WHEN Jack Bannister goes to nursery to play with his pals, he has no idea his mum is hiding close by.

If the three-year-old sees her walk past, he believes that she has just nipped back to collect something.

But in reality, she is listening carefully to make sure her son - who has a tracheotomy - is still breathing.

If the pipe inserted into his throat were to become blocked, Jack would die within seconds.

The Mere Oaks nursery, in Standish, doesn't have enough staff trained to keep a constant watch on him, so mum Gillian has to hide behind a wall to listen for any problems.

She told the Manchester Evening News: ''The whole point of him coming to nursery is to get him away from me, so that he can mix with other children.

Breathing checks

''I want nursery to bring him out of his shell so that going to school won't be such a big shock. But I have to keep popping in to see what his breathing is like, because staff have to take breaks. If his tracheotomy blocks, he doesn't breathe.

''He thinks I drop him off and leave him there. But there's a wall there and I can listen to him from behind it.''

Jack suffers from a rare form of dwarfism called spondylo-epiphyseal dysplasia congenita (SED). As a result of his disability he had a tracheotomy when he was just four days old.

Before he started at the nursery in September, a specialist trainer from Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool travelled to the school to teach a nursery assistant about Jack's needs.

But the hospital has told the school it can no longer send staff out of its own area. And the Wigan and Bolton Health Authority doesn't have anyone able to deliver the same sort of training to another member of nursery staff as back up.

Training

Headteacher Janice Leach says she has staff who are willing to be trained to look after Jack - but there is no-one who can train them.

Mrs Leach said: ''There are issues about who pays for the training, but the main issues are around having a trainer available to train staff at all.

''Wigan hasn't got anybody who is qualified to do it. Consequently, we have staff willing and waiting to be trained, but there isn't anyone to train them.

''Jack is well settled and doesn't need his mum here. She is purely here as a back-up carer.''

Ideally, Gillian wants Jack to attend a mainstream school. But in the meantime, she is focusing her efforts on her battle to have a second carer trained to look after her son at Mere Oaks.

Eve Crabtree, deputy director of service strategy for Wigan and Bolton Health Authority, said she hopes that by the start of the next academic year, there will be staff employed by the authority to provide the necessary training.

She said: ''For Jack and other children who are fitted with tracheotomies and attend school, the education authority will provide support staff.

''Jack's case is particularly specialised tracheotomy training. What we are looking to do is to establish a system where we have our own trained people to support staff.

''This is not the best situation at the moment. It is better if training can be provided locally.

''We are in discussion to make sure we have locally-trained people.''

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