Channel 4 misled the public over the qualifications held by a celebrity nanny on the television series Bringing Up Baby, an investigation by The Times has learnt.

Claire Verity, 42, outraged children’s organisations with her strict routines, which included leaving babies to cry, limiting cuddling time to ten minutes a day and leaving them outside “to air”. The NSPCC said that her methods were “outdated and potentially harmful”, while the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said that her recommendation that babies sleep alone in a separate room contradicted Department of Health guidance on reducing the risk of cot death.

Channel 4 announced an investigation into Ms Verity’s qualifications yesterday after the awarding bodies from which she claimed to have various diplomas said that they had no records of her.

The nanny, whose clients have included Sting, Sir Mick Jagger and Claudia Schiffer, was banned from the baby show at Earls Court this year, apparently for her safety. She has received death threats and been spat at after an internet campaign by angry mothers who accuse her of child cruelty. Ofcom has received 737 complaints about Bringing Up Baby.

Before the series Channel 4 issued a list of Ms Verity’s qualifications, describing her as a “maternity nurse with 24 years’ experience and a string of nannying qualifications”. The Times also asked Chloe Cunningham, Ms Verity’s agent, for her professional qualifications. Cunningham Management describes Ms Verity as “highly qualified”. The two lists differed and organisations from which she claimed to have obtained childcare awards said that they had no records of her.

Ms Verity, who has no children of her own, claimed to hold diplomas in child daycare and pre-school practice from Aset. A spokeswoman for the awarding body said: “There is no trace whatsoever of this lady on our database.” She said that Aset did not offer a diploma in pre-school practice.

Maternity Nurse Training (MNT), from which Ms Verity said that she had qualifications in maternity practice, sleep training and paediatrics, also said that she did not hold any of its awards. An MNT spokeswoman said: “This person never enrolled on any of our courses and as such has never been trained by us. We would like to make it quite clear that we do not in any way endorse the methods employed by Ms Verity in her work.”

Goal, from whom Ms Verity claimed to hold a diploma in childcare, said that it had no records of her and had never offered the diploma. Ms Cunningham admitted that Ms Verity had not yet taken the postnatal depression or care of multiple baby qualifications that Channel 4 claimed she held.

The awarding bodies also searched their systems for Ms Verity under the name Houseman, the name of her former husband, and Bradley, her name on the electoral roll.

Ms Cunningham included “care of a premature baby [at] St James’s Hospital” as one of Ms Verity’s qualifications. She later clarified: “St James’s she visited and helped with a premature baby. That’s not a course.”

Ms Verity’s premature nephew was treated at the hospital in Leeds, but a spokeswoman for St James’s said: “We definitely wouldn’t let people help out in a clinical sense if they weren’t qualified to do so. That’s a definite no.”

Although Channel 4 describes Ms Verity as a “maternity nurse”, she has now reverted to “maternity consultant” after the Nursing and Midwifery Council said that the title implied that she was a registered nurse.

It is not only Ms Verity’s professional qualifications that are in doubt. In an interview with The Times, Ms Verity said that she had a degree in Business Studies from York University but a spokesman for the university said that it had no records of her and did not offer a business studies degree.

A spokeswoman for Channel 4 said: “Claire Verity was recommended by her established and reputable agency, who assured Silver River [the production company] that they personally interview all maternity nurses on their books. In addition, Silver River contacted a number of parents who had supplied references for her to check that they were authentic.Cunningham Management did not provide a response.

A colourful history

— Claire Verity was born in 1965 in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, into a farming family. Her mother, Valerie, and grandmother raised her under 1950s parenting methods that resembled those of Sir Frederic Truby King, who insisted on strict feeding routines and leaving babies outside “to air”

— Ms Verity crops up in two other career exploits. In 1990 she was director of Throwbranch Ltd, a nightclub operator. In 2001 she appeared in local newspapers as running a Harrogate chocolate shop. Ms Verity told The Times both were the ideas of “mad” boyfriends. She said: “Nothing to do with me. I was a front person for this shop. We all have our mad moments with strange men in life, don’t we? I soon got rid of him”

— In 1998 she married Ian Houseman, a former Yorkshire cricketer. They divorced around the turn of the century

— In 2002 she told the Sunday Mirror that she slept with Mick Jagger within 48 hours of starting to look after his children

Source: Times database

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