Edinburgh nursery nurse struck off over catalogue of racist and physical abuse

By The Press Association20th July 2016News ScotlandCare Standards, Childcare, Childrens Services, Conduct, Early Years, News Scotland, Nurseries

A nursery nurse has been struck off for calling a toddler a “terrorist” and a “bomber”.

Nikki Alexander lost her job at Busy Bees nursery in Edinburgh for a catalogue of racist and physical abuse, and swearing at children all under the age of two.

The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) ruled she put children in her care “at risk of harm”.

Misconduct charges dating back to June and July last year were raised with the council, including one instance where she called a toddler – identified as BB – a terrorist and tried to “imitate a Buddha” in front of other children.

Ms Alexander also told BB to “go away and bomb somewhere else”, the SSSC said.

The council ruled that Alexander had racially abused BB and place the child at risk of harm.

In other cases raised at the misconduct hearing, Alexander was said to have grabbed a toddler by the arm leading the child to bang her head, and pushed a boy into another child.

She was also said to have called a child “a f***ing spoilt little bitch” in front of others.

The SSSC ruled that her actions had breached 15 sections of the body’s code of practice.

Ms Alexander told the council that she was “embarrassed and disgusted” by her behaviour and had “personal difficulties” at the time, but the misconduct was deemed “extremely serious”.

She has been struck off the register of Practitioners in a Day Care of Children Services as of July 15.

The council’s published judgement read: “The council considers that a removal order is the most appropriate sanction being both necessary and justified in the public interest and to ensure the continuing trust and confidence in the social service profession.”

It added: “Service users have the right to expect that they will be treated with dignity and respect and protected from harm by social service workers in whom they and the public have placed their trust and confidence.

“Abusive behaviour by a social service worker, such as calling service users names, swearing at them, shouting at them and pulling them in a way to cause them to fall is a breach of trust and confidence for social service users.

“It is a misuse of the power and position placed in social service workers, whilst also placing service users at risk of harm.

“Using inappropriate language and swearing at, in the presence of, and about service users, aged under two years, is behaviour that caused or was likely to cause distress to the service users and putting the service users at risk of emotional harm.

“Using discriminatory language is demeaning and devaluing towards the child and caused, or was likely to cause, embarrassment, humiliation and distress for the child.

“It is behaviour which put a service user at risk of emotional and psychological harm and is behaviour that is incompatible with the behaviour expected of a person registered with SSSC.”