Honeybear Nursery

Honeybear Nursery

Unique reference number (URN): 2879456 Address: The Heathlands Village, Heathlands Drive, Prestwich, MANCHESTER, M25 9SB Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises Registered with Ofsted: 17/02/2026 Registers: EYR Registered person: PRESTWICH REAL ESTATE LTD

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Safeguarding standards not met

Leaders have not ensured that there is an open and positive culture around safeguarding that adequately protects children from harm. They have not ensured that all staff have received effective safeguarding training. Not all staff are fully aware of the procedures to follow if they have concerns about a child. Although staff know to report safeguarding concerns to the nursery's designated safeguarding leader, there are gaps in some staff's understanding of procedures for reporting beyond this to the relevant professional agencies. This does not ensure they would respond appropriately to safeguard children in a timely manner. Leaders do not have robust systems in place to verify the suitability of staff. While some checks have been completed these are not well documented or accessible. This does not ensure those caring for children are suitable to do so. This compromises the safety of children.

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How we evaluate safeguarding

When we inspect settings for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:

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How we evaluate safeguarding

Met: The setting has an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not met: The setting has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all legal requirements are met.

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Achievement Urgent improvement

Leaders do not ensure that all children achieve well from their starting points. They fail to identify and close gaps in children's learning swiftly enough. Children do not receive the support to prevent them from falling behind in their learning. Consequently, children do not have the skills they need for the next stage in learning. Staff do not recognise when some children are left to sit in highchairs for long periods of time or wander around, and are not encouraged to develop positive attitudes towards their learning. Children's needs are not met which negatively impacts their ability to feel safe, secure and to learn.

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Achievement Urgent improvement

Children spend a lot of time in unsupported free play. Such lack of support, at times, leads to a disorderly play environment. Children are not supported to understand or control their emotions in an age-appropriate way. This means that, at times, children continue to hurt their peers and do not develop the social skills they need to make and keep friends.

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Achievement Urgent improvement

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are not identified and, therefore, staff do not close gaps in their learning and development. Some children do make some progress in their communication and language skills. They join in with key words, phrases and actions of familiar songs at circle time.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Urgent improvement

Leaders do not ensure that staff understand how to support children's behaviour. As a result, staff fail to manage children's behaviour or provide the support they need to develop emotional control, resulting in poor attitudes to learning. This often leads to a disorderly environment. Staff do not help children to understand their actions and the impact their behaviour has on others. For example, when children become disruptive or hurt their friends, they are told to say sorry. Staff do not explain in an age-appropriate way why their behaviour is unacceptable. Children do not learn what behaviour is expected or how to respond differently.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Urgent improvement

Children are not supported to develop positive attitudes towards their learning. Weaknesses in the curriculum and the quality of staff's interactions mean that children lack interest and engagement. Children often play independently with toys of their interest or wander around and become disruptive as they become bored. Staff provide a basic routine, but do not support children to follow instructions. For example, during tidy up times, staff ask children to tidy-up but children ignore the instruction and are not motivated learners.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Urgent improvement

Leaders have some procedures in place for monitoring absence and attendance. They contact the parents and carers of children who do not attend to monitor the attendance of children. Staff are caring towards children. They positively praise children to recognise their achievements.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Urgent improvement

Leaders do not ensure that staff consider hygiene at mealtimes or complete effective risk assessments. For example, staff feed some children from the same bowls and spoons as the other children, posing risk of cross-contamination. Additionally, children have access to broken equipment such as plant pots in the garden and pick up food off the floor outdoors and place it into their mouths. Leaders do not ensure that staff demonstrate an adequate understanding of how to safely handle food or their risk assessment procedures. This puts children's safety at risk.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Urgent improvement

The key-person system is ineffective. Leaders have not considered the consistency of staff to ensure that children can build secure attachments to a key person. For example, staff work across different ages of children throughout the day and do not know which children are in their key group. This particularly impacts negatively for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Furthermore, staff do not know the children well enough to meet their individual needs. Staff are kind towards children, but they do not know their key children's next steps in development or how to progress them in their learning. This does not support children to form strong attachments or make progress in their learning.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Urgent improvement

Leaders do not ensure that children's needs are consistently met. Staff do not deploy themselves effectively to support children's safety and wellbeing. For example, at times, large groups of children are supervised by one member of staff who often ignore children's needs. Children climb on equipment, fall and hurt their peers. This goes unnoticed by staff and the environment becomes chaotic. Furthermore, leaders do not ensure that staff follow procedures about supervising babies when eating. As a result, staff do not carefully watch babies when eating. This puts some babies at risk of harm.

