Childminder in HerefordshireOfsted inspection, 21 Jan 2013

Inspection date

Previous inspection date 21/01/2013 Not Applicable

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early years provision

This inspection: 2 Previous inspection: Not Applicable How well the early years provision meets the needs of the range of children who attend The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children 2 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 2

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This provision is good

 Children make good progress in the learning and development as they benefit from an extensive range of resources and planned activities, such as crafts within the home and at local toddler groups. The childminder interacts well with the children, supports their learning as he joins in their play, and promotes their needs and interests.  Children thoroughly enjoy themselves in this welcoming and stimulating home. They form excellent friendships and play extremely well together as they develop their imagination during role play with dolls, dressing up clothes and the kitchen set.  The childminder is keen to extend his knowledge further as he undertakes additional courses, such as on children's assessments and sign language. This results in children being well supported in the development of their communication skills.

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It is not yet outstanding because

 The dining room is not fully utilised during the school day to ensure an additional quiet area for children so they are able to concentrate on small group activities and games. The rooms lack a cosy area for babies to play and for all the children to readily access books and listen to stories in comfort.

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Information about this inspection

Inspections of registered early years provision are scheduled:  at least once in every inspection cycle. The current cycle ends on 31 July 2016  more frequently where Ofsted identifies a need to do so, for example where provision was previously judged as inadequate  brought forward in the inspection cycle where Ofsted has received information that suggests the provision may not be meeting the legal requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage; or where assessment of the provision identifies a need for early inspection  prioritised for inspection where we have received information that the provision is not meeting the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage and which suggests children may not be safe  at the completion of an investigation into failure to comply with the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage.

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Information about this inspection

The provision is also registered on the voluntary and compulsory parts of the Childcare Register. This report includes a judgment about compliance with the requirements of that register.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector observed activities in the downstairs rooms.  The inspector held discussions with the childminder and children when appropriate.  The inspector looked at a sample of children's records and assessments.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector checked evidence of suitability and qualifications of the childminder, including the self-evaluation form.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector took account of the views of parents spoken to on the day and included in the childminder's parent surveys.

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Information about the setting

The childminder was registered in 2012 on the Early Years Register and the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. He lives with his wife, who is also a registered childminder, in Hereford. All of the property is used for childminding, apart from the cellar. There is a fully enclosed garden available for outside play. The childminder is able to take children to and collect them from a local school and nursery. The family has two cats.

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Information about the setting

The childminder attends a toddler group and activities at the local children's centre. He visits the park on a regular basis. There are currently 22 children on roll, of whom nine are within the early years age range and attend on a part-time basis. The childminder operates all year round, from 7am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday, except Bank Holidays and family holidays. He is a member of the National Childminding Association.

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To further improve the quality of the early years provision the provider should:

 improve the utilisation of the environment to create a quiet cosy area for children to concentrate in small group activities, for example, an attractive book area where children and adults can enjoy books together.

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who attend

Children thoroughly enjoy their time at this welcoming and stimulating home. They make good progress in their learning and development as they benefit from attending a variety of toddler groups and structured activities within the home. For example, the childminder promotes their knowledge of numbers through singing rhymes, using props to aid children's understanding. He supports children individually when playing with jigsaws and shape sorters, asks questions such as 'what colour?' and praises children for their achievements. Children are enthusiastic learners and older ones ask questions. The childminder builds on the children's interests and takes them to a water museum. He has effective planning in place which is informed by his observations and thorough assessments of all the children's abilities and needs. He clearly identifies children's next steps in their learning and shares these with parents to enable children to make good

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who attend

progress. Children learn about the environment when playing in the autumn leaves and they collect leaves to create a collage picture. The childminder extends their learning further by involving the children in a group display. The children paint an autumn tree and then add the animals to the tree. Children flourish from a wide range of structured creative activities which are often planned around different festivals and topics. For example, they make pumpkin lanterns, write letters with envelopes and stamps to pretend to post and masks for Chinese New Year as children learn about the wider social world.

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who attend

Children become thoroughly engrossed in their role play and develop their imagination as they love to play with the dolls and dressing up clothes. They play very well together and access extensive resources to meet their individual preferences, such as the play kitchen and colouring activities. Children are confident to ask for resources that are not so easily accessible, such as their home-made glitter play dough. They all enjoy rolling it into snakes or making pretend cakes. Older children like to create vehicles with cardboard boxes and get engrossed in building with construction toys. Older children have exciting opportunities and challenges, such as using real tools to make a wooden name plaque.

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who attend

Children make good progress in their language development as the childminder promotes singing and musical activities. They all get involved and share a sense of fun as they enthusiastically sing and do the actions to a song. They are confident communicators, sociable and relate very well to one another. The childminder rotates the toys and books around to help maintain interests. However, the room lacks a small cosy quiet area where children would have scope to more readily access books and babies can have space to play. The childminder has identified through reflective practice that the dining room could be further utilised for a quiet area for small group activities to aid children's concentration. The childminder promotes children's pencil control through doing dot-to-dot words with the children to help prepare them for school.

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The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children

Children form good friendships with each other. They have a sense of belonging as their pictures are displayed and they like to look at photographs of themselves on the laptop. The childminder engages well with the children. They approach him to join in their games and he talks with them about what they have been doing at the weekend. He knows the children well through gathering detailed information from parents when they start and undertaking an initial assessment. Children behave very well and make progress in their social skills as they learn to interact with each other and share resources. The childminder gently encourages good manners to ensure children learn to be polite.

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The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children

Children are well prepared for school or pre-school as they show good levels of concentration while spending time in a group talking about what day it is and discussing the weather chart. Children develop their confidence and social skills as they enjoy a wide range of toddler groups and engage in activities at the children's centre.

