A British nursery where a worker sexually abused children "provided an ideal environment" for her to abuse, an inquiry has found.
The review into abuse of the scandal at Little Ted’s nursery in Plymouth concluded there was no indication “any professional could have reasonably predicted that Vanessa George might be a risk to children”.
However it found that a lack of formal staff supervision was partly to blame as well as a “complete lack of recognition” that her increasingly strange behaviour after the break-up of her marriage had crossed boundaries.
George (40), who was jailed indefinitely last year, took photographs on her phone of herself abusing toddlers and shared them with fellow paedophile Colin Blanchard.
A summary of a Serious Case Review commissioned by Plymouth Safeguarding Children Board after the scandal pointed to what it said was weak management at Little Ted’s, which closed immediately after George’s arrest.
The review said Little Ted’s “provided an ideal environment within which George could abuse” and it was critical that the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) inspections failed to spot shortcomings.
It concluded that the management culture allowed the abuse to happen and lessons needed to be learned but “ultimate responsibility for the abuse must rest with George”.
The report said there was a lack of safe recruitment procedures, an informal recruitment process and lack of formal staff supervision.
Agencies