The Larks Out of School Club

The Larks Out of School Club St Barbara's Hall, Gore Road, Lark Hill, Salisbury, SP4 8NN

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 28 March 2018 16 July 2015

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This inspection: Inadequate 4

Effectiveness of the leadership and management Inadequate 4

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This inspection: Inadequate 4

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good 2

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This inspection: Inadequate 4

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Inadequate 4

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This provision is inadequate

 The provider, who is also the manager, fails to keep children safe at all times. She does not take appropriate action to prevent unauthorised people from entering the premises or to prevent children from leaving.  Self-evaluation is not effective. Although the manager completes risk assessments and identifies potential hazards, she does not take action to reduce risks to children, for example, to improve the door security, which significantly compromises their safety and welfare.  Partnerships with parents are not fully effective. Staff do not always know whom to collect from school, which means they cannot focus on meeting the children's needs, as they try to liaise with parents.  Although staff gather some information relating to children's general well-being, they do not establish a regular two-way flow of communication with other providers, to help them complement targets and activities for children as well as they can.

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It has the following strengths

 Children enjoy their time at the club. Staff organise a good variety of activities that appeal to children of all ages.  Staff form close bonds with children, which helps them to settle after a busy day at school or nursery.

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What the setting needs to do to improve further

To meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage and the Childcare Register the provider must:

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Due Date

 take reasonable steps to ensure children do not leave the premises unsupervised and to prevent unauthorised persons from entering the premises 13/04/2018

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Due Date

 improve risk assessments to identify and address all potential hazards, with particular regard to security of the premises, to protect children and staff from potentially harmful situations. 13/04/2018

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Due Date

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

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Due Date

 extend partnerships with parents even further to establish clear and consistent arrangements for changes to school collection  develop communication with other providers that children attend, to support a consistent approach to meeting their needs  further develop self-evaluation processes used to identify weaknesses, and plan improvements that help to protect children from harm and keep them safe at all times.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector accompanied staff on a nursery and school collection.  The inspector considered parents' and children's views through discussion and spoke to staff at appropriate times during the inspection.  The inspector and manager jointly observed children during a routine activity.  The inspector spoke to the manager about how she organises the club, recruits and supports staff, and plans activities for children.  The inspector sampled a range of documents, including risk assessments, registers, and policies.

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Effectiveness of the leadership and management is inadequate

Safeguarding is not effective. Failures in the leadership and management result in breaches to the requirements of the early years foundation stage and the Childcare register. Although the manager completes risk assessments of the premises and appropriately identifies significant hazards, these are not effective. The manager does not take any action to improve the security of the premises and fails to maintain children's safety. She leaves the premises unlocked when children are present and does not ensure she and staff are vigilant enough to notice when visitors or parents arrive. This exposes children to the risk of unauthorised people entering, as well as children leaving without their knowledge. The manager and staff exchange some information with other providers and parents, although this is not extensive enough to help them complement learning elsewhere, or to help parents understand staff's responsibilities to keep children safe

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Effectiveness of the leadership and management is inadequate

during school-collection times. The manager follows appropriate procedures to help ensure staff's ongoing suitability to work with children and provides ongoing support for staff, such as identifying training needs. The manager and staff know how to identify and report any concerns they have about children's welfare and keep their knowledge of child protection procedures up to date well. Self-evaluation is ineffective to ensure the provider keeps children safe. However, the manager and staff have made some improvements since the last inspection, such as increasing the range of opportunities for children to be physically active.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good

Staff teach children to be independent. For example, they hang up their belongings when they arrive and wash their hands. Children are confident and enjoy the refreshments staff offer. They pour drinks for themselves and eat healthy snacks. Staff interact well with children and extend their ideas effectively. For example, the youngest children choose to play with dolls. Staff join in and talk to them about what they are doing and how their day at school or nursery has been, helping to build good communication skills. Children choose to play independently or with their friends. For instance, a group of older and younger girls share ideas for Easter crafts as they all sit together.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare are inadequate

Ineffective leadership results in unnecessary compromise to the security of the premises and to children's safety. Partnerships with parents are not as effective as they could be. The manager and staff do not ensure parents are fully aware of their responsibly to keep them well informed of changes to collection arrangements after school. As a result, children wait unnecessarily until staff identify who they are due to collect or not. Similarly, while the manager and staff gather some information from other providers, this relates to children's well-being and does not consider how they may complement children's development needs. Although the weaknesses affect the overall safety of children, they are happy. They behave well and enjoy opportunities to relax or to be active as they please.

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Setting details

Unique reference number EY447319 Local authority Wiltshire Inspection number 1131881 Type of provision Out of school provision Day care type Childcare - Non-Domestic Registers Early Years Register, Compulsory Childcare Register, Voluntary Childcare Register Age range of children 3 - 11 Total number of places 40 Number of children on roll 4 Name of registered person Michelle Louise Whatton

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reference number

Date of previous inspection 16 July 2015 Telephone number 07568313700

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reference number

The Larks Out of School Club registered in 2012. It operates from St. Barbara Hall in Lark Hill, near Salisbury. The club opens each weekday during term time, from 7am to 8.45am and from 3.15pm to 5.30pm. There are five members of staff, most of whom hold an appropriate qualification. The manager is qualified to level 5, one member of staff is qualified to level 3, two at level 2 and one member of staff is unqualified.

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reference number

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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reference number

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

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reference number

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reference number

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reference number

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