Elan Nursery

Inspection of Elan Nursery 59 Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 3DR

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Inadequate Leadership and management Inadequate Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good

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The provision is inadequate

The children's safety and well-being are compromised. Staff do not have a secure knowledge of child protection issues. Furthermore, there are breaches in health and safety arrangements. There are inconsistencies in the quality of education. At times, activities and routines are not well organised. For instance, leaders and staff fail to plan the daily routine effectively to ensure all children have access to the outdoors. As a result, some children receive no access to outdoor provision all day. However, the arrangements to support children's behaviour are good and they have a positive attitude towards their learning.

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The provision is inadequate

Opportunities to support children's learning and development are not consistently well planned for. Some activities are not targeted as precisely as possible to meet the needs of all children that attend. At times, activities have limited opportunities to help children make progress. For example, children are provided with pre- printed pictures to colour in. This reduces opportunities for them to be imaginative. As a result, learning is often incidental rather than purposeful and, sometimes, lacks any real challenge.

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The provision is inadequate

Despite this, children have positive relationships with the staff and form strong attachments. They are keen to involve staff in their play and use recall to share their experiences from home. For instance, children pretend to build a birthday cake out of construction bricks. They present this to a staff member and delight in joining in and sing 'Happy Birthday' together.

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The provision is inadequate

Babies enjoy exploring sensory experiences to stimulate their curiosity. They are keen to snuggle in with staff who share picture books with them. Older children enjoy listening and joining in with action stories. However, at times, large-group story sessions appear hectic and do not capture the interest of all children. Staff do not support children to reengage or direct them to other meaningful play.

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The provision is inadequate

Children receive care that meets their personal needs. However, the provider does not successfully implement her intention to promote children's independence. For example, during snack times, children are unable to make choices and are not encouraged to carry out tasks within their capabilities.

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need to do better?

n Managers do not ensure that all staff, including those with lead safeguarding responsibility, have a clear knowledge and understanding of all safeguarding matters. This includes the procedures to follow if an allegation is made against a member of staff. Although all staff attend safeguarding training, managers do not monitor closely enough to check if there are gaps in staff's safeguarding

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need to do better?

14 June 2022 knowledge and tackle this promptly. These breaches compromise children's safety and welfare. n Staff do not support children to keep themselves safe when using digital technology. Although children do not access online devices in the setting, staff have not recognised the importance of teaching them e-safety. This is to help children at an early stage to gain an understanding of how to keep themselves safe in regards to digital technology and online dangers. n Managers do not consistently follow their own processes to ensure all staff, including bank staff, receive a full and robust induction. Ongoing checks to assure that new staff understand their roles and responsibilities to fulfil the requirements of their role are not robust. As a result, some staff lack knowledge and understanding in aspects of their role, including safeguarding, health and safety and curriculum planning. n Risk assessment is ineffective. Managers lack rigour in ensuring safety measures

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need to do better?

are consistently in place to mitigate hazards. Breaches to safety means the security of the setting is compromised and that puts children and staff at risk. For example, during the inspection, the main entrance was not secure and one of the fire doors in the nursery was propped open n Leaders and staff fail to consider making necessary adjustments to their daily routines. This is to ensure all children have access to the outdoors while external scaffolding prevents them using the gardens. As a result, not all children receive outdoor play provision, which narrows their learning opportunities. n The quality of education is inconsistent. Some staff do not plan and implement a broad and balanced curriculum to support children's learning. As a result, not all children have their learning extended or receive challenge to the highest level to prepare them for their next stage of education. Furthermore, staff do not always

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need to do better?

use effective methods to fully extend children's thinking and problem-solving skills. The manager accurately identifies that there are areas that require improvement in curriculum knowledge, due to having a relatively new team. She has started to take steps to address this. However, despite the manager having a good understanding of what children need to learn, based on what they already know and can do, the staff's quality of teaching is variable. n Managers do not ensure that support plans are up to date for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. This does not support staff working with those children to help them reach their highest potential. n Staff have not carefully considered how to meet the individual needs of children who are bilingual. This does not precisely help them to be able to effectively communicate and express their wants and needs. Furthermore, staff have not

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need to do better?

considered how to support all children to learn about, and value, similarities and differences between themselves and others. n Managers and staff have extremely good relationships with the parents and children. Parents comment positively about the care their children receive and feel key persons know their children very well. n Children behave well, they are keen to learn and play cooperatively with their peers. Staff support children to learn about behavioural expectations and the impact of their behaviours on themselves and others. This helps children to learn how to socialise well and develop good friendships with their peers.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are not effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders provide training for all staff to help them understand their responsibilities in how to safeguard children. However, they do not monitor staff closely enough to check they fully understand how to identify indicators of abuse in a variety of different contexts. As a result, not all staff have secure knowledge of child protection issues, including extremism, online abuse or know who to refer to if they were concerned about the conduct of an adult working with children.

