Childminder in Newcastle upon Tyne

Inspection report for early years provision

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Unique Reference Number 319117 Inspection date 26 September 2005 Inspector Kathleen Snowdon

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Type of inspection Childcare Type of care Childminding

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This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000

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ABOUT THIS INSPECTION

The purpose of this inspection is to assure government, parents and the public of the quality of childcare and, if applicable, of nursery education. The inspection was carried out under Part XA Children Act 1989 as introduced by the Care Standards Act 2000 and, where nursery education is provided, under Schedule 26 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. This report details the main strengths and any areas for improvement identified during the inspection. The judgements included in the report are made in relation to the outcomes for children set out in the Children Act 2004; the National Standards for under 8s day care and childminding; and, where nursery education is provided, the Curriculum guidance for the foundation stage. The report includes information on any complaints about the childcare provision which Ofsted has received since the last inspection or registration or 1 April 2004 whichever is the later.

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The key inspection judgements and what they mean

Outstanding: this aspect of the provision is of exceptionally high quality Good: this aspect of the provision is strong Satisfactory: this aspect of the provision is sound Inadequate: this aspect of the provision is not good enough For more information about early years inspections, please see the booklet Are you ready for your inspection? which is available from Ofsted's website: www.ofsted.gov.uk.

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THE QUALITY AND STANDARDS OF THE CARE

On the basis of the evidence collected on this inspection:

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THE QUALITY AND STANDARDS OF THE CARE

The quality and standards of the care are outstanding. The registered person meets the National Standards for under 8s day care and childminding.

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

The childminder registered in 1999. She lives with her husband and their three daughters aged 10, 11 and 16-years-old. They live in Blakelaw, an area in the west of Newcastle. Local community facilities include shops, schools, outdoor play areas and a park. The childminder can look after a maximum of five children at any one time. She has current arrangements to look after three children. The childminder can provide overnight care for up to four children. The childminder uses the lounge, adjoining dining room, kitchen, upstairs bathroom, bedroom and enclosed rear garden for childminding purposes. The family has a pet

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WHAT SORT OF SETTING IS IT?

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000 dog. The childminder attends the local toddler group and childminding drop-in on a regular basis. She is a member of The National Childminding Association.

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Helping children to be healthy

The provision is outstanding. Children move easily and very confidently around the childminder's beautifully well organised home. They walk safely through spaces and negotiate skilfully ordinary items of furniture, such as chairs and small tables. This helps them to gain increasing control of their bodies and to develop an awareness of space. The children approach familiar adults very confidently and spontaneously, with the absolute certainty that they will be acknowledged. This helps them to feel very secure, highly valued, and encourages the growth of good self-esteem. The childminder has gathered, filed and refers to invaluable written information, such as the telephone number and address of local police and fire stations. In addition, the childminder uses safety data sheets obtained from manufacturers of a range of household products. These provide vital information to pass on to medical staff in the

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Helping children to be healthy

event of an emergency. This excellent reference information helps to ensure that the children's health is protected at all times, including times of crises. The children handle an excellent range of bright and stimulating equipment, which includes fascinating items, such as a play-gym and musical instruments. They show great interest in other items too, like cardboard boxes, which they scrutinise closely and intensely and try to fit into. Exploring items like these provides the children with very good opportunities to improve their fine manipulative skills and their hand to eye co-ordination. The children benefit enormously from highly unusual and interesting outings. Visits to the dentist or the hospital enable the children to observe and talk about the people that they see there. This helps the children to understand that sometimes people need help to stay well and encourages them to form positive views of such places.

