Hopscotch Nursery

Hopscotch Nursery The Old School, Church Street, SEAFORD, East Sussex, BN25 1HH

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 18/12/2014 16/06/2014

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early years provision

This inspection: 4 Previous inspection: 4 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

 Leaders and managers have failed to identify the weaknesses in practice. This means they do not have an accurate view of the quality of the provision.  Staff do not consistently follow appropriate hygiene procedures before all meals to protect children against infection.  Staff do not always use information about children’s development to plan for their progress across all areas of learning. As a result, children do not make the best possible progress.  Leaders and managers fail to follow procedures to protect children. Insufficient improvement has been made in safeguarding children since the last inspection. As a result, vulnerable children are not kept safe.

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It has the following strengths

 Staff and children have positive relationships. As a result, children feel secure and confident in the nursery.  Staff develop children’s language and communication skills well.

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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 conducted a joint observation with the manager of the nursery.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector scrutinised a range of documents, including children’s records, policies and recruitment records.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector conducted a management meeting with the nursery manager and area manager.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector observed children throughout all age groups and held discussions with staff.  The inspector spoke to parents and viewed parent feedback records.

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Information about the setting

Hopscotch Nursery in Seaford registered in 2012. It is one of five privately-owned nurseries. It operates from eight rooms in a converted building in the centre of Seaford in East Sussex. The setting provides part-time and full-time care and offers a 'Kids' Club' for children up to the age of eight. This includes a breakfast club and a holiday scheme during all school holidays. The provision is open each weekday from 8am to 5.30pm for 51 weeks of the year. All children have access to an enclosed outdoor play area.

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Information about the setting

The setting is registered on the Early Years Register and the compulsory part of the Childcare Register. There are currently 101 children attending in the early years age group. The setting supports children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and children who are learning to speak English as a second language.

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Information about the setting

The provision employs 16 members of staff. Of these, 12 staff, including the manager, hold appropriate early years qualifications and one member of staff holds qualified teacher status.

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The provision is inadequate and Ofsted intends to take the following

ensure all staff have a detailed understanding of the Government's statutory guidance ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children 2013’, enabling them to notify agencies with statutory responsibilities without delay

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The provision is inadequate and Ofsted intends to take the following

ensure that the designated lead practitioner with responsibility for safeguarding children provides support, advice and guidance to staff, understands and responds appropriately to signs of possible abuse and neglect and liaises with local statutory children's services agencies promptly when concerns are raised about a child’s welfare

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must:

 ensure all staff have a detailed understanding of the Government's statutory guidance ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children 2013’, enabling them to notify agencies with statutory responsibilities without delay

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must:

 ensure that the designated lead practitioner with responsibility for safeguarding children provides support, advice and guidance to staff, understands and responds appropriately to signs of possible abuse and neglect and liaises with local statutory children's services agencies promptly when concerns are raised about a child’s welfare

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must:

 ensure staff consistently use individual flannels to wipe each child’s face and hands before and after meal times to protect children against infection

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must:

 ensure the individual needs, interests, and stage of development of each child is consistently taken into account when planning nursery activities to provide a challenging and enjoyable experience for every child across all areas of learning and development.

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

 Make better use of procedures to monitor the quality of practice and staff performance to enable leaders and managers to drive improvement at a faster rate.

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who attend

Staff monitor children's ongoing development by observing them throughout their time at the nursery and assessing their progress. They use an electronic system which allows them to share the information with parents, and enables parents to add comments and observations. This approach supports continuity in children’s progress and development. Although these systems enable staff to collate useful information, they do not consistently use the information to plan activities that provide children with challenges to enable them to make the best possible progress. Therefore, the educational programmes require improvement.

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who attend

Staff sing to babies and encourage their language and communication skills by making eye contact and talking clearly to help them understand. Staff ask children questions and give them time to think through their ideas and share their thoughts. For example, while playing in the garden, they ask children why the scarves they are holding move in the air. Children talk about the direction of the wind and how this affects the movement of the scarves. Children enjoy a good range of activities in the outdoor area. Staff are mindful to provide a varied range of resources for them to choose from, such as books to read quietly and creative activities to explore.

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who attend

Staff teach toddlers to be independent, offering sufficient support, but also encouraging them to try things out for themselves. At lunchtime, toddlers select their own cutlery and tidy away after themselves. These experiences enable them to gain confidence and become independent.

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who attend

Older children enjoy taking part in mathematical activities where they sort toys according to size, shape and colour. Staff introduce mathematical language to encourage children to think and talk about quantities, sizes, position and distance. Other children enjoy taking part in educational computer games, where they navigate around programmes and solve problems. Staff praise their efforts, which encourages them to keep trying. These experiences enable children to gain useful skills in preparation for starting school.

