Shocking video shows boy, 3, standing in busy road after escaping his nursery

Watch: CCTV shows boy, 3, on busy road after escaping nursery

This is the shocking moment a three-year-old boy stands in the middle of a busy road after escaping from his nursery.

James Maguire managed to get out of the playground of Elmhurst House Day Nursery and run through the streets of the town of Stone, Staffordshire.

CCTV footage shows James standing in the middle of the A520 road in the town centre for about 23 seconds before running across it and down the street. Seconds later, a stream of traffic goes through the road where he had been standing.

His furious mother, Fiona, 46, said her son got out of the playground through a broken fence, and has taken him out of the nursery.

She said it took about a month for his family to obtain the CCTV footage of the incident, which happened on 16 May.

Elmhurst has described the incident as "its responsibility and its failure”.

In a statement, it said: “We were all deeply relieved that no harm came to the child.

"No such event has ever occurred at the nursery before and, following an immediate investigation, we have taken urgent steps to ensure that this could never happen again.”

Education watchdog Ofsted has investigated and said the nursery has followed a set of requirements to ensure child safety.

But Mrs Maguire, a mother-of-three, is angry that her son was allowed to escape and says that it took more than two hours for the nursery to notify her and her husband about what happened.

She said James, who is non-verbal, “needs extra attention, and for them to not even notice he was gone is just heartbreaking”.

Mrs Maguire, an NHS worker, added: “First, we were told he had been found on the school premises and had only been missing for a few minutes.

“They said staff had found him in the nursery car park, but that clearly wasn't the case.

"When my husband got to see the school's own CCTV, you could clearly see him going through the broken fence.

“And the CCTV from the high street clearly showed him well away from the site. He was standing there, in the road, for ages. James would have no idea of the ramifications of running out in front of a car.”

It was reported that a woman who lives close to the nursery saw James in a car park and alerted staff, who were later said to have run into the town centre to find him.

Mrs Maguire said her husband was contacted by the nursery after 2pm, but the CCTV footage of James running through the town is time stamped at 11.37am.

She said her son was off the nursery premises for 14 minutes, but the nursery would not comment on this figure, saying he escaped "briefly".

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Mrs Maguire said: “We were not contacted by the nursery until several hours after the incident, and at first they were just telling us we needed to come in. They wouldn’t tell us what had happened, we were in an absolute blind panic.”

The family notified Ofsted, which rates the nursery as "Good", about the incident the next day, and its officials visited the nursery on 18 May

Ofsted gave the nursery a list of changes to make, including how children are supervised and required staff-to-child ratios.

The nursery was given until 1 June to implement the changes.

Ofsted has since said: “On 6 June 2023, we carried out a further monitoring visit and found that the provider has responded to the actions set.

“We found that risk assessments have been improved and staff demonstrate a clearer understanding of the role they play to identify and minimise/remove hazards in the environment so that children can be kept safe from harm."

Mark Sutton, Staffordshire County Council's cabinet member for children, said: “The safety and welfare of our children and young people is paramount to this council and this was clearly a very upsetting incident for the family.”

The family did contact Staffordshire Police but the force said it had “left the inquiry in the care of the regulator, Ofsted”.

Mrs Maguire added: “There were failures in the care and safeguarding of my son, and this could easily have ended in the most appalling tragedy.

"It’s as though the police and Ofsted and the council are saying everyone was okay in the end so there’s nothing to worry about.

"But it’s pure luck that this didn’t end in a tragedy, and I don’t feel the authorities properly comprehend the gravity of the situation.”

In a statement, Elmhurst said its team were “shocked and distressed when one of the children in our care managed to escape briefly from our nursery playground”.

It added: “We regard this event as our responsibility and our failure. It should never be possible for a child to escape in this way, whatever the circumstances."