Bank House Day Nursery in Radcliffe, Manchester, was one of threenurseries featured in 'Nurseries Undercover: The Real Story' in August2004.
The programme attracted seven million viewers and made front-page newsfor its claims of bad practice at Bank House, Petits Enfants Nursery inTeddington, and Little Treasures nursery, Stoke-on-Trent. Police andsocial services then investigated Bank House, but no action wastaken.
The furore around the programme led to the introduction of no-noticeinspections made at early years settings.
The BBC was due to air Ofcom's adjudication on Monday on BBC1. Itupholds in part complaints of unfair treatment and unwarrantedinfringement of privacy.
In the statement, Ofcom said the programme was unfair to the nursery anda carer for 'editing footage which implied that a little girl was leftcrying without being comforted'. It said that there was insufficientevidence to support allegations that staff had shouted at children andthat it was unfair to say the undercover reporter was inappropriatelyleft on her own to take children to the toilet.
Ofcom also found in favour of the nursery, which had complained that acomment in the programme implicitly alleged that the nursery might have'spruced itself up' for an Ofsted inspection.
Frances Rivers, owner of Bank House, told Nursery World, 'I had thoughtit was the end of the business. It's been hard work fighting it. We'revery grateful for the support of parents, staff and the early years teamat Bury.'
A copy of the adjudication can be downloaded at www.ofcom.org.uk.