Kate Roughley, the nursery\u2019s deputy manager, was jailed for 14 years<\/a> in 2024 after being found guilty of manslaughter. One of Roughley\u2019s colleagues was later jailed for the \u201cdeplorable\u201d treatment of other babies in her care.<\/p>\n Genevieve\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n The sector has come under intense scrutiny in recent months after the cases of Vincent Chan<\/a> and Nathan Bennett<\/a>, nursery workers who sexually assaulted children in their care.<\/p>\n Genevieve Meehan, who died in May 2022 at nine months old. Photograph: Greater Manchester Police\/PA<\/p>\n Chan was jailed in February for 18 years for molesting young children in a campaign of sexual abuse that was described as \u201cevery parent\u2019s worst nightmare\u201d, while Bennett was jailed in March for 24 years for raping and abusing young children in his care.<\/p>\n Another nursery worker, Kimberley Cookson, was jailed in April<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n As a result of Genevieve\u2019s parents\u2019 campaign<\/a>, childcare settings in England will be banned from September from putting babies under 12 months to sleep in anything other than a cot.<\/p>\n Ofsted, the regulator, will triple the number of unannounced inspections \u2013 adding an extra 3,000 visits a year, boosted by an additional \u00a38m from the government \u2013 and inspect nurseries every four years instead of six. Each visit will scrutinise sleeping policies.<\/p>\n Katie Meehan, 42, said she was \u201creally shocked\u201d by the extent of unsafe sleeping practice that had been revealed when nurseries wrote privately to the government about the planned changes this year.<\/p>\n Some reported leaving babies to sleep in pushchairs \u201cdue to space limitations\u201d, according to details shared with the Department for Education (DfE). Others put infants to sleep outside, adopting \u201cforest school models or Scandinavian practices\u201d.<\/p>\n By law, nurseries are required to follow NHS safer sleep guidance \u2013 which includes laying the baby on their back in a cot or Moses basket<\/a> \u2013 however, in the rules from September, the government will state: \u201cBabies aged one year and under must only be placed to sleep in a cot.\u201d<\/p>\n Katie Meehan, who is working closely with the government and Ofsted, said the responses suggested unsafe sleeping may be \u201crife\u201d across England and that they were a \u201cwake-up call\u201d for the regulator and officials.<\/p>\n Some nursery owners said they would be forced to reduce the number of infants they take as a result of the new rules. Several raised concerns that this will ban smaller beds, such as dream coracles, which take up less space than a cot and have been widely adopted in recent years.<\/p>\n John Meehan, 40, said he was concerned some nursery owners \u2013 many of whom are backed by private equity<\/a> firms \u2013 were potentially putting profit before safety.<\/p>\n
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