Childminder in Kent

Inspection date

Previous inspection date 03/12/2013 07/05/2010

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early years provision

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

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This provision requires improvement

 The childminder builds sound relationships with the children, supporting their self- esteem and feeling of belonging.  Children are able to access the variety of resources from low-level storage enabling them to make choices.  The childminder offers a wide range of opportunities for children to socialise with other children and visit different places of interest, to explore their natural world.  Children have varied opportunities to use different materials for art and craft activities at toddler groups and in the childminder's home.

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It is not yet good because

 The childminder does not always effectively implement her behaviour management policy to manage children's behaviour using the 'time out' strategy.  The childminder does not evaluate the observations consistently to plan activities across the seven areas to provide challenging opportunities for each child.  The childminder is aware of some areas of her practice to develop, but has not developed an effective self-evaluation to inform her decision making.  Paperwork and documentation are not well organised and some documents are not kept updated.

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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 spent the majority of the inspection observing the childminder interacting with the children.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector held discussions with the childminder about behaviour management and safeguarding.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector sampled a range of documentation including relevant policies and procedures.

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Information about the setting

The childminder registered in 2009. She lives with her partner and two children in Larkfield, Aylesford, in Kent. The whole of the downstairs of the childminder's home is used for childminding and there is a fully enclosed garden for outside play.

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Information about the setting

The childminder is registered on the Early Years Register and on both the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. She currently has two children on roll in the early years age range. The childminder walks or drives to local schools to take and collect children. The childminder attends the local parent and toddler group.

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must:

 ensure children's behaviour is managed through the effective implementation of the behaviour management policy.

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

 develop the system of observation and assessment to identify children's next steps to provide challenging opportunities for each child, giving all areas of learning equal consideration

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

 extend the system of self-evaluation to identify the strengths and areas to develop to improve documentation and learning opportunities for children.

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who attend

Children play in a warm, child friendly environment where they are able to move around freely. They are able to access the variety of resources from the low-level storage containers. The childminder encourages children to lead their play, making choices or requests so they gain self-confidence and independence. The childminder sits with the children talking to them about what they are playing with, offering some new vocabulary. She listens to children, and where appropriate repeats their sentence back to them to support their communication and language skills. She encourages children to communicate and shows interest in what they have to tell her. The childminder asks some open-ended questions, to support children's understanding and to help develop their communication skills.

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who attend

The childminder is aware of children's different needs and learning styles, but does not always implement effective programmes to support those children that find it more challenging to comply with rules of the setting. As a result, this is not fully inclusive as some children do not have opportunities to make good progress in their learning or consistently have their individual needs met.

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who attend

Children enjoy a wide variety of outings and places to visit to extend their understanding of the natural and social world. The childminder takes children to country parks, local parks and toddler groups, providing frequent opportunities for children to meet others. This enables the children to take turns with the play equipment and to learn about sharing, helping to develop their personal and social skills. These frequent outings provide a range of physical play opportunities for the children to support them in developing their large muscle physical skills. Fine physical skills are encouraged through the use of a wide variety of different arts and crafts materials both indoors and at toddler groups. Consequently, children are able to develop their creativity.

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who attend

The childminder has a range of books accessible to the children and sits with them to read to develop their literacy skills. She offers different types of books to encourage children to handle books and show an interest in the stories. Mark making resources are accessible, although children see limited labels in their environment. For example, storage containers do not have words or pictures to help children know what is inside. Children are beginning to use mathematical language in their play. For example, children talk about the tiny puppy and the large lorry as they play with the small world resources. They are beginning to count with support from the childminder, although opportunities are missed in other play activities to promote children's numeracy skills.

