Kindred Harlow

Dizzy Ducks Day Nursery Ltd Harlow Leisurezone, Second Avenue, HARLOW, Essex, CM20 3DT

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 22/08/2013 16/05/2013

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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

 The provider shows a lack of understanding of responsibilities, as they are in breach of a number of the learning and development, and safeguarding and welfare requirements of the Statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. Therefore, a number of actions have been raised.  Observation and assessment of children's learning is weak. Staff lack sufficient knowledge of how to assess children's learning and development. This means that they are unable to plan activities for children which meet their needs and help them progress.  Insufficient information is gathered from parents about care needs and starting points for children's learning. Parents have limited opportunities to share learning from home to enable them to work together with staff in supporting their children's development.  Some staff lack the skills and knowledge and a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities when working with children.

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This provision is inadequate

 Self-evaluation is not effectively used to inform the setting's priorities and set challenging targets to secure continuous improvement.

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It has the following strengths

 Children make good use of the outdoor play area to develop their physical skills and have fun with friends.

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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 inspector observed children's play and staff interaction, indoors and outside.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector held discussions with the provider, Head of Early Years, manager and staff throughout the inspection.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector, Head of Early Years and manager undertook a joint observation of a teaching activity.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector looked at children's assessment records, planning documentation, the provider's self-evaluation form and a range of other documentation.

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Information about the setting

Dizzy Ducks Nursery was registered in 2010 and is on the Early Years Register and the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. It operates from the ground floor of a community leisure centre in Harlow, Essex. There is an enclosed area available for outdoor play. The nursery serves the local area and is accessible to all children. The nursery employs 11 members of childcare staff. Of these, four hold appropriate early years qualifications at level 2 and six at level 3.

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Information about the setting

The nursery opens Monday to Friday, all year round. Sessions are from 7am until 7pm. Children attend for a variety of sessions. There are currently 177 children attending who are in the early years age group. The nursery provides funded early education for two-, three- and four-year-old children.

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enforcement action:

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

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enforcement action:

ensure that written records are kept of all medicine administered to children and provide training for staff where the administration of medicine requires medical or technical knowledge

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enforcement action:

implement a policy and procedure for administering medicines. It must include systems for obtaining information about a child's needs for medicines and for keeping this information up-to-date

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must:

 ensure observations and assessments are carried out and kept up-to-date, to enable staff to understand children's level of achievement, interests and learning styles, and to then effectively plan challenging learning experiences for each child reflecting those observations

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must:

 develop the planning to ensure that educational activities for children promote their development across all seven areas of learning with the provision of challenging adult-led and child-initiated activities

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must:

 improve the two-way exchange of information with parents and carers to help ensure the needs of all children are met

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must:

 implement effective performance management systems to improve the supervision of staff and to monitor staff's ability and suitability to fulfil requirements of their roles working with children

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must:

 ensure that all staff have appropriate training, skills and knowledge, and a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities within the requirements of the Statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage

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must:

 ensure that children are provided with meals that are healthy, balanced and nutritious and that children's special dietary requirements are met.

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must:

 ensure that providers inform parents and carers how they can share learning at home.

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

 improve the focus of self-evaluation to inform the nursery's priorities and set challenging targets to secure continuous improvement.

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who attend

Staff have a poor understanding of the Early Years Foundation Stage requirements. As a result, educational programmes do not provide all children with a range of interesting opportunities across all seven areas of learning. Observation, assessment and planning are ineffective, as staff do not cover the areas of learning to ensure that children make good progress towards the early learning goals. Observations are infrequent and staff do not use them to shape individual learning experiences. This does not ensure that all children are effectively supported and challenged to make progress in learning given their age, abilities and starting points. In addition, insufficient information is gathered from parents about their child's interests and what their child can do before they start in the nursery. This means that staff are unable to plan initial activities or experiences to effectively promote children's learning. Strategies to engage parents in children's learning are weak.

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who attend

Information exchange is informal and focuses on care issues and how children have spent their time in the nursery. This does not keep parents adequately informed about their child's progress or provide them with the ideas to support learning at home.

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who attend

Children settle well on arrival and demonstrate that they are happy in the care of the staff. New children are given time to explore their surroundings at their own pace, and staff interact with them at appropriate times. While some staff demonstrate sound teaching techniques, this is not consistent across the staff team. For example, in the older children's room, some staff lack enthusiasm, resulting in poor engagement with children. Therefore, children lack support and motivation to become interested in activities and explore resources, which adversely affects the behaviour of some children.

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who attend

Children's language development is adequately fostered. Staff interact sufficiently well to support children's growing vocabulary. For example, they encourage children to name the different animals as they complete a jigsaw puzzle together. They look at books together and staff use routine occasions, such as snack time, to chat with children about their experiences. However, some planned activities do not meet the individual needs of all children because staff do not have sufficient understanding of how to implement the educational programme for children's personal, social and emotional development. For example, younger children join a large group of children for singing and story time, because staff think this will encourage their communication and language development. The group time is ineffective. It is too long for some children's stage of development. The group size is too large and some younger children are tired. This results in younger

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who attend

children crying, losing interest and staff raising their voices to sing above increasing noise levels to be heard. This activity fails to meet some children's emotional needs. It does not provide them with suitably challenging activities, which are relative to their stage of development. In addition, this means that children are not effectively prepared for future learning and the move to school when the time comes.