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Curriculum and teaching Urgent improvement

Leaders do not plan or provide children with a well-sequenced or ambitious curriculum. Leaders' oversight of staff's delivery of the curriculum is weak. This leads to poor quality of teaching. Staff provide learning activities that lack ambition. Leaders and staff do not accurately assess children's development and, as such, do not understand if children are making progress. Staff do not provide specific next steps to help children achieve and this particularly hinders those with barriers to learning. Leaders and staff do not ensure that all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make effective progress in their learning and development.

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Curriculum and teaching Urgent improvement

Leaders do not ensure that staff understand the learning intention and purpose of activities. Staff do not have a secure understanding of how children learn or how to modify activities to support children's individual needs. Too often, learning is incidental. For example, staff provide all children with the same learning opportunities. Leaders do not make sure that staff accurately focus on the key skills that individual children need to learn now and next. As a result, staff fail to match learning activities to children's current stage of development and learning needs. Furthermore, staff do not have the skills to support children's language skills effectively. Children's learning needs are not fully supported to prepare them for future learning, including for school.

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Curriculum and teaching Urgent improvement

Staff support children's physical development. They provide children with ring games to practise their throwing, catching and kicking skills. This supports children's core strength and coordination.

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Inclusion Urgent improvement

Leaders' support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those who have barriers to their learning is ineffective. Leaders have only recently started to take action to identify professionals who can support the children who need additional support. Such delays mean that children do not receive timely help reduce barriers to their learning.

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Inclusion Urgent improvement

Leaders do not understand their responsibilities under the SEND code of practice. Their procedures for supporting children with SEND, and those who are at risk of falling behind, are poor. For example, children do not receive individualised plans or next steps to help them make progress in their learning. They are often left to wander or play outdoors. Consequently, children's individual learning needs are not met.

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Inclusion Urgent improvement

Leaders have not fulfilled their responsibility to identify a suitable staff member to take the lead for SEND, to ensure children receive the help and support they need and to liaise with other professionals. Leaders and staff have not received relevant training to accurately assess and review children's SEND needs. Staff do not understand the needs of these children well enough to ensure they receive the additional support they need to reach their full potential.

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Leadership and governance Urgent improvement

Leaders demonstrate a poor ability to ensure that statutory requirements are met and this has not been sustained since registration. The provider does not have sufficient oversight of the setting. Multiple breaches of the statutory requirements, such as for key person, risk assessment, food hygiene, behaviour and learning and development, impacts all children's safety and learning. Such weak leadership undermines the effective running of the setting.

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Leadership and governance Urgent improvement

Leaders do not ensure that safer recruitment procedures are followed. They allow staff whose suitability has not been verified to start work and provide care for children. At times, staff who have not had their suitability verified are allowed to work alone with children. This is not in line with leaders' safer recruitment risk assessment and does not assure children's safety and welfare.

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Leadership and governance Urgent improvement

Leaders do not maintain all the required records. Records are disorganised and not accessible. For example, staff safer recruitment and training documents were not available to review promptly during the inspection. This failure to maintain and produce key records compromises the safeguarding of children and staff.

