicate when harm is being done to them, so it is crucial we have regularly monitored CCTV to ensure neglect and abuse are not taking place. It could also provide a helpful tool for staff training.

The Australian government is now piloting CCTV in nurseries, alongside a register of early-years practitioners. A register would ensure staff qualifications, training and previous history are tracked. Shockingly, the Twickenham Green parents only discovered during the course of the trial that Lecka lacked relevant qualifications and that red flags had been raised in relation to her behaviour at a previous nursery in which she had worked.

She also called for the Government to implement fully its plans to beef up OfSTED’s powers with regard to nurseries.

You can read her whole article here.

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