Childminder in HertfordshireOfsted inspection, 5 Nov 2013

Inspection date

Previous inspection date 05/11/2013 05/05/2009

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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 provider is not aware of what each child's development needs are. As a result, she is not able to plan activities for children, which are suitable and help them progress. This means that children's future learning is not adequately promoted.  The provider does not take effective steps to ensure potential risks to children are minimised, both indoors and while on outings. This means she does not ensure the safety and well-being of the children in her care.  The provider does not actively try to involve parents or other settings children attend in their learning. As a result, children's continuity of learning is not adequately supported.  The provider sometimes uses inappropriate behaviour management techniques. This does not support children's self-esteem and confidence.  The provider has an extremely poor knowledge and understanding of how to safeguard children. This has a direct impact on the safety and well-being of children in her care.

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It has the following strengths

 The provider organises opportunities for children to access outdoor play, which helps them to develop their coordination and balance.

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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 taking part in activities on the ground floor of the provider's home.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector looked through a range of relevant documentation including the provider's policies, procedures and children's development records.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector held a wide range of discussions with the provider and interacted with minded children.  The inspector carried out a joint observation with the provider.

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Information about the setting

The childminder was registered in 2005 and is on the Early Years Register and the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. She lives with her husband and two children aged 16 and 14 years in a house in Welwyn, Hertfordshire. The whole of the premises and the rear garden is used for childminding. The family has a pet dog. The childminder attends a toddler group and activities at the local children's centre. She visits the shops and park on a regular basis. The childminder collects children from the local schools and pre-schools.

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Information about the setting

The childminder operates all year round from 7.30am until 6.30pm. There are currently five children on roll in the early years age group who attend for a variety of sessions. The childminder is a member of the Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years.

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must:

 make sure that the premises are fit for purpose by ensuring that they are safe for children to use and are secure. This particularly relates to ensuring children are unable to access hazardous items and that they cannot leave the premises unsupervised

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must:

 ensure risk assessments of the home and outings are reviewed regularly, that they identify aspects of the environment that need to be checked on a regular basis and how risks will be removed or minimised. Ensure these are implemented effectively in practice

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must:

 improve the daily experience of children in the early years setting by updating training, skills and knowledge of the Early Years Foundation Stage

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must:

 promote the good health of children by ensuring that they learn about and adopt good hygiene practices to ensure the risk of cross-infection is reduced; this particularly relates to the use of using a shared towel in the bathroom

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must:

 ensure that behaviour management strategies used do not adversely affect children's well-being; this refers in particular to methods of exclusion linked to periods of time out

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must:

 ensure that precise ongoing assessment and planning is undertaken as an integral part of the learning and development process in order to understand children's level of achievement, and shape learning experiences for each child reflecting those observations

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must:

 ensure that parents are actively engaged in order to support them in guiding their child's development at home

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must:

 put in place arrangements for sharing information and partnership working with other providers that children attend, in order to fully support their learning and development.

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who attend

The provider shows an inadequate understanding of the requirements of the Statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. Observations and assessments of children's development are inaccurate. This is because the provider does not have up-to- date knowledge of the seven areas of learning and development. This leads to the planning of activities which are not securely based on children's individual learning needs. As a result, they are not sufficiently challenged by the quality of teaching given their age, abilities and starting points. Consequently, children are not gaining all the necessary skills to prepare them for their next stage of learning, such as moving onto school.

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who attend

Children are able to easily reach some toys and resources. These are organised by the provider and are located on the ground floor of her home and in the rear garden. The provider is aware of children's current interests and ensures that she provides resources which reflect these. For example, they have fun playing with small world play figures and a train set. Physical development and problem solving is encouraged by the provider as children learn how to successfully join one train carriage to another. Children involve the provider in some of their games, however, at times she fails to recognise the need to step back and let children explore their own ideas. As a result children do not have uninterrupted time to lead their own play, which inhibits their active learning. For example, the provider tries to impose new storylines into imaginary play, which children firmly reject.

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who attend

Children's language development is supported by the provider who encourages them to express their thoughts and feelings. For example, when they show interest in looking at photographs of past activities. The provider uses appropriate teaching opportunities to introduce mathematical language, such as 'tall' to describe children's creations. She also encourages children to identify a range of sounds at the beginning of words. However, her lack of understanding of the characteristics of effective teaching and learning does not ensure that teaching strategies securely meet each child's level of understanding.

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who attend

The provider's communication with parents focuses on care practices. For example, how children have spent their time in her care. This does not ensure that prior to or during placement, information about each child's learning and development needs is exchanged. As a result the provider is not aware of what children know and parents are not given secure information about their child's progress. This impacts adversely on both the provider's and parents' ability to support and guide children's individual learning.

