No licks at Cyril Ross Nursery

After reports in 2018 of alleged abuse and neglect on the wards of the Cyril Ross Nursery (CRN), Cheryl Moses-Williams, communications manager of the Children’s Authority, says there have been improvements in its operations. Among the changes is that corporal punishment will no longer be used.

The CRN is owned and run by the Society of St Vincent de Paul, an international Catholic voluntary organisation dedicated to serving the poor and disadvantaged. It houses children and is responsible for the medical management of other children living with their parents and/or guardians around the country.

A Children’s Authority release on Wednesday said the authority’s Licensing and Monitoring Unit did a thorough investigation of the nursery, which included announced and unannounced visits at different times of the day. Also, to ascertain whether the children there were receiving adequate care, residents and staff were interviewed.

The Licensing and Monitoring Unit then made several recommendations to the management of the nursery, which have since been implemented. Among them are training staff in providing appropriate care to the children and to deal with children with challenging behaviours; providing a reward and consequences system; instituting a revised behaviour management policy for children at the nursery; stopping corporal punishment as a form of behaviour modification; including recreation and extracurricular activities; and developing a donations policy.

Moses-Williams said while significant improvements have been made, implementation is an ongoing process, which the authority will monitor closely.

She said: “Rigorous monitoring continues to take place at the CRN and will consist of announced and unannounced visits.

“The authority’s Licensing and Monitoring Unit is charged with the responsibility to monitor all children’s homes in TT to ensure compliance with the required operating standards. However, when the team has concerns about the quality of care delivered to children at a home, it will increase the number of visits.”

She added that the monitoring of homes is an ongoing exercise.

Contacted on Friday, nursery manager Sandra Stapleton said: “I am not commenting on anything. A person went to all the newspapers and posted false reports about us, but the outcome is in the hands of God.”

She knocked news outlets for taking the “false allegations” seriously instead of having a one-on-one conversation with her, saying: “They could have moved more professional than take those stories.

“So I am not going through that with them. Let them continue. God does not like ugliness.”