A four-year-old girl got away from her playgroup without being seen and was later found walking around the streets.
While the girl was trying to cross a busy road in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, her cousin saw her and called her mother, Annisa Hussain.
As of 7:25 p.m. on May 10, Ms. Hussain was on her way to get her daughter from the Splat Staffordshire class at Dresden Scout Hut. Splat Staffordshire is an after-school and weekend daycare.
The 33-year-old mother said that when she asked a Splat worker if they knew her daughter had left class, they said “no.”
Ms. Hussain told StokeonTrentLive, “She doesn’t understand how dangerous the road is.” “She’s not strong enough to cross the street by herself.” She will run into the road even when I’m with her, so I have to hold her hand.
“I walked up to the Scout hall with my daughter.” Someone on staff let all the kids out with their parents. “Did you know that my daughter just left this place?” I asked. They said “No.” How could you not know that a four-year-old just left your building?
“I couldn’t handle it.” “After the shootings a few days ago, Longton is now a dangerous place to be,” she said.
“She cried twice in the middle of the night”
She said she didn’t know how long her daughter had been out on the streets by herself. She was discovered on Belgrave Road, which is just two blocks from Wise Street, where her class was.
She also said, “My daughter has never had a bad dream before.” She cried herself to sleep twice in the middle of the night.
The Scouts, Splat Staffordshire, and Stoke-on-Trent city government were all told about what happened.
Since then, Splat has started a probe, and Dresden Scout Group has called off the group’s lease.
The leader of the Scout group, Lilian Dodd, said, “The parents told the city council about it.” That has been sent to the children’s services protection team to be dealt with.
“Full investigation from within”
Splat’s website says that its classes are only for kids. The rules say that kids must be picked up by an adult, but if they are over 10, they can “leave the session on their own with the permission of a parent or guardian.”
Splat says that all of their employees have been through a DBS check, been taught in first aid, and have safeguarding qualifications to “ensure children are kept safe at all times.”
A group spokesman said, “We are conducting a full internal investigation. Once we have finalized our findings, any suggested improvements or corrective measures will be put into place.” Splat called Ms. Hussain the same night of the incident, and our own investigation began the next morning. These are the steps we are taking to follow our policies and processes. Should anyone know anything about this, they should get in touch with us.
“Once this internal investigation is over, we’ll be happy to share what we found.” We want to reassure parents whose kids come to our weekly classes that our doors stay locked the whole time and that the right number of staff members are always with each child. We are ready to talk about it in an open and honest way. We are looking into it and will let you know what we find when the time comes.