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Helping children to be healthy

Trips to the local swimming baths give the children the chance to have great fun and exercise vigorously. As well as this, the children have easy access to a very good range of bikes and cars which they relish playing with. This provides them with further excellent opportunities for exercise to benefit their overall physical development. The children have regular naps to help them to feel comfortable and contented. Their well-being is very well protected by the frequent checks made on them as they sleep, by the vigilant and highly conscientious childminder. The childminder makes an outstanding effort to provide highly appetising, well-balanced and nutritious meals and snacks for the children. These include assorted cereals, baked potatoes, fruit, vegetables and regular treats, such as ice cream. This ensures that the children are very well-nourished, helps them to develop a healthy approach to eating and encourages them to look forward to meal and

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Helping children to be healthy

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000 snack times. The childminder holds a certificate in basic food hygiene, which means that the children's food is prepared and served hygienically and safely. This is a highly effective way to prevent the spread of infection and common illnesses. Other very good practices which help to safeguard the children's health, include the highly sensible arrangements in place for dealing with children who are ill. In addition, the children are learning the importance of good personal hygiene through the clear and highly appropriate guidance that they receive from the childminder. For example, she reminds them to wash their hands after using the toilet and before eating.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The provision is outstanding. Children are very well protected through the childminder's extremely conscientious approach to health and safety matters. Exceptional measures are taken by the childminder to ensure that her home remains free of hazards. She carries out frequent risk assessments of the entire house. The thorough and very well considered process includes checks to smoke detectors and to the carbon monoxide detector. A daily risk-check includes a scan of the rooms that the children will use that day. Consequently, the resulting secure and extremely well organised environment minimises the risk of accidental injury to the children. Safety gates are used very well, to restrict the children's access to potentially hazardous areas. This ensures that the children remain very well supervised by the childminder at all times. The children are learning very effective ways to stay safe through the highly appropriate reminders that they receive from the childminder. They

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

walk, rather than run, in the house, for instance, to help them to understand that sensible, calm behaviour helps them to stay safe. Excellent prompting from the childminder encourages the children to develop ways of staying safe while outside. She encourages them to practice road safety, for example, which even the youngest children show awareness of. Children have very easy access to high quality toys, which are in excellent condition through regular cleaning and thorough checking by the childminder. These are placed on the floor to reduce the potential risk posed to the children, by having to stretch or reach too far for items of interest. The children sit in sturdy, very well maintained buggies, car seats and high chairs to ensure that they remain safe and secure during outings, naps and mealtimes. Very well thought-out evacuation procedures help to ensure that the children remain safe even in emergencies. Frequent fire drills are carried out and great care is taken

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

to ensure that all the children are involved regularly. This excellent practice equips the children with a strong awareness of routines to follow in times of danger. The children's continuing safety and well-being are further protected through the childminder's excellent awareness of child protection issues. Very clear and comprehensive written information is in place to help the childminder to seek advice from appropriate agencies should she need to. This protects the children from exposure to further danger.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The provision is outstanding. The children have very easy access to an excellent range of high quality toys and equipment. They play enthusiastically with musical instruments, construct confidently using a variety of blocks, paint, draw and design with flair and use their imaginations spontaneously. Providing the children with such excellent opportunities helps them to express their feelings through music and role play, represent their ideas in vibrant pictures and enables them to experiment with design. The very well organised environment encourages the children to make independent choices and exercise their initiative. The skilled childminder stays close to help the children to complete what they start, for example, a jigsaw or a shape sorter. This gives the children a strong sense of achievement and encourages them to concentrate and persevere. The childminder plans highly exciting and unusual outings and activities for the

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

children. They visit the hospital, the local park, the dentist, the library and go on picnics. They are encouraged by the very capable childminder to look closely at the images and the people that they see in these places and during these activities. This helps them to form accurate impressions and informs their later discussions. These experiences provide a strong foundation for the children's learning and make a valuable contribution to their awareness of social issues. The children show very strong levels of interest in their surroundings and in other people, such as visitors. Their curiosity is encouraged by the childminder who capitalises on such opportunities. This helps to promote effective social skills and encourages the children to ask relevant questions. The children are learning to build warm and secure relationships with other people through the excellent way in which the childminder interacts with them. They respond with glee and great enthusiasm to

