John and Katie Meehan have worked with the Lullaby Trust to strengthen safety and regulation of nurseries in England. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian View image in fullscreen John and Katie Meehan have worked with the Lullaby Trust to strengthen safety and regulation of nurseries in England. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian Early years education Parents of baby girl killed at nursery fear unsafe sleeping ‘rife’ in sector across England Katie and John Meehan say responses to campaign they launched after death of daughter Genevieve must be ‘wake-up call’
Prefer the Guardian on Google The parents of a nine-month-old girl who died after being placed in an unsafe sleeping position at nursery said they feared poor practice may be “rife” across England.
Genevieve Meehan suffocated when she was strapped face down to a beanbag for an hour and 37 minutes at a nursery in Cheadle Hulme, Stockport, in May 2022.
Kate Roughley, the nursery’s deputy manager, was jailed for 14 years in 2024 after being found guilty of manslaughter. One of Roughley’s colleagues was later jailed for the “deplorable” treatment of other babies in her care.
Genevieve’s parents, Katie and John Meehan, have led a campaign with the charity the Lullaby Trust to strengthen safety and regulation of nurseries after a series of high-profile abuses.
The sector has come under intense scrutiny in recent months after the cases of Vincent Chan and Nathan Bennett , nursery workers who sexually assaulted children in their care.
View image in fullscreen Genevieve Meehan, who died in May 2022 at nine months old. Photograph: Greater Manchester Police/PA Chan was jailed in February for 18 years for molesting young children in a campaign of sexual abuse that was described as “every parent’s worst nightmare”, while Bennett was jailed in March for 24 years for raping and abusing young children in his care.
Another nursery worker, Kimberley Cookson, was jailed in April over the death of 14-month-old Noah Sibanda, who had been physically restrained face-down with a blanket over his head while being put to sleep.
As a result of Genevieve’s parents’ campaign , childcare settings in England will be banned from September from putting babies under 12 months to sleep in anything other than a cot.
Ofsted, the regulator, will triple the number of unannounced inspections – adding an extra 3,000 visits a year, boosted by an additional £8m from the government – and inspect nurseries every four years instead of six. Each visit will scrutinise sleeping policies.
Katie Meehan, 42, said she was “really shocked” by the extent of unsafe sleeping practice that had been revealed when nurseries wrote privately to the government about the planned changes this year.
Some reported leaving babies to sleep in pushchairs “due to space limitations”, according to details shared with the Department for Education (DfE). Others put infants to sleep outside, adopting “forest school models or Scandinavian practices”.
By law, nurseries are required to follow NHS safer sleep guidance – which includes laying the baby on their back in a cot or Moses basket – however, in the rules from September, the government will state: “Babies aged one year and under must only be placed to sleep in a cot.”
Katie Meehan, who is working closely with the government and Ofsted, said the responses suggested unsafe sleeping may be “rife” across England and that they were a “wake-up call” for the regulator and officia…