The Willow Children's Centre

The Willow Children's Centre Barnhill Road, Wembley, Middlesex, HA9 9YP

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 14/05/2013 29/11/2010

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early years provision

This inspection: 4 Previous inspection: 3 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 4 The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision 4

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This provision is inadequate

 Safety, security and confidentiality measures are not adequate to safeguard children's welfare.  The management team fails to monitor staff practice effectively or help practitioners to improve their practice.  Staff do not always successfully identify children's abilities and as a result activities for older and more able children lack challenge to help them progress in their learning and development.  Children are not always helped to learn behavioural expectations and how to keep themselves safe.  Self-evaluation is ineffective and fails to identify weaknesses in the provision and secure improvements

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It has the following strengths

 Babies and children with special educational needs receive good care support from staff, which helps to meet their specific needs.  Educational toys and materials are of good quality throughout the setting.  The programme for communication and language helps children to become effective communicators.

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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

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Information about this inspection

 scheduled more frequently where Ofsted identifies a need to do so, for example where provision was previously judged 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 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  scheduled 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 setting was inspected by two inspectors

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Inspection activities

 The inspectors looked at documentation relating to safety and children's assessments  The inspectors spoke to staff, children and parents  The inspectors observed staff supervision of children and their interaction with them

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Information about the setting

The Willow Children's Centre opened in 2006 and it is run by the London Borough of Brent. The centre operates from a two-storey purpose built centre in Wembley. Lifts are available for easy access to the first floor. Children have access to a baby room, toddler room, pre-school room and a secure outdoor play area. The centre is open each week day from 8am to 6pm all year round. It is registered on the Early Years Register and both the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. There are currently 127 children in the early years age group on roll who attend for a variety of sessions. The centre provides support for children who have identified special educational needs and/or disabilities and children who speak English as an additional language. There are 22 members of staff employed, all of whom have appropriate early years qualifications. The manager and four of her team have foundation degrees in early years.

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enforcement action:

We will issue a Welfare Requirements Notice requiring the provider to:

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enforcement action:

- ensure the premises, including all exit doors, are secure - ensure that children are adequately supervised and decide how to deploy staff so that children are always within sight or hearing.

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must:

 ensure that confidential information is only made available to those who have a right or professional need to see them. This is with regards to children's accident records.

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must:

 foster a culture of mutual support, teamwork and coaching, including monitoring of staff and self-evaluation, to secure improvements and provide challenging activities for children.

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must:

 improve the use of assessments to track children's achievement and shape their learning experiences; provide suitable challenge for more able children and help to develop their concentration and skills to prepare them for school.

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

 help children to understand the behavioural expectations in the nursery and learn how to keep themselves safe

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who attend

Staff understanding of how to implement the learning and development requirements for children is not fully embedded in practice. Although the room leaders have developed their understanding through training, this has not been shared with all staff or sufficiently monitored by managers. This means that the quality of the learning experiences for different children attending varies. Younger children and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities have a satisfactory experience. Partnerships with other professionals work to support planning for the learning and development of these children. However, planning is not sufficiently adapted to meet the individual needs of older and more able children in the group. Assessments are based on observations of children but do not fully identify children's capabilities in order to plan for their next steps. There are many opportunities for free play and for children to develop their own ideas. However,

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who attend

plans for learning do not identify what children would gain from such experiences. Therefore adults do not give the relevant support to promote and extend children's learning. As a result, some children lack concentration and have limited motivation to learn, especially during free play sessions.

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who attend

Improvements have been made to the educational programme for communication and language. Many adults are skilled communicators using a range of different methods to support children. For example, staff use puppets to bring stories to life and picture cards to help children explore ideas such as 'kind hands' when discussing how to behave. However, because activities overall lack direction and staff supervision is poor in some areas, children are not able to put these skills into practice. For example, during free play, some children pour sand in the home corner and couscous on the floor without adult supervision, showing that they are not always clear about behavioural expectations. This also means that opportunities are missed for adults to help children to explore textures and use new words to describe their experiences.

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who attend

Children enjoy planned 'island' times for story and songs before lunch and they know which group they belong to. At these times, staff adapt planned stories and circle games to suit the children in their group. This provides positive support for children's language because they enjoy the stories and the action rhymes. Mostly children choose their own activities throughout the day and for some children this works well. For example, children enjoy digging in the sand and the soil and making mud pies. They learn about the natural world using their senses through growing projects where they have grown vegetables and herbs. The nursery is well equipped and the outside area is made inviting with designated play areas such as the 'jungle area' and the 'amphitheatre'. Teaching is best when staff are allocated to these areas and children can join in with activities such as searching for dinosaurs and using large paint wheels to paint on the floor. Despite this, many staff do

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who attend

not effectively engage all children to extend their play experiences and some children move rapidly from one area to another without becoming involved. This has an impact on their concentration and the quality of their learning, especially for older and more able children.

