A dad has slammed a primary school after claiming they allowed his four-year-old daughter to leave the premises by herself.
Murtaza Ahsan Kamal's daughter Elayna attends Westmoor Primary School in Killingworth, North Tyneside. The 42-year-old said she was supposed to attend the after school club but was able to leave by herself.
He claims the youngster was found outside the grounds without any supervision by a woman walking past, who happened to be her childminder. She said the woman took her back to the school on November 18 this year.
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The school has said it has taken "immediate action to strengthen our safeguarding measures" and has apologised to the family.
Murtaza, who lives with his family in Palmersville, has been left devastated by the error.
The dad-of-two said: "This is absolutely outrageous. They put my daughter in the maximum position of risk. Anything could have happened. I feel lucky that my daughter came back.
"Luckily the person who found my daughter knew us. I feel thankful that, even though I wasn't there, that woman brought my daughter back."
Murtaza, who works as a commercial lawyer, feels the school is not taking the incident seriously. He said he has contacted North Tyneside Council and the social services department about what happened.
He said: "Nothing has been done, absolutely nothing. I went and asked the head teacher 'Can you tell me about it?' She cheerfully touched my shoulder and said 'Don't worry.' She had no remorse, no apology.
"I don't even feel one single person is actually ready to identify the problem and accept that this has been an extremely serious mistake. There was no alarm and no alert that that child was missing.
"My daughter, who was four-and-a-half years old, was left unsupervised - she was gone."
Murtaza said the school had no idea who the childminder was who brought his daughter back. He said his wife was informed about the incident by a staff member at the school.
He said: "They told my wife that Elayna was missing, she'd left the school and then she was brought back so she's safe. I was angry, upset and frustrated, this is something which I have never felt in my life."
Murtaza said his daughter was questioned about the incident by a teacher and now does not want to return to the school.
He added: "My four-year-old was asked why did she do it. She was told off by the teacher. She doesn't want to go back to school. I have got to give her reassurance that I'm not going to let anything happen."
Westmoor Primary School said they have carried out an investigation into the incident and are taking it "extremely seriously".
Sharon Trundley, head teacher at Westmoor Primary School, said: "Safeguarding is a priority for us, and we have policies and procedures in place to ensure our pupils safety.
"We have conducted a thorough investigation into an incident at our out of school club and have taken immediate action to strengthen our safeguarding measures to ensure this does not happen again. These measures include reviewing and amending our existing processes for safe and effective passage of children to and from out of school club.
"We have taken this incident extremely seriously. We have apologised to the pupils’ parents, and provided reassurance that both our school, and the out of school club service, are a place where children are safe, supported and protected."
Julie Firth, director of children’s services at North Tyneside Council, added: "Ensuring the safety and wellbeing of children and young people is always a school’s main concern. We have provided advice to the school, and we are satisfied with the action they have taken and the measures they have put in place."
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