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Leadership and governance Urgent improvement

Leaders do not have the capacity to ensure swift improvements to the provision. They do not have the knowledge and skills to support staff to improve. Leaders' decisions do not focus on the best interests of children, and have not identified a member of staff to be responsible for the work of special educational needs and/or disabilities. Leaders fail to provide staff with professional development opportunities to further their own knowledge of child development and how to fulfil their roles and responsibilities. Staff have not accessed any suitable training since starting work at the setting. This failure means staff have a weak understanding of how children learn, and the quality of care and education across the setting is poor. This does not help children to make good progress.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

There are significant weaknesses in the leadership and governance of this setting. Leaders have poor oversight of practice and this impacts on children's safety, wellbeing and behaviours. They do not ensure that all staff who work with children have robust safety checks in place. Risk assessments are not effective, which impacts children's welfare. Children do not have a secure understanding of their emotions and behaviours, which often leads to a disorderly environment. They are not supported to develop positive relationships with their peers, learning or environment.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

Children do not have their individual needs met effectively. They are not provided with an exciting and ambitious curriculum that builds on their existing knowledge and skills. They do not engage in meaningful play or learning. The key-person system is ineffective. Staff are not aware of how children learn or their next steps in learning. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities fail to thrive. Leaders and staff do not identify barriers to children's learning. As a result, children do not achieve well, are not effectively supported and they do not make progress they need for their next stage in learning, including for school.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

On arrival, children are supported positively by staff, which helps them to settle in to the setting. They enjoy playing games with staff to support their physical skills, such as running up and down the nursery's garden hill or when building towers with blocks. Children enjoy joining in with story and song time. Staff understand the importance of attendance and have procedures in place to follow up any absences. Leaders and staff have made lovely relationships with parents and carers to provide tailored settling-in sessions to help children settle comfortably.

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Next steps

The provider is not meeting the requirements of the Early years foundation stage and Ofsted intends to take enforcement action.

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Next steps

We will issue a Welfare Requirements Notice requiring the provider to have taken the following actions by the assigned date:

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Action Completion Date

ensure that anyone whose suitability has not been checked does not have unsupervised contact with children being cared for 14/07/2026

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Action Completion Date

ensure that leaders understand and implement safer recruitment procedures and ensure ongoing suitability of staff to have regular contact with children 14/07/2026

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Action Completion Date

organise staffing arrangements to ensure that the needs of all children are met 14/07/2026

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Action Completion Date

ensure that babies and children are always within sight and hearing while eating 14/07/2026

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Action Completion Date

ensure that all staff receive appropriate safeguarding training in line with the criteria set out in Annex C of the 14/07/2026

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Action Completion Date

Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage

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Action Completion Date

ensure that leaders and staff are able to identify and minimise or remove hazards to children's safety 14/07/2026

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Action Completion Date

ensure that staff who are responsible for handling food are competent to do so, particularly to ensure food hygiene 14/07/2026

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Action Completion Date

ensure that all staff undertake appropriate training and professional development opportunities to ensure they offer quality learning and development experiences for children 14/07/2026

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Action Completion Date

implement an effective key-person system to ensure that children's care is tailored to meet their individual needs, offer settled relationships with children and build relationships with parents 14/07/2026

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Action Completion Date

identify a special educational needs coordinator and ensure staff have appropriate skills and knowledge to implement appropriate support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities 14/07/2026

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Action Completion Date

ensure that staff implement effective strategies to support and manage children's behaviour 14/07/2026

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Action Completion Date

ensure appropriate records are maintained and these must be easily accessible and available 14/07/2026

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Action Completion Date

To meet the requirements of the Early years foundation stage the provider must take the following action by the assigned date:

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Action Completion Date

plan, design and implement a coherent and sequential curriculum that builds on what children know and can do and meets their individual needs 21/07/2026

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About this inspection

The inspector spoke with leaders, staff, parents and carers and children during the inspection.

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Address:

The Heathlands Village, Heathlands Drive Prestwich MANCHESTER M25 9SB

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Address:

Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises

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Address:

Registered person: PRESTWICH REAL ESTATE LTD

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Address:

Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday,Sunday : 08:45 - 16:00

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Facts and figures used on inspection

This data was available to the inspector at the time of the inspection.

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1 to 3

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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Exceptional

Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other settings can learn from it.

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Strong standard

The setting reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of them.

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Expected standard

The setting is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional standards expected of them.

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Needs attention

The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary improvements.

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Urgent improvement

The setting needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of education and/or care.

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Urgent improvement

services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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