Nurseries are being urged to report 'racist toddlers' to the police under taxpayer-funded guidance backed by Labour

Max Thompson, Campaigns Officer

6 May 2026

Another week, and yet another insane story.

The Telegraph has revealed that Welsh nurseries are being advised to report toddlers for "racist incidents" — including to the police — under guidance backed by the Welsh Labour Government and funded by the taxpayer. The document is pitched as helping nurseries and playgroups become "anti-racist" environments.

Childcare workers are advised that if a nappy-wearing toddler commits what could be deemed a hate crime, they should call 999 if the situation is an emergency, or otherwise contact police and take "relevant action in conjunction with the police, ensuring you record all details of the incident." Should the incident fall short of an actual hate crime, staff are instructed to provide "age-appropriate learning support opportunities for the perpetrator."

The perpetrator, to be clear, may not yet be toilet trained.

And what happens if the racist toddler proves resistant to learning support? Childcare workers are advised to initiate a formal "disciplinary route", with the various possible outcomes helpfully set out in a flowchart. One imagines the outcomes do not include a custodial sentence, though at this point one cannot be entirely certain.

The guidance does not stop at policing children. Staff themselves are required to conduct an "understanding audit", including a self-reflection exercise in which they must demonstrate on a scale of one to five what white privilege is and how it shapes their own lives and the lives of others. They are also asked to assess how well they understand their own "unconscious biases" and how "competent and open" they are when it comes to reporting racism among children and adults alike.

Physical spaces must be audited too. Books, dolls, and displays must be sufficiently diverse, and staff must "make sure your anti-racist stance is visible." Snacks, the guidance also stipulates, must be diverse. One is left to wonder what an insufficiently diverse snack looks like — and who decides.

Lest anyone think the guidance has run out of places to go, it also informs childcare workers that "toileting practices vary across cultures. These practices may be very different from your own, but it does not make them unsanitary or incorrect."

All of this emanates from Diversity and Anti-Racist Professional Learning, an organisation based at Cardiff Metropolitan University. Since 2021, it has received £1.3 million in Welsh Government funding and collected enthusiastic endorsements from Welsh Labour ministers. The guidance has also been circulated to the National Day Nurseries Association. Its central thesis — that it is "never too early" to discuss skin colour with children, including the "beauty and complexity of melanin" — has been presented not as ideology but as professional best practice.

Staff are warned throughout that their own judgement is suspect. "Behaviour may be judged through a Eurocentric or personal lens," the document cautions. "Misinterpretation of cultural norms that differ from our own can lead to unfair or incorrect observations." In other words, if something strikes you as unreasonable, the problem is probably you.

There is one number worth keeping in mind when reading all of this. The age of criminal responsibility in Wales is 10. The childcare, play, and early years sector works with children aged 12 and under — which includes, self-evidently, babies and toddlers.

The police should not be drawn into adjudicating the behaviour of infants and literal playground politics. In 2023, 90 per cent of all crimes in England and Wales went unsolved. Frontline officers are already stretched; they cannot afford to be redeployed to investigate hate incidents allegedly committed by children who cannot yet speak in full sentences.

Taxpayers are funding this. Welsh Labour ministers are endorsing it. And the nurseries of Wales are being asked to implement it. It is insane.

Read the full story in The Telegraph.