A nursery where 22 month old Tiya Chauhan choked to death on a jelly cube has said it did not appreciate the food was dangerous and has over-hauled its practices since the tragedy.

Dicky Birds nursery in Dundonald Road, Wimbledon, has been scrutinised by coroner Fiona Wilcox, who reported the toddler died of 'an accident contributed to by neglect'.

A jury at the two-month-long hearing headed by Dr Wilcox concluded the nursery was guilty of 'gross failure' over the little girl’s death in August 2012.

"Inadequate communication between all staff led to a gross failure of supervision of Tiya, which was a significant contributing factor to her death," according to the jury foreman.

Asked by the Wimbledon Guardian whether the nursery accepts the findings of the inquest, nursery owner Rachel Berry said they needed time to carefully consider and reflect on findings and conclusions with their advisors.

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Tiya's parents leave court. 

It has appointed a public relations firm to deal with queries from the media in the wake of the ruling on Thursday, September 4.

The inquest heard claims the nursery's operations manager Derek Hayes 'deliberately minimised' the incident in his formal report to Ofsted.

He also admitted picking out a member of staff, Natasha Collins, at random and suspending her following the death.

Both members of staff remain in their posts.

The nursery said: "The management team acted with the best intentions in what was a tragic and difficult time for all involved.

"The local authority agreed during the hearing that they had no precedent for handling serious incidents of this nature and have since updated their own reporting procedures and requirements.

"The coroner did not produce any findings regarding the conduct of Mr Hayes and he continues in his role."

It said immediately after Tiya’s death, all use of food and jelly play was removed from the nurseries, and free flow play, where children were allowed to move around the rooms, was stopped.

The raw jelly had been used with spaghetti to create a swamp with prehistoric animal toys for the youngsters to play with.

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Dicky Birds nursery.

The nursery said: "At the time we did not appreciate how dangerous jelly play could be. "Currently, we know that food and jelly play remains prevalent in many nurseries and we welcome that the coroner will be making a report regarding the danger of raw jelly in childcare settings."

Tiya’s parents Dipa and Chetan Chauhan, of Graham Road, Wimbledon, were at the inquest at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

Speaking afterwards, they said: "We are extremely disappointed that it has taken an inquest hearing two years after Tiya's death to identify for the first time the basic failures of the Dicky Birds nursery to supervise very young children and to operate a free-flow system without assessing the obvious risks of babies being left unattended with access to dangerous items such as raw jelly."

Dicky Birds Nurseries is a family-owned business with other nurseries in Wimbledon, Raynes Park, New Malden and Surbiton.