FURIOUS mums and dads learned of a catalogue of worrying mistakes at a Leicestershire nursery when staff accidentally published a secret hit-list of near misses.

Parents using the Welcome Nurseries app discovered a little boy had almost wandered out of gate, while another youngster got locked in a toilet.

The internal memo even revealed staff at Smarties in Enderby said they "wouldn't be surprised if Ofsted turn up".

The document was quickly taken down and replaced by a notice informing parents it had been posted in error.

But it was too late – and angry parents have now blasted the business for "hiding" important breaches from them.

One of the biggest problems to emerge was an incident in July last year when a young child was spotted as he walked through a gate reportedly left open by workers, Leicester Mercury reports.

The youngster was only stopped after he was spotted on CCTV heading into a car park.

SECRET DOC ACCIDENTALLY POSTED

The incident wasn't reported to the child's family, to the company's head office or to Ofsted.

In a second incident, a pre-school boy was trapped in a toilet "for some time". He was crying and visibly shaking when he was freed.

It happened when a staff member was told to shut the door to the bathroom, but failed to check if any children were inside at the time.

And in yet another blunder, workers used antibacterial wipes instead of wet wipes while changing babies.

Some of the little ones were left sore and bleeding as a result.

Another child was left in a soiled nappy for so long that excrement stuck to his leg took 15 minutes to clean off.

BABIES WIPED WITH ANTI-BAC

One parent whose child attends the nursery said: "The entire post is very worrying, but my child attends the nursery section so I am particularly concerned that a member of staff was using antibacterial wipes on the babies' bottoms.

"I definitely haven't been told about it and only found out due to the letter.

"We have to provide our own baby wipes so there was literally no excuse for them to use anything else, they are completely different.

"They have covered staff mistakes up and we wouldn't have known about it if the letter wasn't posted.

"It's just a lot to hide. If they'd spoken with parents immediately at the time, there would have been some angry people, sure, but it's a lot better than keeping it a secret."

It's very worrying. It's just a lot to hide

A spokesperson for Welcome Nurseries has confirmed the management in charge of Smarties Nursery has recently changed.

Bosses have also launched an investigation – and had "no prior knowledge" of the incidents until the document was posted.

"The safety and well-being of all our children is our number one priority and we immediately carried out a full investigation," they said.

"These incidents fall well below our standard of care and we have since retrained our staff.

"We are continuing to work with our parents and can assure all parents that we take all concerns seriously and act on them.

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"We profusely apologise to all our children and parents that these incidents occurred and that we were not made aware of them sooner. We have not yet finished our investigations in this matter.

"We have a new management structure in place at the setting. We would also like to thank our parents for their continued support."

A Leicestershire County Council spokesperson said: “We have very recently been made aware of concerns raised by a parent and will be working with the setting to ensure the appropriate procedures and policies are in place."

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