Childminder in Lincolnshire

Inspection date

Previous inspection date 12/12/2013 10/01/2013

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early years provision

This inspection: 4 Previous inspection: 2 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 childminder is not promoting children's care, learning and development as children spend long periods of time in motor vehicles when collecting older children from school. This prevents him from providing children with active, purposeful learning experiences covering all areas.  Questioning of children is not always fully effective and regular outings are undertaken on a weekly basis, with no regard given to the planning of these in relation to children's developmental needs and interest. This results in inconsistent teaching, which hinders children's progress.  The childminder is not overseeing the work of the assistant to ensure she is implementing all required hygiene procedures appropriately to ensure children's health is not compromised. He is also not monitoring his paperwork to fully ensure public liability insurance is always maintained to fully safeguard children.  Performance management procedures to support the continued development of

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This provision is inadequate

everyone working with children through supervisions and appraisals, are not consistently implemented. This results in the future training needs of the childminder and all people working with children not being identified to aid their continuous professional development.

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It has the following strengths

 The childminder conducts home visits to ease children's transition into the childminding provision. This helps children to feel settled and secure in his care.

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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 compulsory part 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 inside and outside in the play hut.  The inspector conducted a joint observation with the childminder.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector spoke with the childminder, the co-childminders, the assistant and children at appropriate times throughout the inspection.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector checked evidence of suitability and qualifications of the childminder, the co-childminder and the assistant. She also looked at the childminder's records including observational assessments of children.

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Information about the setting

The childminder was registered in 2009 on the Early Years Register and the compulsory part of the Childcare Register. He lives with his wife who is a co-childminder and two children teenage children in a house in Scotter, Gainsborough. He uses the whole of the premises including an outdoor wooden building and the rear garden for childminding. The childminder's wife is a registered childminder and he also works with another childminder and an assistant at different times. Only three people can ever work together at any one time when providing a childminding service. The family has a dog, two cats and a kitten as pets.

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Information about the setting

The childminder attends the local children's centre and visits the local shops and park on a regular basis. He also collects children from school. There are currently 12 children on roll, of whom six children are in the early years age group and attend for a variety of sessions. He is open all year round from 6.30am to 7.30pm from Monday to Friday, except for bank holidays, Christmas week and family holidays. The childminder also provides overnight care in an emergency.

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must:

 ensure the care of older children does not adversely affect the care and learning of early years children, specifically relating to minimising the amount of time younger children spend in vehicles during the course of the day, especially when older children are being collected from school

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must:

 ensure the individual needs, interests and stage of development of each child are considered when planning outings, to ensure children are provided with a range of challenging and purposeful experiences which promote all areas of learning

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must:

 ensure assistants meet all requirements and are competent in the areas of work they undertake, with specific regard to following procedures to minimise cross infection to protect children's good health at nappy changing times

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must:

 conduct regular supervisions and appraisals on all people working with children so that care and teaching practice is effectively monitored so that appropriate levels of coaching, support and training are provided to improve all childminder's and assistants skills and knowledge.

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

 extend older children's language, communication and critical thinking skills by asking open-ended questions to encourage children to respond with their own thoughts and ideas

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

 develop procedures to monitor paperwork and records to fully ensure public liability insurance is always maintained.

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who attend

Children's active learning is not promoted at all times because teaching is inconsistent, and therefore, ineffective overall. This prevents children from making good progress in all areas of learning. The childminder has failed to consider the impact of doing so many different school runs for older children, on younger children's care and learning. Children regularly spend long periods of time in vehicles during these school runs, resulting in them being unable to engage in purposeful, well-planned activities which support their development. The childminder has also failed to consider the benefit of any outings children go on. Outings are often inappropriate for the age and stage of development of all children, resulting in inadequate teaching and learning experiences. For example, all children go bowling and to a martial arts sessions every week. These activities are better suited to school age children and while they provide some younger children with

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who attend

opportunities to develop their social skills and to learn about self-control, the learning provided week after week is limited. Some children choose not to engage at all in these activities and some children like babies, are unable to fully engage due to the complete inappropriateness of the experience. The childminder is, therefore, not using the information he has gained through observational assessments to identify and plan appropriate experiences to support children's progress and development in all areas.

