A nursery manager who described a child as “looking a bit spastic” has been struck off.
Dianne Brown, who was the manager of Busy Bee Nursery in Montrose, was found by the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) to have made the comment about a photo of a child in 2014 “on the balance of probabilities”.
She has now been removed from the SSSC register, although it is understood Brown resigned from her position during the body’s investigation and left Scotland.
Brown also faced another three charges, which occurred eight days after the initial complaint of describing a child as a “spastic”.
She was found to have used “inappropriate restraint” in May 2014 by placing a four-year-old child in a buggy in the baby room and putting restraining straps on the youngster as a means to stop their “challenging behaviour”.
Brown then told the child, “Oh look, even the babies are laughing at you” or words to that effect.
She finally stated, “If you are going to act like a baby I will treat you like a baby” or words to that effect.
The manager’s behaviour was deemed by the SSSC as “misconduct” .
During the SSSC hearing it was reported that a staff member at Busy Bee Nursery made the claims against Brown on a whistle-blowing course.
Carol Craig, operations manager of the company that owns the nursery, said: “We were conducting training at Dundee University on child protection, with specific relation to whistle-blowing.
“We had the whole company there and a member of the team from Montrose came forward at a break to say she had a concern about something from the previous day.”
Once the full details were written down, Brown was suspended.
A spokeswoman for the nursery involved, which has now been renamed Little Beehives, said it supported the SSSC’s findings.
She said: “Little Beehives (formerly Busy Bees) operates a zero tolerance policy which resulted in Dianne Brown being investigated through our internal disciplinary procedures and reported to the relevant authorities.
“We have worked with the SSSC and support its findings. Dianne Brown left our employment whilst she was suspended pending investigation.”
Brown couldn’t be reached for comment.