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

The provider talks to parents about their child's personal care needs before they start attending her service. This helps her to gain an understanding of each child enabling her to prepare her setting in order to support continuity of care. A verbal exchange of information with parents helps the provider to support children's ongoing care needs. Children form sound relationships with the provider. However, she does not effectively promote children's understanding of safe practices. For example, the provider does not effectively teach children how to keep themselves safe on the journey to and from school or nursery. Children move around the provider's home with confidence, showing that they feel safe and secure in the environment. However, the provider has failed to implement adequate safety measures in her home. For example, sharp knives are not made inaccessible to children and some areas of the house, such as the upstairs bedroom

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

contain unsuitable items. This places children at risk of harm and results in them gaining a false sense of security. At times, children take part in emergency evacuations, which helps them to develop an understanding of what to do in the event of a fire. The provider does not always support children to develop their independent skills as they are not able to readily plan, lead, and conclude, their own play. This does not effectively support their emotional well-being to help prepare them for the move to school.

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

At times the provider's behaviour management techniques are not always entirely appropriate. For example, on occasions, when behaviour is inappropriate, children aged three years and over are required to sit on the stairs in time out. Children are supervised to ensure that they wash their hands at pertinent times, such as after using the toilet and before meals. However, the provider's use of a communal towel for hand drying increases the risk of cross-infection between children, and limits their learning about effective hygiene practices. Children are provided with opportunities to access fresh air and vigorous play. For example, they are able to move independently between the provider's home and garden, weather permitting. This helps them to develop some understanding about healthy lifestyles.

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provision

This inspection took place due to a concern received by Ofsted regarding child supervision and risk assessments on outings and concerns about the behaviour management of children. The inspection found that the childminder usually demonstrates an awareness of the importance of assessing and minimising identified risks to children when walking children from school. However, there has been one incident when a child nearly stepped off the pavement at a pelican crossing as she was not holding the childminder's hand. In addition, she has failed to prevent young children's easy access to hazardous items and she does not take effective steps to ensure that her home is secure. As a result, children's safety and welfare is not sufficiently protected. This is a breach of the welfare requirements and of the requirements for the Childcare Register. The provider has a current paediatric first aid qualification, which means she is appropriately trained to

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provision

provide emergency treatment to children should an accident occur. The provider has completed training in safeguarding, which ensures that she remains up-to-date with current practice. A sound policy is in place, which shows her general understanding of child protection procedures and includes a mobile phone and camera policy. The provider demonstrates an appropriate understanding of child ratios, and events and changes that must be notified to Ofsted.

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provision

The provider shows a poor understanding of how to successfully implement the learning and development requirements. She has failed to address a recommendation raised at the last inspection, which has led to breaches in requirements linked to children's welfare. Inadequate monitoring of the learning and development requirements demonstrates the provider's lack of commitment towards improvement. The provider has undertaken appropriate training at a degree level since her last inspection. However, she has failed to apply her knowledge and understanding to improve her practice and the quality of teaching. This has a significant impact on children's progress towards the early learning goals. As a result, the educational programmes provided are ineffective because they do not adequately meet the needs of those children attending.

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provision

The childminder is on the partnership board of the local Children's centre and works alongside other professionals, such as the police and teachers to promote improvements for children within the local community. She is beginning to share information with other settings that children attend. For example, she joins in sharing sessions at the local nursery when parents are unable to attend. However, she does not always actively promote a two-way exchange of information with them regarding children's learning and development. Although information is shared with parents daily this mainly focuses on children's care needs and not on their learning. As a result, parents are not provided with ideas of activities children have enjoyed to further promote and extend their learning at home.

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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 children receiving childcare are kept safe from harm (compulsory part of the Childcare Register)  ensure the premises used for the purposes of the childcare are safe and suitable for that childcare (compulsory part of the Childcare Register)  ensure that a child is unable to leave the premises unsupervised (compulsory part of the Childcare Register)  undertake a risk assessment of the premises and equipment at least once in each calendar year, and immediately where the need for an assessment arises. Ensure that all necessary measures are taken to minimise any identified risks (compulsory part of the Childcare Register)  ensure that children's behaviour is managed in a suitable manner (compulsory part of the Childcare Register)  ensure that children receiving childcare are kept safe from harm (voluntary part of the Childcare Register)  ensure the premises used for the purposes of the childcare are safe and suitable for

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

that childcare (voluntary part of the Childcare Register)  ensure that a child is unable to leave the premises unsupervised except 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)  undertake a risk assessment of the premises and equipment at least once in each calendar year, and immediately where the need for an assessment arises. Ensure that all necessary measures are taken to minimise any identified risks (voluntary part of the Childcare Register)  ensure that children's behaviour is managed in a suitable manner (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 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 EY305309 Local authority Hertfordshire Inspection number 941449 Type of provision Childminder Registration category Childminder Age range of children 0 - 17 Total number of places 6 Number of children on roll 11

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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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