Staff at Sunbeams nursery, which has 62 children registered, said that they were responding to a request from one child's parents that the child should be distracted from having a late sleep in the afternoon. The parents said that napping in the afternoon meant that the child's sleep pattern was disturbed throughout the night.
Ofsted became involved after an anonymous complaint was made to it that staff at the nursery were not letting children sleep.
Sunbeams staff explained the child's particular circumstances and said that they were following parents' wishes. However, the nursery was given the action because Ofsted said that nursery staff should prioritise the rights of the child rather than requests from parents.
Nursery manager Shelley Briggs told Nursery World, 'This is a common dilemma for nursery nurses. Parent partnership is part of the Early Years Foundation Stage and good practice, but Ofsted would not enter into a debate.
'It's a grey area. We do not want to step on parents' toes, but Ofsted says it is about the rights of the child, and the child needed to sleep. We are going to send a letter out to parents informing them of what has happened and tell them that they will have to contact Ofsted if they want to discuss the issue further. The issue hasn't yet come up again with this particular child, but it will do.'
An Ofsted spokesman said, 'While parents and carers may make a formal request for their child to be exempt from receiving the learning and development requirement of the EYFS, there is no provision for a child to be exempt from the welfare requirements. Providers must meet the welfare requirements at all times. In meeting the welfare requirements, a provider must have effective systems in place to ensure that they meet the individual needs of the child. This includes giving due consideration to the wishes of the child's parents. However, in the event of a conflict between the parent's wishes and the welfare requirements, the provider must put the safeguarding and best interests of the child as the priority.
'We would expect providers to discuss matters such as sleep patterns with parents and to accommodate parental wishes wherever possible, unless these conflict with welfare requirements.'
Early years advisor Dr Maria Robinson said, 'This is a delicate situation and I think that staff need to try to unpick the issue and find out why the child might be waking in the night. There is usually a reason why a child does not want to go to bed. A three-year-old probably still needs a short sleep in the afternoon.'