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Due date

take action to ensure staff understand the setting's safeguarding procedures, including having up-to-date knowledge of safeguarding issues and know how to respond to any child protection concerns in an appropriate and timely manner 04/07/2022

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Due date

ensure staff responsible for taking the lead for safeguarding improve their knowledge and understanding of all safeguarding matters, including allegation management, in order to provide support, advice and guidance to other staff when required 04/07/2022

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Due date

ensure staff have enhanced knowledge about internet safety and risks, so they can provide children with opportunities to learn how to keep themselves safe from online dangers 04/07/2022

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Due date

14 June 2022 implement effective arrangements to ensure all staff, including bank staff, have their induction completed in full and follow up any gaps in knowledge to help them fulfil their roles and responsibilities to meet the needs of children 04/07/2022

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Due date

implement a rigorous system for risk assessment to ensure the safety of all children and identify, remove, or minimise all risks and hazards to children's and staff's health and safety 04/07/2022

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Due date

ensure leaders and staff fully understand their responsibilities in health and safety and comply with fire safety regulations 04/07/2022

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Due date

take action to improve the arrangements of the routine, so that all children have provision to outdoor activities 04/07/2022

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Due date

take steps to ensure that documents that need to be in place for children with additional needs are reviewed and kept up to date regularly, so they receive precise and targeted support which includes strategies suggested from other professionals. 04/07/2022

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Due date

ensure all staff understand how to plan and deliver a well-sequenced curriculum, so that it precisely meets the individual needs and development stages of each child who attends 01/08/2022

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Due date

strengthen teaching to help staff make best use of purposeful activities and experiences to extend and challenge the learning for children further 01/08/2022

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Due date

14 June 2022 enhance the use of questioning to further encourage children to think and be able to articulate their responses to share ideas and further improve their language skills 01/08/2022

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Due date

review the planning and organisation of large-group activities to make sure that children are fully engaged and appropriately challenged 01/08/2022

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Due date

ensure that effective arrangements are in place to support children who are bilingual, so they can communicate and express themselves well, with a curriculum designed to help them learn about their cultural heritage and uniqueness 01/08/2022

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Due date

develop opportunities within the routine to help support children's independence skills. 01/08/2022

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Setting details

Unique reference number EY305006 Local authority West Sussex Inspection number 10244660 Type of provision Childcare on non-domestic premises

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Registers

Early Years Register, Compulsory Childcare Register Day care type Full day care

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inspection

Total number of places 72 Number of children on roll 95 Name of registered person Elan Nurseries Limited

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reference number

Telephone number 01444 474647 Date of previous inspection 7 November 2017

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Information about this early years setting

Elan Nursery registered in 2005 and is situated in Haywards Heath, West Sussex. The nursery is open Monday to Friday from 7am to 6pm, for 51 weeks of the year. There are 23 members of staff; of these, two have early years teacher status and 16 staff hold early years qualifications ranging from level 2 to level 3.

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Inspection activities

n This was the first routine inspection the provider received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The inspector discussed the impact of the pandemic with the provider and has taken that into account in their evaluation of the setting. n The inspector went on a learning walk with the manager to establish the priorities for the curriculum. n The inspector observed the quality of education during activities and daily routines to assess the impact this has on children's learning. n The inspector spoke with staff and children at suitable times throughout the inspection. n The inspector held a discussion with the manager in relation to the leadership and management of the nursery. n The inspector looked at relevant documentation, such as evidence of Disclosure and Barring Service checks, first-aid certificates and the safeguarding policy. n The inspector invited parents to share their views. The inspector took account of

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Inspection activities

We carried out this inspection 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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Inspection activities

14 June 2022 regulates and inspects to 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 and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, 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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Inspection activities

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Inspection activities

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Inspection activities

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Inspection activities

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