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who attend

The childminder takes lots of photographs of the children playing and puts these in children's scrapbooks called 'My Story'. Alongside these she often writes a short caption to describe what the children were doing. The childminder has introduced summary assessments to monitor children's progress but does not carry these out frequently enough to be fully effective. Consequently, observations do not always identify the learning that has taken place. As a result, children's next steps are often not able to provide challenging opportunities to extend children's learning. The childminder has completed the required progress reports for two-year-olds. She has shared these with the parents and offered them to the health care professionals to support children's early learning and development through partnership working. Parents are able to see their child's 'My Story' books on request and contribute to a daily contact book, enabling

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who attend

appropriate two-way flow of information. Parents are given copies of policies for the setting and are asked to given written permission for aspects of care, promoting children's well-being.

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

The childminder builds sound relationships with the children helping them to develop their self-esteem and confidence. She encourages children to play together, to share the toys and to take turns. She has house rules in writing and has encouraged the older children to sit and write some rules themselves, to enable them to understand them. The childminder has a written behaviour policy in place, but does not always implement this effectively when using the 'time out strategy'. Consequently, on occasions this has become a punishment as opposed to a period to 'calm down' for some children, which has an impact on their welfare.

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

The childminder demonstrates an appropriate understanding about healthy eating and offers a range of healthy snacks and meals. The childminder encourages children to wash their hands helping them to learn the importance of personal care routines. The childminder offers children drinks throughout the day, generally with a choice of milk or water to promote a healthy diet. Children enjoy daily outdoor play and fresh air to support their healthy lifestyles. During outings the childminder keeps children safe by talking to them about dangers in their environment. She has carried out a basic risk assessment and has put appropriate measures in place within her home to protect children, such as safety film on low glass panes in internal doors.

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

The childminder provides a satisfactory range of toys and resources that are suitable for the ages of children attending. The majority of resources are easily accessible, with a few additional resources that the childminder rotates to provide children with a variety. Generally the toys are in good condition and provide for the seven areas of learning. The childminder supplements activities through attendance at various toddler groups throughout the week to extend children's learning through play experiences.

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

The childminder supports children in their move to pre-school or school and understands the importance of introducing children slowly to new experiences. She talks to the children about the changes they will experience and about the uniform, or school routine so they feel confident about such changes. Visits to the nursery and gradual introduction to the key person, enable children to settle into a different routine and environment. The childminder understands about helping children listen and concentrate and aims to provide these skills as they join in various activities to develop their preparation for school.

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provision

This inspection was brought forward because Ofsted received concerns about how the childminder managed children's behaviour and provides them with food. The inspection found that children eat regular healthy snacks and meals, and are encouraged to eat healthily. The childminder explained her procedures regarding additional food, that if children do not want their meals she gives them fruit but not any treats to eat. The childminder explained how she has used 'time out' to manage young children's unwanted behaviour. However, the length of time the childminder expects children to be left sitting in time out is inappropriate and used as a punishment rather than 'as a period of time to calm down'. Such practices do not reflect the childminder's written behaviour policy and do not promote children's well-being appropriately. Therefore notices to improve have been raised at this inspection relating to the early years requirements and to the Childcare

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provision

The childminder has a sound knowledge about protecting children in her care and of the procedures she would follow if she had any concerns about the welfare of children in her care. She has a basic written policy in place and contact details for outside agencies to help her in her protection of children. The childminder keeps written records of accidents and incidents and understands why this is important, as part of her ongoing safeguarding measures to protect children. She supports children in keeping themselves safe, such as not running on the wooden floor with socks on indoors in case children slip over.

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provision

The childminder has not completed a self-evaluation, although she has a satisfactory understanding of her strengths and weaknesses. She has addressed a previous action and now has an appropriate medication policy and procedures in place. She identified the weakness in her documentation, but is not aware of the weakness with observations and planning. Consequently systems to monitor the provision are not fully robust to be effective in improving outcomes for children.

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provision

The childminder develops relationships with other providers involved in the children's care to meet each child's needs. She shares information with providers about children's development after seeking permission from parents but does not consistently use it to further extend children's individual learning and development needs.

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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's behaviour is managed in a suitable manner (Compulsory 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 EY402466 Local authority Kent Inspection number 942292 Type of provision Childminder Registration category Childminder Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 4 Number of children on roll 2

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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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