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who attend

At times during the session, older children have the opportunity to play outdoors. They enjoy using large play equipment, such as, bikes and other wheeled toys. This supports their developing physical skills. For example, they learn how to move forwards and backwards on bikes and to manoeuvre wheeled toys around obstacles in their path. In addition, children have fun taking part in role play, using their imagination to create real and imagined experiences. For example, they play going to the shops with their friends to buy food for dinner.

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

Children develop warm relationships with staff, who are generally kind and caring. A key person system is in place. However, it is not fully effective as limited information is gathered from parents when children first start and they are not encouraged to share their child's learning at home. This means that children do not reach their full potential in learning.

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

Adequate strategies are in place to manage children's behaviour, and staff encourage sharing and turn-taking in preparation for school life. Children are praised when they do well, which generally builds self-esteem and confidence, such as, when young children demonstrate independent counting in activities. Children's safety is promoted well. They learn how to keep themselves safe, such as by handling scissors correctly, and participate in regular fire drills. Complying with these expectations means children have some emerging skills to underpin their eventual move to school. Staff provide a suitably safe environment as they complete daily risk assessments to ensure both the indoor and outdoor play environments are free of hazards.

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

A range of healthy snacks are provided and children have access to fresh drinking water as and when required. Some staff have also completed food hygiene training, which means that food provided at snack time is prepared safely. However, on occasions, children's meals are not sufficiently balanced and nutritious to meet the dietary requirements for all children. This means the individual needs of some children are not met and children are not supported to develop a good understanding of a healthy lifestyle. Young children learn the importance of hand-washing before snack time to prevent the spread of germs. Outdoor play is incorporated into the daily routine so all children spend time enjoying the fresh air.

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

Young children are supported to move within the setting through regular visits into the older children's room. This helps them to become familiar with the environment and staff, which supports a smooth transition between rooms. Children's move to school is managed appropriately. There are plans to further develop links with local schools by visiting them and inviting school staff into the nursery.

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provision

The inspection was brought forward by Ofsted due to a number of concerns raised. The leadership and management of the pre-school is inadequate. The management team do not demonstrate a full understanding of their responsibilities in meeting the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the Statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage.

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provision

Recruitment procedures ensure staff are safe and suitable to work with the children, as criminal record checks are carried out and references obtained. Staff have a sound knowledge and understanding of the safeguarding children procedures and have completed training to ensure their knowledge is up-to-date. Staff are vigilant about the security of the premises and check all visitors before entry. They supervise children appropriately and carry out daily safety checks to ensure areas the children use are safe. However, breaches in welfare requirements mean that children's health and well-being are not fully protected. While a wide range of relevant policies and procedures are in place, they are not always implemented in practice; for example, written records are not kept of all medicines administered to children. This is also a breach of requirements in the Childcare Register. A number of staff have undertaken paediatric first aid training, which

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provision

enables them to provide appropriate care should a child have an accident at nursery. However, they demonstrate insufficient skills, in the event of an emergency, to administer medicine that requires technical knowledge. Consequently, children's health and well- being is not fully protected.

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provision

Annual appraisals of staff are undertaken and are informed by monitoring practice, occasional informal meetings and staff evaluation of their own practice. However, these systems are ineffective because they fail to identify and address inconsistent practice and training needs. Insufficient focus is placed on the staffs' professional development and improving outcomes for children. Consequently, some staff lack the appropriate skills to support their practice. This results in the delivery of inadequate educational programmes, which fail to meet the needs of children attending. Feedback regarding practice issues is sought from the local authority development officer. The nursery also works in partnership with outside agencies supporting children with additional needs when they are in attendance.

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provision

Staff develop appropriate relationships with parents, and there is a clear exchange of information about their children's day at collection time. Parents speak well of the nursery, and the staff and are happy with the care provided. While self-evaluation is undertaken, it is inadequate because it is not appropriately targeted to identify strengths and weaknesses across all areas of practice. Action taken to identify areas of weakness, for example, improving observation, assessment and planning, is ineffective. As a result, children make poor progress in their learning.

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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:

 keep records and retain them for a period of two years of any medicine administered to any child who is cared for on the premises, including the date and circumstances and who administered it, including medicine which the child is permitted to self-administer, together with a record of a parent/guardian/carer's consent (compulsory part of the Childcare Register)  keep records and retain them for a period of two years of any medicine administered to any child who is cared for on the premises, including the date and circumstances and who administered it, including medicine which the child is permitted to self-administer, together with a record of a parent/guardian/carer's consent (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 EY399612 Local authority Essex Inspection number 927611

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Type of provision

Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 17 Total number of places 40 Number of children on roll 177 Name of provider Dizzy Ducks Day Nursery Ltd Date of previous inspection 16/05/2013 Telephone number 01279454495

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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

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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