Snap! 4 Kids

EYL413 V1_20090122 Ofsted National Business Unit St Ann’s Square Manchester M2 7LA Telephone: 08456 404040 Fax: 08456 40 40 49 Minicom: 0161 6188524 Email: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk Web: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Snap! 4 Kids Limited 6A Chapel Street Cambridge Cambridgeshire CB4 1DY Our Reference 221636

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Outcome of monitoring visit for provision judged as inadequate

An Ofsted inspector, Denise May Smith, carried out a monitoring visit of your provision on 01/06/2009. This visit follows on from your inspection where the provision was judged to be inadequate.

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Outcome of the visit

As a result of our inspection on 29/01/2009, we sent you a welfare requirements notice.

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Outcome of the visit

This notice required you to: ensure outdoor and indoor spaces, furniture, equipment and toys are safe and suitable for their purpose; conduct a comprehensive risk assessment which identifies aspects of the environment that need to be checked on a regular basis and keep a record of these particular aspects including when and by whom they have been checked; take all reasonable steps to ensure that hazards to children, both indoors and outdoors, are kept to a minimum, this particularly relates to the positioning of fire guards, positioning of artwork on these fire guards and the maintenance of electrical sockets and to demonstrate how adults looking after children have the appropriate training, skills and knowledge by implementing an effective programme of continuing professional development.

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Outcome of the visit

You were further required to demonstrate how you will take necessary steps to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, this related to implementing an effective policy about ensuring equality of opportunities and for supporting children with learning difficulties and disabilities; demonstrate how equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice is promoted and that every child is included and not disadvantaged because of ethnicity, culture or religion, home language, family background, learning difficulties or disabilities, gender or ability and to demonstrate how you develop and implement rigorous systems to evaluate and monitor the provision to ensure all children have an enjoyable and challenging experience that is tailored to meet their individual needs. You were also issued a Notice to Improve which required you to make systematic observations and assessments of each child's achievements, interests and learning styles to identify learning priorities and plan

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Outcome of the visit

During a monitoring visit on the 5 March 2009 the inspector was of the opinion that you had met the actions raised on the welfare requirement notice and notice to improve because you had addressed the issues to a satisfactory standard. However, as these new procedures were in their infancy, and you were still receiving significant support from the Early Years Foundation Stage Adviser (EYFSA) the inspector felt it was too early to assess the impact these improvements were having on the children in your care. It was agreed that a further monitoring visit would be required.

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Outcome of the visit

Having considered all the evidence, the inspector is of the opinion that at this time the setting is making good improvement overall.

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Overall effectiveness of the improvement and outcomes for children

A monitoring visit was conducted on the 1 June 2009. During this visit the inspector was of the opinion that good progress has been made at securing improvements in the quality of care and education provided. The staff have worked hard to ensure that the new policies and procedures which had been put into place at the last monitoring visit are now embedded into routine practice.

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Overall effectiveness of the improvement and outcomes for children

Procedures, and the supporting documents relating to the assessment and minimising of risks are now fully in place and are working effectively. Staff understand the risk assessment process and routinely escalate any issues to management, so that they are aware, and can therefore take appropriate action to further minimise any highlighted risks to children. During the visit no new risks were observed, which is evidence that the new process of risk assessments is effective.

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Overall effectiveness of the improvement and outcomes for children

The setting continues to receive ongoing support from the area Special Education Needs Coordinator (SENCo) who visits to assess the needs of children who may have learning difficulties and/or disabilities. A member of staff is awaiting a place on an appropriate training course to support her in the role of SENCo within the setting. Training in general continues to be high on the agenda of the management team and it is acknowledged as a route for continual improvement and development of staff. Overall staff continue to attend relevant short training workshops and the staff members professional childcare development is also acknowledged and supported.

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Overall effectiveness of the improvement and outcomes for children

The setting continues to make improvements to ensure that they are able to promote equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice. Staff continue to attend relevant training, the issues of a lack of appropriate resources which are reflective of the children's cultures and of diversity is beginning to be addressed and some of the activities provided underpin the children's learning and experiences of the wider world.

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Overall effectiveness of the improvement and outcomes for children

Intensive support has been provided by the EYFSA to ensure that staff are able to effectively observe, assess and plan for the children's individual educational needs. The systems that have been implemented are now embedded into place and children are engaged in more meaningful activities. During the monitoring visit all children present appeared happy and engaged in their play and learning.

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Overall effectiveness of the improvement and outcomes for children

New processes which were implemented to monitor and evaluate the quality of the care and learning are now becoming more routine practice which is leading to ongoing improvements. The main focus of these monitoring systems have been: ensuring the premises are safe, and remain safe; ensuring that the quality of the observation, assessment and planning for children's learning continues to improve and that staff are receiving relevant training to underpin this progression.

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Overall effectiveness of the improvement and outcomes for children

Overall good progress has been made at ensuring the issues highlighted in the welfare requirement notice and notice to improve have been addressed. This has resulted in significant improvements in the quality of the care and education provided for the children who attend this setting.

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Next steps

Having considered all the evidence the inspector is of the opinion that at this time:

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Next steps

 The setting has made good progress in addressing the points for improvement. The next visit will be a full inspection.

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Next steps

I hope that you have found the visit helpful in promoting improvement in your setting. If you have any further queries please contact us on the number at the top of this letter.

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