Parents warn of unsafe sleeping practices spreading across English nurseries
After their baby died from unsafe sleeping at a nursery, parents warn the problem may be widespread across England's childcare sector.
Katie and John Meehan have started asking harder questions after their daughter died. Genevieve was nine months old when she suffocated at a nursery in Cheadle Hulme, Stockport, back in May 2022. She'd been strapped face-down to a beanbag for one hour and 37 minutes.
Now the couple's campaigning to expose what they see as a much bigger problem. They reckon unsafe sleeping arrangements might be happening in nurseries all over England, and they want people to pay attention.
The responses they've gotten since launching their push suggest they're onto something real. Parents reaching out, sharing their own stories — it's painted a picture of inconsistent practice across the country. Some nurseries clearly don't follow basic safety guidelines, or they do but nobody's checking whether staff actually stick to them.
For young kids, especially babies, sleeping position matters massively. Babies should be on their backs, on a firm surface, without loose bedding or cushions. Face-down on a beanbag? That's the kind of thing that kills. And yet it happened. A nursery worker put a nine-month-old in that position and left her there.
The Meehans aren't out for revenge — they're trying to stop it happening again. They're saying this needs to be a proper wake-up call for how England regulates childcare. Inspections happen, sure, but how thorough are they really? Do inspectors actually watch what's going on during nap time, or do they tick boxes and move on?
What makes this worse is that it's entirely preventable. Guidance exists. Staff training exists. The problem seems to be enforcement and consistency. Some nurseries nail it. Others cut corners, maybe because they're understaffed, maybe because nobody's watching closely enough, maybe because complacency sets in.
The couple's campaign is forcing conversations that should've happened years ago. If their push leads to stricter oversight, better training, or actual consequences when nurseries ignore safety rules, then at least something comes from their loss. But right now, they're worried their daughter's death was an exception only in its visibility — not in how rare these dangerous practices actually are.