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who attend

The childminder uses a computerised observational assessment system to monitor children's progress from their starting points. Parents freely access this information and share their own information back with the childminder about their children's interests from home. This enables parents to engage in their child's ongoing learning. The childminder uses all of this information and his knowledge about the child to identify some appropriate next steps for learning. However, these next steps are only used when planning activities within the home and as the childminder regularly undertakes outings most days, this results in children not being effectively challenged. Children like playing in the warm and welcoming inside and outside play spaces. An enclosed outside hut provides children with extra developmentally appropriate play resources to choose from. For example, babies enjoy crawling into a small ball pool and older children use their imagination when they

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who attend

use a battery operated steering wheel to go on a journey. The childminder supports children to make play dough, helping them to learn about how things can change. However, while children actively engage in the experience and while children do communicate with the childminder and each other, their learning and skills are not fully extended in all areas. This is because the childminder asks closed questions or he gives the child the answer without questioning them to examine whether they already hold the knowledge. For example, when asking which bowl the children would like to use when making play dough, he advises them that the bowl is the 'big' bowl and when he is adding the ingredients into the bowl he often states the number of things but does not asks children to count or to estimate how many they will need. This prevents the child from further developing their critical thinking, language and communication skills in preparation

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

Children are settled and happy in the childminder's care. As he works with other people providing his childminding service, each child is assigned a key person who works with the child and their family to ensure children's specific needs are met in line with their backgrounds and beliefs. The childminder conducts home visits with new children to support their transition into his care. This helps children to settle quite well as they develop secure emotional attachments to the childminder. Children relate well to the childminder and they enjoy the company of their peers as they begin to form friendships and play cooperatively with each other. Children's good behaviour is promoted through the childminder using positive behaviour management strategies.

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

Children's well-being is not effectively promoted through the implementation of clear practices and procedures. This provides children with inconsistent messages, which prevents them from learning about how to keep themselves healthy. For example, although the childminder encourages children to develop appropriate health and hygiene practices during the daily routine, the assistant does provide a positive example of this when she changes children's nappies. Children are provided with outdoor play opportunities, which promotes their well-being but the childminder does not effectively plan these experiences. Children learn to keep themselves safe through relevant discussions, activities and positive reinforcement.

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

Information is shared with children's new class teachers to support their transition to school. Children are helped to feel emotionally secure and ready for this move as the childminder holds discussions with them about starting school.

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provision

The childminder is not meeting some of the requirements of the Statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage, resulting in quality standards for care and learning not being maintained. Children are adequately safeguarded through the childminder's mainly suitable practices and procedures. For example, potential hazards are identified and minimised through risk assessments and children are continually supervised to ensure they remain safe. The childminder has a suitable child protection policy and he has a sound awareness of procedures to follow to protect children from risk of harm. The childminder is aware of ensuring everyone is suitable to work or be in contact with children as he follows requirements to notify Ofsted of all people living and working in the home. This ensures all relevant suitability checks are undertaken. The childminder acts on any information given about the conduct of these people working with children, investigating

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provision

and completing any disciplinary procedures as necessary to safeguard children. However, while the childminder mainly implements his suitable policies and procedures, he is failing to oversee the work of his assistant to ensure she is also competently doing this in all areas. The assistant is ineffectively changing children's nappies by placing children onto the same nappy change mat without wiping it down and by not washing her hands between changing different children's nappies. This compromises children's health as the risk of cross infection is not minimised. Although the childminder now holds current public liability insurance to protect children's welfare, this had lapsed and was only identified during the inspection process as the childminder is not fully monitoring his own records.

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provision

The childminder has completed relevant training for childminding and he holds a current paediatric first-aid certificate, which enables him to provide some appropriate care for children. However, monitoring and evaluation of the childminder's whole provision, including the educational programmes, is ineffective. Significant weaknesses and clear targets for further development have not been identified to support continuous improvement in all areas. Teaching is inconsistent and outings are not planned with children's developmental needs and interests in mind. Children spend long periods of time travelling in vehicles because the childminder has chosen to collect older children from so many different schools. This is having a negative impact on children's overall level of care provided and is resulting in inadequate learning experiences being promoted. Ongoing and regular appraisals and supervisions are not conducted on the childminder or on the other

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provision

adults working with children. This results in their future training needs not been identified and each person not being provided with support and coaching to further develop their childcare knowledge and skills.

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provision

The childminder shares and exchanges relevant information with parents and other providers to provide children with some continuity of care and learning. Discussions and accessible information on the computerised system the childminder uses, provides parents with suitable information on their child's daily care routines and ongoing progress.

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The Childcare Register

The requirements for the compulsory 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 Requires improvement The provision is not giving children a good standard of early years education and/or there are minor breaches of the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage. It will be monitored and inspected within twelve months of the date of this inspection. 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

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Grade Judgement Description

the Early Years Foundation Stage. It will be monitored and inspected again within six months of the date of this inspection. 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 EY391948 Local authority Lincolnshire Inspection number 946603 Type of provision Childminder Registration category Childminder Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 12 Number of children on roll 12

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Telephone number

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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