Man allowed to drive off from nursery with wrong child

The mother of a two-year-old girl was horrified to learn her daughter was taken from her nursery and driven away by the grandfather of another child.

Toddler Rosie was picked up and driven away from Kids Planet in Crosby on Merseyside before the man apparently realised his mistake.

Rosie's mother Jody, 37, said she was left in shock when she heard what had happened, and had "a million and one questions" about how it had been allowed to happen.

A spokesperson for Kids Planet apologised and said a child had been "mistakenly released to a grandparent known to staff and returned safely within minutes".

Mum-of-three Jody said: "I literally had a panic attack and I couldn't even drive. I couldn't piece together what she'd actually told me.

"I've gone round to the nursery and they've not been able to explain to me what's happened.

"No-one knew anything other than apparently this grandad has gone and picked her up.

"I was just asking all these questions about how he got through the doors, how he got upstairs.

"Apparently Rosie was asleep, but she doesn't stay asleep when you pick her up.

"So he's had to carry her back down the stairs, strap her in a car seat and be gone for 10 minutes.

"I don't know whether he realised, or whether the nursery realised that she was gone."

She said the explanation provided by the nursery "didn't make sense," adding her daughter would not be returning to the nursery.

"How has he got through three doors to get her, bring her downstairs without anyone knowing and be gone for 10 minutes? It's just beyond me," she said.

"I've obviously got a million and one question that I've asked them to get answers to.

"You have to walk past the office and they tell you where your child is. Apparently his granddaughter was downstairs in the nursery garden, so I don't understand how this has happened, or how he's been able to walk out of the room with no-one stopping him or seeing who had picked her up."

The nursery, which was inspected in October 2021, has an overall Ofsted rating of "Good".

But in December 2025, inspectors visited the nursery after it had earlier reported a "significant event" to the watchdog.

In the inspection report - which did not detail what the incident was - Ofsted noted the nursery "was not meeting some of the requirements and had taken action to put this right".

This included revising the risk assessments and procedures in regard to carrying out head counts of children and implementing additional safeguards to ensure children remain within sight and hearing of staff.

Ofsted told the BBC it would not comment on individual nurseries or confirm if it had received any complaints.

A spokesperson for Kids Planet said: "A child was mistakenly released to a grandparent who is known to staff, has passed all required security vetting and who is an approved collector for a different child, who was also onsite at the time.

"The child was returned safely to the nursery within minutes, and we are in direct continuous contact with the families involved to offer our sincere apologies and to provide ongoing support while a full investigation takes place.

"The safety and wellbeing of the children in our care is our highest priority, and we take this unprecedented matter extremely seriously, which is why we have implemented immediate measures including supervised working for the team and additional security protocols, as well as working to revise our policies and training.

"In line with our safeguarding procedures, we have made immediate self-referrals to Ofsted and the local authority designated officer and are cooperating fully with both organisations.

"As this remains an active investigation, we are currently unable to offer further comment."

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