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The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children

The childminder sees healthy eating as important and is planning a topic on this as he collects various educational resources. Children are making progress as they try different foods, sometimes promoted through activities, such as making soup. Children have a healthy appetite and benefit from a wide variety of nutritious snacks and light lunches. They eagerly ask for more fruit and salad and spend time enjoying the social occasion of eating together. The childminder reinforces to them the importance of drinking their milk to help make their bodies strong. Effective routines are in place for hand washing and children independently access the toilet. The childminder is conscientious to use antibacterial gel throughout the day to minimise spreading of infection, for example, when dealing with runny noses. Detailed information regarding allergies and dietary requirements is gathered to ensure children's good health. Children benefit from daily

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The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children

fresh air in the garden all year round and develop their physical skills at the park. They build up their stamina as they often walk to activities within the local community. They learn about road safety when out and about. Explanations are given for safety within the home, such as not climbing on chairs or hiding under tables. Children learn about fire safety through regular fire drills.

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provision

The childminder works very well with his co-childminder as they share all roles and daily responsibilities. He becomes fully involved in planning and leading activities, and children benefit from his support and interaction. The childminder undertakes ongoing training to extend his knowledge further in relation to assessing children's development and in ways to promote children's learning through using sign language. The childminder attends meetings with other childminders and keeps up to date with good practice. The childminder makes ongoing improvements to the setting, such as purchasing or making new resources, including a real stethoscope to support children's interest in pretending to be doctors. He uses the internet to make shape games and posters. The childminder effectively reflects on his practice and contributes towards the setting's self-evaluation. He has a clear vision of improvements he can make, for example, he wants to go to the

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provision

library with the children and wants to look more at nature, showing a good capacity for continuous improvement.

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provision

Children are cared for in a safe, well-organised and secure environment. The childminders work well together to ensure good supervision and ratios are maintained with precise records in place to promote children's welfare. The childminder reviews detailed policies, procedures and written risk assessments. He has a sound knowledge of safeguarding, and protecting children is a high priority. He has thought through all emergency situations, with important contact details easily to hand. All appropriate routines, detailed policies and documentation are in place to ensure children health care needs are well met.

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provision

The childminder works very well with parents and shares information effectively through his friendly approachable manner. Parents are extremely well informed of their child's development, achievements and activities through regular assessments, reports, diaries and photographs they receive. Parents actively contribute towards their children's assessments. They receive newsletters with information of ways to progress children in their learning and development and information on topics, enabling them to effectively support children at home. Parents comment that children are very happy, settle quickly and enjoy a wide range of activities. Parents appreciate the homely environment. Children's care needs and individual routines are very well met. The childminder gathers detailed information as new children start and detailed routines of babies to ensure consistency of care. The childminder has good relationships with local schools, nursery

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provision

and children centre staff. He seeks to work together with other early years providers to effectively meet children's needs.

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The Childcare Register

The requirements for the compulsory part of the Childcare Register are Met The requirements for the voluntary part of the Childcare Register are Met

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Grade Judgement Description

Grade 1 Outstanding Outstanding provision is highly effective in meeting the needs of all children exceptionally well. This ensures that children are very well prepared for the next stage of their learning. Grade 2 Good Good provision is effective in delivering provision that meets the needs of all children well. This ensures children are ready for the next stage of their learning. Grade 3 Satisfactory Satisfactory provision is performing less well than expectations in one or more of the key areas. It requires improvement in order to be good. Grade 4 Inadequate Provision that is inadequate requires significant improvement and/or enforcement. The provision is failing to give children an acceptable standard of early years education and/or is not meeting the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage. It will be inspected again within 12 months of the date of this inspection.

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Grade Judgement Description

Met The provision has no children on roll. The inspection judgement is that the provider continues to meet the requirements for registration. Not Met The provision has no children on roll. The inspection judgement is that the provider does not meet the requirements for registration.

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Inspection

This inspection was carried out by Ofsted under Sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 on the quality and standards of provision that is registered on the Early Years Register. The registered person must ensure that this provision complies with the statutory framework for children’s learning, development and care, known as the Early Years Foundation Stage.

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Setting details

Unique reference number EY450898 Local authority Herefordshire Inspection number 811437 Type of provision Childminder Registration category Childminder Age range of children 0 - 17 Total number of places 6 Number of children on roll 22

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Name of provider

Date of previous inspection Not applicable

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Telephone number

set out in the guidance ‘raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk.

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Type of provision

For the purposes of this inspection the following definitions apply:

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Type of provision

Full-time provision is that which operates for more than three hours. These are usually known as nurseries, nursery schools and pre-schools and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. They are registered on the Early Years Register and pay the higher fee for registration.

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Type of provision

Sessional provision operates for more than two hours but does not exceed three hours in any one day. These are usually known as pre-schools, kindergartens or nursery schools and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. They are registered on the Early Years Register and pay the lower fee for registration.

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Type of provision

Childminders care for one or more children where individual children attend for a period of more than two hours in any one day. They operate from domestic premises that are usually their own home. They are registered on the Early Years Register and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage.

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Type of provision

Out of school provision may be sessional or full-time provision and is delivered before or after school and/or in the summer holidays. They are registered on the Early Years Register and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. Where children receive their Early Years Foundation Stage in school these providers do not have to deliver the learning and development requirements in full but should complement the experiences children receive in school. achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children,

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Type of provision

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk. You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way. To receive regular email alerts about new publications, including survey reports and school inspection reports, please visit our website and go to ‘Subscribe’.

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Type of provision

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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