AN ERSKINE nursery nurse who lied about how a child’s arm was broken in her care has been struck off.

Claire Craig repeatedly gave inaccurate accounts of how the four-year-old, known as AA, sustained serious injuries at Carli’s Kindergarten on April 12, last year.

Her lies meant there was a delay in providing necessary medical treatment, resulting in the tot experiencing “unnecessary and prolonged suffering”.

Craig went on to complete two accident report forms but failed to provide accurate accounts of the youngster’s accident and “intentionally misled” her colleagues and employer regarding the circumstances.

The Scottish Social Services council decided to strike Craig from the register following a hearing on August 30.

The council told Craig: “[The child] had sustained serious injuries and by failing to be open and honest about the circumstances of the accident, there was a delay in the appropriate medical treatment being sought for [the child].

“This is likely to have resulted in unnecessary and prolonged suffering being sustained by [the child].

“People that use services, together with the public generally, have the right to expect that registered social service workers, in whom they place their trust and confidence, will work responsibly and not engage in dishonest behaviour, or any other behaviour, inside or outside of work, that would call into question their suitability to work in the social services profession.”

It added: “Your conduct did not involve a one-off incident as there were repeated occasions where you could have corrected your earlier behaviour.

“The nature of your conduct suggests a values issue, which is fundamentally incompatible with registration.

“Your actions threaten to undermine the confidence and trust the public places in the social service profession and in the SSSC, as a responsible regulator, if a firm declaration of professional standards is not made.”

A spokeswoman for nursery said: “Staff are always vigorously checked with appropriate checks prior to starting any employment.

“This was an isolated incident and it was dealt with in respect of ensuring the child received the appropriate care.

“After we received information that the child had broken her arm, we suspended [Craig] pending an investigation.

“We had CCTV footage that prove what had happened but [Cook] stuck to her story. Due to our findings, and our legal team was involved, she was dismissed.”

The nursery added the youngster returned to the nursery following the incident.