A TWO-year-old girl was rescued from the side of the road after she managed to escape from her council-run nursery.
The toddler, who has not been named, was at Granton Children and Families Centre in Edinburgh when she left the building at 11am on Thursday.
She was found by a passer-by wandering beside a road that is also a busy bus route and it is understood the young girl was also nearly run over by a learner driver.
An investigation is now being launched to try and figure out how the tot managed to elude nursery staff who also failed to report her disappearance to the police.
Staff at the Granton centre could face being sacked over this incident as it was found the girl escaped because of “human error”.
Mr Fleming, 30, who spotted the girl, said she was “shaken up” when he found her.
He said: “When I heard about what was going on the first thing that entered my mind head was my four-year-old and two-year-old children.
“When you dropt them off in the morning you expect them to be safe.
“The girl was crying but the lady looking after her managed to calm her down. Luckily she was too young to know what being missing means.
“She seemed more interested in sweeties by the end – hopefully she won’t be too shaken up about nearly being run over.
“But she could have been taken by someone – anything could have happened. Hopefully the people working at the nursery will get what they deserve.”
It is unknown how long the child had been left wandering the streets on her own although Mr Fleming said that others in the street stood for about 30 minutes trying to work out where she had come from.
The Granton daycare centre is surrounded by high fences on all sides but there is a gate to the rear of the building that leads to a busy road where eight double-decker buses go past every hour.
According to sources, when the girl was returned the nursery staff were aware she was missing but did not report it to the police.
The police confirmed they were only informed after a concerned “member of the public” reported the incident.
Councillor Vicki Redpath, who represents the ward that Granton is in, said: “It’s very concerning that a child has managed to wander out.
“It’s very concerning that a child has managed to wander it – it’s not acceptable.
“I’m glad she was found safely but this shouldn’t have happened – we have to find out what has gone wrong.”
Cllr Paul Godzik, Convener of the Children and Families Committee, said: “A full investigation is underway into how this could have occurred. Initial feedback is that the incident was due to human error.
“A gate, which is only used as an emergency exit, appears to have been left unlocked. Staff carry out a check of the grounds each day before children are allowed out to play and it appears that in this case it wasn’t checked.
“A rigid checklist procedure has now been put in place to prevent this from ever happening again – a similar system is used in other facilities and I have asked officers to ensure this is the case in all nurseries.
“Disciplinary action will be taken as part of this investigation.”
Edinburgh City Council said that Granton nursery was “definitely”one of their services but they were unable to confirm how many staff were working that day or make any other comment.
