Worker's first aid qualification was out of date

Oliver Steeper died six days after he choked at Jelly Beans Day Nursery

The member of staff who was feeding a nine-month-old baby who died after choking at a nursery has told an inquest her first aid qualification was more than a year out of date.

Oliver Steeper died six days after he choked at Jelly Beans Day Nursery, in Ashford, Kent, on 23 September 2021.

Nazia Begum said the nursery was aware her paediatric first aid certificate was only valid until May 2020 and she had not taken any of the recommended refresher training.

She said she did not organise her own training as “sometimes places don’t accept first aid done on your own”.

She said she remembered the basics but had never had to deal with a child choking or administer CPR.

The inquest heard from Oliver’s mother Zoe Steeper that she had been reassured her son’s food would be pureed before being fed to him, but Ms Begum said Mrs Steeper said he would be fine and to try new things.

The nursery worker had been at Jelly Beans for two years and had been made room leader in June 2021 for the three month to 18-month-old babies, and organised naps and snack times.

Asked if she’d had any training from Jelly Beans about choking hazard and risk she said: “Not that I recall."

Oliver's mother told the inquest she had been reassured her son’s food would be pureed before being fed to him

The coroner showed the court the staff policy for food and mealtimes but Ms Begum said she had not seen the document while working at the nursery and was not aware of the policy of all food for younger babies being pureed.

She said she had been asked to blend food by parents on occasions but not by management and had not seen the risk assessment with the correct procedure for blending food for babies.

On the day Oliver choked she said she was passed the food for Oliver - pasta and mince - which had already been finely chopped but she had chopped it up more from “force of habit”.

She said he had been grabbing at the food on the spoon so she knew he was still hungry but after two or three feeds she said: “I think I remember putting the spoon to his mouth and he took a breath in and appeared to gag.”

Oliver Steeper's parents Lewis and Zoe

Asked why she could not remember whether she had been feeding him mince, which she had told police at the time, or pasta she said: “It’s all a blur to me. It was a really traumatic day. I was being questioned within an hour of it happening.”

In her police statement she said: “He gagged for two or three seconds and gasped again and that’s when I knew something wasn’t right.”

Debbie Alcock, the manager from January 2020, later told the hearing nurseries were only required to have one person with paediatric first aid training on site but she wanted everyone to be trained, and was prioritising those with no previous training.

Ms Alcock wept as she described being called to help when Oliver was choking.

She said: "He was the most shocking colour of blue and purple I’ve ever seen in a baby. I’ve never seen a baby’s face look like that before."

The inquest in Maidstone continues.