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

Care practices are inadequate because the provider fails to comply with the welfare and safeguarding requirements. During the inspection, three babies had their hands wiped with the same cleaning cloth used for wiping tables. This poor approach to promoting children's health and well-being poses a risk of cross contamination and the spreading of germs. Although there are individual face cloths available for each child, staff do not consistently apply this policy and this puts children’s health at risk.

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

Children enjoy a variety of fruits and vegetables at snack time and meal times are social occasions, where children and staff chat together. Most other aspects of the daily routines support children’s understanding of good hygiene. Children enjoy a range of exciting experiences in the newly-refurbished outdoor play area. They run around in the fresh air and develop their skills in climbing and balancing using a good range of equipment.

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

Each child has a designated person who gets to know them and helps them to settle in when they start at the nursery. The key person system enables all children to form trusting relationships with staff, which means that children seek support and cuddles from staff when needed. Staff encourage children's positive behaviour by praising them throughout the daily routine. Children are prepared sufficiently well for changes in the routine and moving to different age groups. This support helps children to feel confident and reassured.

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provision

The nursery owner fails to comply with the welfare and safeguarding requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage. Arrangements for safeguarding children are inadequate. The designated person for child protection does not act on information shared by staff to liaise with local statutory children's services agencies when necessary. This means insufficient action is taken promptly to keep children safe. The nursery’s senior leaders were found to have failed to follow the correct safeguarding procedures at the previous inspection. This failure to comply with safeguarding procedures is also a breach of the requirements of the Childcare register.

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provision

The management team has systems to evaluate the quality of the provision. However, these systems have not sufficiently identified the weaknesses across the provision. As a result, they have not helped the nursery to make appropriate improvements since the last inspection.

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provision

The nursery’s management team conduct appraisals and regular supervision of staff. Along with the local authority, the manager has worked hard to help staff to drive some improvements in the educational programmes. These improvements are evident across the provision and all age groups. Consequently, staff are skilled at supporting some aspects of children's development. The management team oversees the newly- implemented systems for observation, assessment and planning for children’s learning. However, senior managers have failed to identify that staff do not plan consistently well using the information from assessments. This hinders children’s learning and the progress some children make.

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provision

Staff work in partnership with other early years settings; for example, preparing information to share when children move on to school. Teachers from local schools visit the nursery and this helps children to settle more quickly when starting school. Communication with parents is good. Parents express their appreciation for staff's caring and kind approach. They say that staff share information about their children’s development well.

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The Childcare Register

The requirements for the compulsory part of the Childcare Register are

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

 ensure that the lead practitioner responsible for the safety and welfare of children identifies and acts on any indications that a child may be suffering from harm and liaises with with local statutory children's services agencies as appropriate.

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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. We re-inspect nurseries and pre-schools judged as requires improvement within 12 months of the date of 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

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Grade Judgement Description

is not meeting the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage. It will be monitored and inspected again within six months of the date of this inspection. Met There were no children present at the time of the inspection. The inspection judgement is that the provider continues to meet the requirements for registration. Not met There were no children present at the time of the inspection. 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 EY455749 Local authority East Sussex Inspection number 1000263 Type of provision Full-time provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 92 Number of children on roll 101 Name of provider ACPH Limited Date of previous inspection 16/06/2014 Telephone number 01323 492 123

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Setting details

set out in the guidance ‘Complaints procedure: raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk.

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Type of provision

For the purposes of this inspection the following definitions apply:

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Type of provision

Full-time provision is that which operates for more than three hours. These are usually known as nurseries, nursery schools and pre-schools and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. They are registered on the Early Years Register and pay the higher fee for registration.

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Type of provision

Sessional provision operates for more than two hours but does not exceed three hours in any one day. These are usually known as pre-schools, kindergartens or nursery schools and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. They are registered on the Early Years Register and pay the lower fee for registration.

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Type of provision

Childminders care for one or more children where individual children attend for a period of more than two hours in any one day. They operate from domestic premises, which are usually the childminder’s own home. They are registered on the Early Years Register and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage.

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Type of provision

Out of school provision may be sessional or full-time provision and is delivered before or after school and/or in the summer holidays. They are registered on the Early Years Register and must deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. Where children receive their Early Years Foundation Stage in school these providers do not have to deliver the learning and development requirements in full but should complement the experiences children receive in school. achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children,

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Type of provision

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Type of provision

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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