A former childcare worker turned whistleblower has spoken out to claim that children attending private nurseries in the UK are often put in the care of poorly trained, lowly paid and 'burnt-out' young staff - while owners reap eye-watering monthly fees.
Early years settings reassure working parents with wholesome promises of nutritious meals, sensory play, child-centred learning and kind and experienced staff, but Laura*, 32, says the 12 years she spent in childcare were marred by 'toxic' conditions.
After entering the industry at 20 and working in multiple private nurseries across the capital, she recently quit, saying her job left her depressed and at breaking point.
And the incidents and behaviour she's witnessed will make the blood of most parents run cold.
They include one incident where a baby rolled off a changing table and hit its head on the floor, after a barely-trained apprentice turned her back on the child for a moment.
Others include children with allergies being given the wrong food - despite parents being assured that strict protocols were in place at the setting.
She also claims she witnessed bitchy staff, managers displaying favouritism towards workers, employees being begged to work while sick and regular 'sugar-coating' of incidents to parents arriving to pick up their children.
Any complaints, she says, would fall on deaf ears, with staff who vocalised concerns told to 'get on with it'. The pay - around £10 an hour, even with years of experience, says Laura is 'less than I'd get at Aldi'.
The ex-nursery worker says the toll on her mental health close to the end of her time in childcare was significant, revealing she would come home 'crying every day, always exhausted'.
This week at Kingston Crown Court, ex-nursery worker Roksana Lecka, from Poland, was found guilty of assaulting 21 toddlers in her care at a Montessori nursery.
And, she claims, she's not the only one who feels this way, saying the best workers are increasingly quitting the industry, leaving children vulnerable to sub-standard care and, as the shocking case of Roksana Lecka showed, even abuse.
At Kingston Crown Court, Lecka, from Poland, was found guilty of assaulting 21 toddlers at a £1,900-a-month Montessori nursery.
The 22-year-old was convicted of 'badly harming' 21 infants at the Riverside Nursery in Twickenham, southwest London, last year.
She justified her behaviour by claiming she was sleep deprived after smoking cannabis all night with her boyfriend.
Speaking to MailOnline, Laura says the case left her - and her former colleagues - shocked that anyone working in childcare would ever want to physically harm the children placed in their care.
However, the 32-year-old also admits she's not surprised the horrifying attacks were slow to be discovered,saying staff are often so stretched - with mountains of admin compromising care - that adult-to-child ratios become dangerously unsafe.
Concerned parents at the Riverside Nursery first began photographing and reporting unexplained injuries on their children's bodies as early as March last year - but it would be three months before Lecka was suspended on June 28th 2024.
This week, those parents watched in horror in court as jurors were shown some of Lecka's sadistic attacks, including CCTV footage of her kicking the boy repeatedly in the face. She will be sentenced on September 26.
The 22-year-old denied 17 counts of child cruelty but admitted seven similar offences while working at Riverside Nursery (pictured left) between January 31 and June 28 last year.
Riverside Nursery in St Margarets, where Lecka's abuse took place; the company behind the nursery is still in business having moved to a new location
In 2009, nursery worker Vanessa George pleaded guilty to sexually abusing dozens of children in her care in a bid to win the affections of paedophile Colin Blanchard. Right: Police officers outside Little Ted's Child Day Care Unit in Laira Plymouth after the unit was closed
Although highly disturbing, Lecka's conviction certainly isn't the first case of a childcare setting being targeted for abuse by criminals in recent decades.
Vanessa George, then 50, was jailed for a minimum of seven years in 2009 after she took photos of herself sexually abusing up to 30 infants at Little Ted's nursery in Plymouth, Devon.
The mother-of-two was freed in 2019 after the Parole Board said she no longer posed a 'significant risk' to the public.
Laura believes the industry is in crisis, with the Government's 2023 changes to staff-to-child ratios - one adult can now look after five two-year-old children, up from the previous ratio of 1 to 4, heaping additional pressure on workers and making settings vulnerable.
'A lot of other people have left the industry,' she said. 'They're losing all the good staff. And you're going to be left with people who are doing this to children.
'Instead of acknowledging the industry is struggling for staff, they [the Government] say "let's fix it by upping the ratio" so it looks like a setting isn't understaffed... but you've just put more work on the staff who are in the room.'
She gives one worrying example; saying if there are three staff members with 15 two-year-old children, it doesn’t take long for adequate provision to be compromised.
‘If one employee is cleaning up after lunch and another has to change a nappy, you’ve then got one person looking after 14 children.
‘There are simply not enough eyes watching them.’
The reliance on young, often not fully trained staff is also a topic for her posts.
Referencing how an apprentice at a former workplace accidentally let a baby roll off a changing table, she told MailOnline that the incident was neither reported accurately to the parents involved nor was subsequent action taken against the staff member.
‘This child fell from a height. It’s likely they hit their head but you’re telling a parent a different story?
‘Nothing was done [in the setting]. The only change made was that the employee then had to change the baby on the floor.
‘It’s a lack of training - why was she not taught to hold the baby properly when changing a nappy?’
She says frequently apprentices are put in situations they’re not ready for because there’s such a dire demand for staff.
‘They get you in and you’re in the room. You’re just thrown in as a 16-year-old with people who are probably overworked and stressed. That new member of staff, who’s never worked with children, is now counted in the adult-to-child ratio.
Laura said that she would never go back to working in nurseries because of what she experienced
‘You can’t get a manager to train them because you’re then taking two members of staff out of the room. This sort of scenario is where injuries happen – and will continue to happen.’
Despite parents sometimes paying more than a sizeable mortgage payment - often up to £2,000 a month per child for childcare, there's scant financial reward for the employees who care for their children.
Laura recalls how she would be asked to wear 'hand-me down uniforms from the back of a cupboard' for roles.
Alarmingly, she also recounts a situation where a nursery chef 'on multiple occasions' sent up the wrong food to children with intolerances and allergies.
Laura explained: 'The food was red plated, and labelled with the child's name on it. An allergy form was signed to say the child could have it.
'The nursery worker in the room would check again and give the food only to find it was wrong. On some occasions the food was put in front of the child and eaten.'
The 32-year-old says she's heard of vegetarian children being given meat - and parents later not being made aware of it by staff for fear of repercussions.
Would Laura return to a job she once loved if the industry improved? 'Never' she says with conviction. 'I'm done.'
Others working in the industry have reported similar experiences,saying care in the UK has been 'devalued'
And across social media platforms, others in the industry have painted a similar picture to Laura.
Earlier this year, one anonymous worker on Mumsnet, posting under the handle UnsolvedMysteriesRobertStack, published thoughts entitled: 'Childcare is not a dumping ground for the unemployable.'
They wrote: 'There are staff who can't read or write, and they expect to just sit or tidy up all day. My colleagues and I are picking up the slack, feeling understaffed, and having to tiptoe around these situations. It's never been this bad before. And they're all getting paid the same as the rest us.'
They continue,saying:'It feels like there's no industry standard any more. It makes me feel like my qualifications and experience are being devalued. We've been patient,but the burden feels heavier each day.'
Another employee in the industry responded,saying:'No one wants to work in nurseries any more. It's hard work stressful and a thankless task add to that the stress Ofsted owners wanting make profit.'
'The quality people coming interviews terrible most them don't even turn up.'
Others commented same adult care,saying:'We should ashamed society devalue caring most vulnerable extent feel'suitable place send anyone can't elsewhere.'