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

The organisation of the routine, space and staff impacts on children's safety and wellbeing. While children benefit from direct access to an outdoor play space, the deployment of staff is not effective enough to make sure that all children are well supervised. The open plan play area is busy and incidents of children bumping into one another or having minor accidents in the garden are frequent. While there are sufficient numbers of staff, there are occasions when staff cannot locate children for a few minutes. Managers have implemented a headcount procedure where staff count the children every 15 minutes and record the numbers on a chart. While staff do this regularly, it does not address the problem of potential risks of children being out of sight and sound. Play equipment is not consistently supervised, resulting in preventable accidents on the slide, for example. Staff miss opportunities to teach children how to keep themselves safe, for

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

instance, they do not respond quickly to tie children's shoelaces as they run around in the garden. Indoors, children put items from the home corner into the toilet and tear up toilet roll to throw on the floor. This demonstrates that they are not supervised well in this area and the lack of staff direction during free-play means they are taking part in destructive activities. However, staff do provide lots of attention and support to children attending with complex needs and they gather information from parents and provide daily feedback. This level of support helps children with additional needs make satisfactory progress according to their starting points.

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

Meals provided for children are healthy and well balanced. Children enjoyed large plates of lasagne on the day of the inspection and were offered second helpings. This combined with healthy fruit snacks and drinks means that children are well nourished. To fully support the welfare of babies, staff care for babies warmly and sit with them to offer emotional support. The baby room is clearly laid out and there are good lines of sight. Staff spend time directly with the babies who are settled, secure and contented. There is a specific area in the garden for babies to play outside which is safe and stimulating for them. Babies enjoy a range of activities such as playing with soft toys and looking at books. They explore shape and texture using play dough and paints. This contributes to promoting their overall development. Nappy changing arrangements are appropriate and hygienic and younger children have the opportunity to rest after lunch in comfortable cots

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

and beds. Parents receive useful information about their children's care needs, for example nappy changes, sleeps and meals during the day. This supports ongoing continuity of care for children.

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

Staff do not always follow the centre's policies for safety which presents risks to children. For example, there are times when visitors are admitted into the building before their identity is checked. Furthermore, while there are secondary doors leading to the children's group rooms, on the day of inspection one of the doors was faulty and not closing securely. This presents a risk of intruders entering the premises or of a child leaving unattended because there is also an exit button on the main door that can be reached by some children. This means that the door security system is not safe and fails to protect children. Consequently the premises are not fully secure and this is a breach of the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage and also the Childcare Register.

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provision

This inspection was brought forward as the result of concerns received about the nursery. These included the security of the premises, management of staff, the administration of medications, communication with parents and the procedures for safeguarding children. Evidence gathered at the inspection demonstrates that the provider is failing to meet several requirements of the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. These include issues relating to safeguarding, monitoring of staff and self-evaluation.

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provision

There are two managers, one centre manager and one with particular responsibility for the nursery. Leadership and management are not effective because managers have not made sure that the building is secure and do not ensure that all staff effectively promote the safety of children. Risk assessments and policies in place are not sufficiently implemented to safeguard children. For example, managers of the setting have not ensured that staff are deployed well to supervise all children, especially during freely chosen active play. This has led to a significant number of accidents occurring over a short space of time. Staff are also not proactive in helping children to understand behavioural expectations and learn to keep themselves safe. Insufficient measures are taken to ensure that confidentiality is maintained with regards to their record keeping, and this compromises children's welfare.

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provision

Self-evaluation is ineffective because not all weaknesses in the provision are identified and too little action has been taken to target the weaknesses that are identified. The managers show the capacity to drive some improvement; for example, assessment systems are under review, having recognised that some staff have a limited understanding of how to implement the learning and development requirements. Staff appraisals have been completed and they are given some opportunities to access training for their professional development. In addition, several of the staff team are trained to a high level of early years qualification and this is evident in much of their practice. All staff know the child protection procedures and how to follow correct procedures if they have concerns about a child's welfare. Parents are all aware of the procedures that staff follow relating to child protection. Partnerships with other professionals and agencies are satisfactory and work to

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provision

support children attending with special educational needs and/or disabilities. This helps these children to make sound progress given their individual starting points. Partnerships with parents are satisfactory because staff share information about children's settling in and care. Some parents spoken to during the inspection are impressed with the care provided for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. However, not all parents are made aware of the progress children make in their development or encouraged to become involved in their learning to prepare them for school.

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The Childcare Register

The requirements for the compulsory part of the Childcare Register are

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actions)

The requirements for the voluntary part of the Childcare Register are

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To meet the requirements of the Childcare Register the provider must:

 ensure that a child is unable to leave the premises without a person who is caring for children on those premises becoming aware of the child leaving (compulsory part of the Childcare Register).  ensure that a child is unable to leave the premises unsupervised except where the childcare is open access childcare, or where the child is aged eight or over and the parent of the child has agreed that they may leave the provision unaccompanied (voluntary part of the Childcare Register).

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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 action. 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 EY335023 Local authority Brent Inspection number 918233

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 101 Number of children on roll 127 Name of provider London Borough of Brent Date of previous inspection 29/11/2010 Telephone number 02089376560

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Type of provision

set out in the guidance ‘Complaints procedure: 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, which are usually the childminder’s 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

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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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