The serious case review following the arrest of Vanessa George pointed to signifi cant failings in the safeguarding system at the Plymouth day nursery where she worked. The report describes an isolated setting, whose manager failed to comply with requested improvements. The nursery continued with lack of proper safeguarding policy or procedures, an informal approach to staff recruitment and lack of any staff supervision system. Both the manager and staff showed evidence of blurring the boundaries of their personal and professional lives. The conclusion of the serious case review is that these factors of poor practice created a situation in which Vanessa George was able to sexually abuse some of the children and record that abuse on her mobile phone. Some of her colleagues were uncomfortable about George’s sexualised behaviour at work, such as crude language and showing indecent images of adults on her mobile phone. However, they felt unable to challenge her. George was seen as close to the manager and trusted by her, and came to occupy a position of power within the nursery. The staff had poor knowledge of child protection and lacked confi dence to question why George chose to change children’s nappies in a different cubicle from all her colleagues. Unsupported practitioners were unlikely to whistle blow on a forceful practitioner, favoured by the manager, who was the safeguarding lead in the nursery. The manager’s strong community links also appear to have contributed to the inadequate safeguarding and general poor practice, since some other local professionals failed to act about expressed concerns. Read the overview report (Plymouth Safeguarding Children Board, 2010) online and discuss the key issues with fellow students or colleagues.