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

her suggestions, for example, whether they should visit friends or go for a walk. The very broad, extremely well planned and well balanced range of activities that the children take part in, offers the children huge scope to enjoy themselves and the best possible chance of achieving the best that they can.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The provision is outstanding. The children form highly secure relationships with the childminder, demonstrated in the very affectionate way that they interact with her. This enables the children to understand that they are valued and cherished as individuals and encourages the growth of their self-esteem. The childminder has high expectations of the children's behaviour. Her very effective behaviour management technique helps the children to learn acceptable ways to behave towards and react to others. She praises them when they behave well or when they achieve their intended goal. This is supplemented by use of a star chart which enables the children to see the merits of good behaviour. This teaches them that positive behaviour brings reward while negative behaviour does not and sets the scene for the development of the children's understanding of right from wrong.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000 At meal times, the children and the childminder sit together and discuss the day's events and experiences. Each child is encouraged to speak and the others are reminded about the importance of listening. This helps the children to develop good personal qualities such as fairness, respect and an understanding of self and others. The excellent range of activities that the children are involved in gives them marvellous opportunities to talk about themselves and about other people and places. They celebrate festivals originating in this and other countries, which helps them to form highly positive views of diversity. This encourages the children to develop a better understanding of the wider world and to build an appreciation of the uniqueness of every individual. The childminder works exceptionally well in partnership with parents. Daily discussion

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Helping children make a positive contribution

and if requested by parents, detailed and highly useful daily diaries, keep both the childminder and parents fully informed. This helps to ensure that the children's needs are met as fully as possible. Excellent written information is given to parents to help them to decide whether they want to place their child with the childminder. If so, contracts are used, which set out clearly the expectations of both parties. The childminder gives monthly evaluation sheets to parents to establish whether they remain happy with the service that she provides. This helps to consolidate the relationship between parents and the childminder and ensures that the children are cared for in a pleasant and harmonious atmosphere.

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Organisation

The organisation is outstanding. The childminder's very sound regard and respect for the children's individual preferences ensure that they feel secure and special. She is an excellent role model to them and teaches the children to respect themselves, other people and animals. She reminds them to say 'please' and 'thank you' and asks them to be kind and gentle with the family's pet dog. The daily routine is beautifully balanced with a very good mix of quiet and busy times. The childminder uses her excellent awareness of child development to plan a fascinating range of activities and outings. She refers to the Birth to three matters framework to support her planning for children under 3-years-old. Consequently, the children benefit from highly beneficial experiences and opportunities which help them to make progress in all areas of their development. The solid and very productive partnership with parents is exemplified in the highly

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Organisation

effective contingency plans that have been made to deal with unexpected circumstances. If the childminder is absent, arrangements are in place to ensure that that the children receive continuous and reliable care from other registered childminders. Parents receive a set of written policies and procedures. This ensures that they are as fully informed as possible about the activities that their child will be involved in. As well as this, parents can scrutinise other, very relevant information that the childminder has made available to them. On a notice board in her home, for example, the registration certificate and details of public liability insurance are prominently displayed.

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Organisation

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000 The childminder ensures that she keeps abreast of current issues in child care. She frequently attends relevant training courses, such as equality and diversity and child protection. She is dedicated and hugely enthusiastic about her work and has recently completed training to enable her to act as a mentor to other childminders. Overall, the childminder meets the needs of the children who attend.

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Improvements since the last inspection

At the last inspection, it was recommended that the range of resources that reflected positive images of diversity, was increased. The childminder has made exceptional efforts to do this. Consequently there is now an excellent range of equipment readily available to the children, which helps them to form positive views of gender, disability, ethnicity and culture.

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THE QUALITY AND STANDARDS OF THE CARE

On the basis of the evidence collected on this inspection:

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THE QUALITY AND STANDARDS OF THE CARE

The quality and standards of the care are outstanding. The registered person meets the National Standards for under 8s day care and childminding.

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The quality and standards of the care

No recommendations for improvement are made because the quality and standards of care are outstanding.

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The quality and standards of the care

procedures set out in the leaflet Building better childcare: Compliments and concerns about inspectors' judgements which is available from Ofsted's website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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The quality and standards of the care

This inspection was carried out under the provisions of Part XA of the Children Act 1989, as inserted by the Care Standards Act 2000

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