‘This could have ended in tragedy for us too. More children will die at nurseries if things don’t change’

“This was a ticking time bomb and it could have been my son,” Michelle Leech said.

A Dudley mother-of-one has described the “utter horror and disbelief” she felt when she discovered a 14-month-old baby had died at the nursery her child Jenson attended.

On a Friday afternoon in December 2022, the mother arrived to pick up 11-month-old Jenson from Fairy Tales Day Care, and it was swarming with ambulances and police. “My first thought was: is my son involved in this?”

Noah Sibanda was found unresponsive in the nursery at the nursery and was pronounced dead at the hospital an hour later.

Last month, nursery worker Kimberley Cookson was sentenced to three years and four months in prison for the manslaughter of Noah through gross negligence.

CCTV cameras recorded Noah being wrapped tightly in a sleeping bag, a blanket placed over his head and laid face down to sleep in a covered tent, Cookson said. She also held Noah down with her left leg before he was left uncontrolled for two hours.

The nursery was permanently closed by Ofsted in April 2023.

Miss Leech told Independent: “This bothers me every day. The guilt we feel as parents, [our son] Something there that could have been his death suddenly comes back and haunts him.”

Ms Leech, along with others whose children attend daycare, are calling for urgent changes in childcare to prevent other parents from experiencing the tragedy that Noah’s family did.

“There were a lot of other parents for whom this could end in tragedy, and that hasn’t been acknowledged yet,” he said. “This needs to happen now because it will happen again. It has happened before.

“How much can we trust Ofsted now? This has really put Ofsted under the spotlight.”

It calls for reform to protect nurseries to ensure staff undergo more comprehensive background checks and child protection training. Ms Leech also wants to see stricter enforcement of health and safety standards, meaning dangerous practices won’t go unnoticed.

Tighter controls on sleeping arrangements were also critical after what happened to Noah, she said.

Mother-of-two Kayleigh Arnold said her confidence in childcare has been completely broken since Noah’s death. Her daughter, Avigail, was also in the same nursery, but she was two years old at the time and was in a separate room for older children.

Ms Arnold was horrified to learn that arrests had been made in connection with Noah’s death: “Your heart is beating in your throat and what have I done just letting my daughter go there?” you think.

Because of the incident, she decided not to send her youngest daughter, who is one year old, to daycare.

“He just turned one and I needed to go back to work and last month I said, ‘I can’t leave him.’ So I decided to take a few years off from work because I don’t want to leave him in day care anymore,” she added.

“I think this has affected all of us as parents. We have waited three and a half years for justice to be served for what happened.”

She believes there is a need for tighter safety checks in nurseries, as well as greater transparency about other parents’ and staff’s experiences in childcare centres.

Similar calls were made earlier this year after nine-month-old Genevieve Meehan was strangled to death after being placed face down in a bean bag for more than an hour at nursery school.

Her mother, Katie Wheeler, is now calling for mandatory CCTV, unannounced inspections by Ofsted and compulsory training and statutory safe sleeping guidance for all nursery staff. To talk IndependentMs Wheeler said they were “shocked” to discover some of the conditions and that Ofsted reports were only produced every few years.

Jonathan, a father of two boys who went to the nearby Fairy Tales Day Nursery, which is now closed, said: “You don’t think these things can happen in a childcare setting.

“I was completely devastated for the family and the child.

“There’s a selfish sense of guilt [you experience] as a parent. “You think, ‘What if that was my child,’ and that’s a hard feeling to have.”

An Ofsted spokesman said: “Our thoughts are with Noah’s family and we are deeply sorry for their loss. No child should ever be harmed in a place that would keep them safe.”

“As the regulator and inspector of nurseries, we check whether they comply with the requirements set by the government and take action when concerns are raised.

“The government has recently announced new funding that will allow us to inspect nurseries more frequently, and we are constantly reviewing our work with our partners to help make nurseries as safe as possible for children.”

West Midlands Police has alerted other parents to unsafe sleeping practices. A spokesman said: “Following a thorough investigation and based on the evidence we were able to obtain, we worked with the CPS to secure charges and convictions under the Health and Safety at Work Act, which included risks to the health and safety of other children.”