A nursery was shut down yesterday after a 12-month-old boy suffered a serious head injury.

Michael Weeks, the Minister of Social Development and Sport, said that it was still too early to confirm if the child’s injury had happened while he was at the nursery.

Mr Weeks added that the Department of Child and Family Services decided the daycare centre should be closed as a precaution. He refused to name the nursery involved, but said that there had been “a few” previous incidents there.

Mr Weeks said: “Once the police have finished their investigation, then we’ll see where we go from there.”

The minister added that he was told the child was not behaving normally when his parents collected him up last Friday.

He was taken to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital and the Department of Child and Family Services was contacted. Mr Weeks said: “We have not determined yet if his injury occurred at school or at home, but better to err on the side of caution.”

Mr Weeks added that a letter was hand-delivered to the nursery yesterday to order it to “cease operation until the completion of a police investigation”.

He said: “The Department of Child and Family Services takes these matters extremely seriously; the safety of our children is always our main priority.”

Mr Weeks added that parents of children at the nursery will be informed of the closure.

He said the shutdown would affect 29 children. Police announced on Sunday that detectives were involved in the investigation into the boy’s injury.

The child was admitted to the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital’s intensive care unit last Friday. He was airlifted overseas for further medical treatment on Saturday.

Mr Weeks said that the last update on the child’s condition suggested he had improved, but did not provide details on where he was being treated.

He added that he had not yet spoken to the boy’s parents. The incident is the latest controversy to hit the childcare industry on the island. The First Church of God daycare centre in Pembroke was ordered to make a series of improvements after three toddlers got out of the premises and wandered off by themselves.

The youngsters, who were missing for about 15 minutes, were spotted by residents nearby and returned to the North Shore preschool. Recommendations from the Department of Health included a health and safety review of the nursery’s policies as well as an investigation into the two teachers responsible for the class the children were in.

Officials said a fence should be fixed “immediately”, a gate in the car park should be “locked or latched at all times” and a mandatory sign-in for all children should be enforced.

The preschool was also told to review the policy for parental notification of incidents and if no policy was in force, one should be drawn up.

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