A mother who endured every parent’s worst nightmare when her son was mistakenly handed to another child’s grandfather at daycare has spoken publicly about the harrowing ordeal.
Sophie Tilley and her family are still traumatised over the shocking bungle at First Steps Learning Academy Bangor in Sydney’s south.
She and her partner went to the centre on September 1 to collect their two sons, only to be told by an educator that ‘older man in shorts’ had already collected her one-year-old.
She recalled trying to keep it together for her distraught three-year-old, who was running around the centre yelling that his baby brother was missing.
‘It was this utter pit in my stomach. I just went into panic. I couldn’t really talk, function, I was a mess,’ Ms Tilley told the ABC.
After alerting police and reviewing CCTV, the centre realised that the boy had been collected 90 minutes earlier by another child’s grandfather, who didn’t realise the mix-up at the time.
Ms Tilley’s son spent two hours watching television with the grandfather until he was notified by the daycare and returned the boy to the centre later that afternoon.
She has since transferred her sons to a different daycare.
Two months on, Ms Tilley remains deeply traumatised and still has few answers as the Department of Education is yet to finalise its investigation.
The mix-up at First Steps Bangor, in Sydney’s south, was only discovered when the toddler’s mother arrived at the daycare. Pictured is the daycare centre
First Steps Learning Academy has since overhauled its policies and procedures. Pictured is inside the Bangor facility where the shocking mix-up took place
She couldn’t sleep for the first fortnight, going over what could have happened and every worst-case scenario.
Ms Tilley is still on medication for anxiety and stress.
‘I have big trust issues now. If I can’t see the boys in the garden, if they run down the aisle in the shopping centre, I get very concerned,’ she said.
Her youngest son still gets upset every time he hears a siren.
Ms Tilley holds no ill will towards the grandfather, who later sent flowers to the family.
She blamed First Steps Learning Academy Bangor for the failure of policies and procedures, which resulted in her son leaving the centre without being signed out.
‘We don’t blame him. We are not angry with him. We are not upset at him – we blame the daycare,’ she told the Sydney Morning Herald at the time of the incident.
‘They couldn’t tell me his name, they couldn’t tell me who he was, they couldn’t tell me who he was meant to pick up.’
A criminal investigation and charges were later ruled out by NSW Police.
The NSW Department of Education is yet to finalise its investigation into the incident at First Steps Learning Academy Bangor
Ms Tilley has been calling authorities regularly for updates and has demanded answers as to why the investigation remains open.
‘Why has the centre not been held accountable? It makes me sick to my stomach,” she said.
First Steps Learning Academy, which operates 10 centres across Sydney, stood down the educator involved in the mix-up and has since overhauled its procedures.
They include authorised collection cards, additional staff during peak pick-up times, photo ID cards for children and a two-step sign-out process for parents.
‘First Steps Learning Academy’s owner personally telephoned the child’s mother on 1 September to apologise sincerely, inquire about how the child and family were doing, and offer every support available,’ a spokeswoman told Daily Mail.
‘During that conversation, she also explained that she and her team would be working through the night to implement new procedures before the centre reopened the next morning, which they did. We continue to offer our support, and again apologise for the incident.
‘First Steps Learning Academy takes its responsibilities extremely seriously and proactively manages its sites and staff so we can consistently meet our own expectations of excellence.
She confirmed the staff member involved is not working for First Steps Learning Academy while the regulator’s investigation continues.
‘We will continue to work in partnership with the Regulator to ensure any further actions or recommendations made are promptly implemented in full,’ the spokeswoman added.