Parents have claimed their two-year-old son walked out of his nursery and towards a main road in Swansea without staff noticing. Noah left Seren Fach Day Nursery on Gors Avenue at around 10.15am on Wednesday, and was found by a member of the public.
His parents, Sarah Durgan and Tarik Al Roshoq, told WalesOnline they were only informed of the incident when they picked Noah up later that day. Sarah, 22, said: “About 10.15am my son got out into the middle of the road at Gors Avenue, Swansea.”
“A lady saw him in the middle of the road. She stopped the car, scooped him off the road to get him to safety and there was nobody around,” she added. The woman who found Noah did not enter the nursery because she had her own children in the car, according to Sarah.
Parents not told until pick-up
Sarah said a male worker from a nearby business went into the nursery and told staff a child was missing in the middle of the road. “They [nursery staff] didn’t even know,” she said. “We weren’t notified until 11am when we went to pick him up. They told us they didn’t want to worry us. We were like: ‘No, you tell us if our child is missing.’”
Sarah said Noah would have had to pass two baby gates, four doors including fire doors, and the main gate to reach Gors Avenue. A spokesman for the nursery claimed the child did not reach the road, but the woman who found Noah wrote in a public social media post that she saw a little boy walking in the middle of the road and stopped to grab him.
Nursery defends record, police and CIW investigate
Sarah said her older son had attended the nursery for two years and she had “trusted them completely”, but Noah is “never going back”. She said she spent the rest of Wednesday crying and did not sleep that night. Noah’s father said they want to take the incident further and will seek guidance from Citizen’s Advice. He said: “We are going through this, so another parent doesn’t have to.”
South Wales Police and Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) have been notified. A nursery spokesman said the incident had not occurred before in its 32-year history, that it reported the event to CIW within the hour, and that the child was spotted by an employee of a business sharing the driveway and by a passerby and returned safely. The spokesman said: “We totally whole heartedly regret that this event occurred and that it is totally unacceptable.”
The nursery said it has reviewed security arrangements, introduced additional safety measures, provided further staff training, and updated risk assessments and protocols. A CIW spokesman said the organisation takes any concerns about children’s safety extremely seriously and is unable to comment further while enquiries are ongoing. South Wales Police said the child was confirmed safe and well at home with a parent, and that the incident is under investigation.
