Noah's Ark Children's Private Nursery Day Care of Children

38 Pages·2012·0.61 MB·English

Noah's Ark Children's Private Nursery
Day Care of Children
121 Auchterderran Road
Lochgelly
KY5 9DH
Telephone: [phone]
Inspected by: Helen Bell
Ruth Orrock
Type of inspection: Unannounced
Inspection completed on: 16 June 2011
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Contents
Page No
Summary 3
1 About the service we inspected 5
2 How we inspected this service 7
3 The inspection 14
4 Other information 35
5 Summary of grades 36
6 Inspection and grading history 36
Service provided by:
Noah's Ark Children's Private Nursery Ltd
Service provider number:
SP2004005968
Care service number:
CS2004061057
Contact details for the inspector who inspected this service:
Helen Bell
Telephone [phone]
Email [email protected]
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Summary
This report and grades represent our assessment of the quality of the areas of
performance which were examined during this inspection.
Grades for this care service may change after this inspection following other
regulatory activity. For example, if we have to take enforcement action to make the
service improve, or if we investigate and agree with a complaint someone makes
about the service.
We gave the service these grades
Quality of Care and Support 2 Weak
Quality of Environment 2 Weak
Quality of Staffing N/A
Quality of Management and Leadership 2 Weak
What the service does well
The service had begun to consult with the parents and children, to enable them to
participate in assessing and improving the quality of care and support provided by the
nursery. Good use was made of the spacious outdoor area where children had
opportunities to run, jump, climb and use a variety of wheeled toys. The nursery made
some use of a resource base (toy library) to extend the variety of toys available to the
children.
What the service could do better
Some aspects of the nursery practice were weak and improvements are required in
relation to each of the quality themes as detailed in the body of this report. Issues
relating to children's safety, health and wellbeing should be prioritised. In addressing
the requirements and recommendations made in this report, the provider has the
opportunity to improve the quality of care, thereby improving outcomes for children
who attend.
What the service has done since the last inspection
There has been a period of staff stability within the nursery following changes in
staffing and management last year. The manager and depute manager are studying
towards a Childhood Practice degree. The nursery had made some use of a resource
base (toy library) to extend the variety of toys available to children.
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Conclusion
The gradings for this inspection reflect a number of areas for improvement which
have been identified during the inspection process. By addressing the requirements
and recommendations made in this report, the provider, manager and staff should be
able to make the necessary improvements to the service. This will improve the overall
quality of experience for children who attend.
Who did this inspection
Helen Bell
Ruth Orrock
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1 About the service we inspected
Before 1 April 2011 this service was registered with the Care Commission. On this date
the new scrutiny body, Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (SCSWIS),
took over the work of the Care Commission, including the registration of care services.
This means that from April 2011 this service continued its registration under the new
body SCSWIS.
Noah's Ark Children's Private Nursery Ltd is registered to provide a day care of
children service i.e. Noah's Ark Children's Private Nursery.
The service can be provided to a maximum of 30 children aged from 6 weeks to those
not yet attending primary school full time including a maximum of 15 children aged
under 2 years.
The care service will operate between the times 8.00am and 6.00pm, Monday to
Friday. Two members of staff must be in attendance at any one time. Adult: child
ratios and space standards as stated in Annex A of the National Care Standards for
Early Education and Childcare up to the age 16 must be maintained at all times.
The nursery is situated in the town of Lochgelly. The purpose built single storey
building comprises 3 bright playrooms and a large outdoor play area.
There were 49 children registered to use the service, 14 of whom were present during
the first inspection visit. A total of 20 children were present during the second visit.
The nursery aims and objectives policy includes the following statement:
"At Noah's Ark, we aim to create and maintain a welcoming, secure and stimulating
environment where young minds and bodies can grow happily at their own pace."
The nursery is also registered with Fife Council to provide pre-school education in
partnership with the education service.
Based on the findings of this inspection this service has been awarded the following
grades:
Quality of Care and Support - Grade 2 - Weak
Quality of Environment - Grade 2 - Weak
Quality of Staffing - N/A
Quality of Management and Leadership - Grade 2 - Weak
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This report and grades represent our assessment of the quality of the areas of
performance which were examined during this inspection.
Grades for this care service may change following other regulatory activity. You can
find the most up-to-date grades for this service by visiting our website
www.scswis.com or by calling us on 0845 600 9527 or visiting one of our offices.
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2 How we inspected this service
The level of inspection we carried out
In this service we carried out a medium intensity inspection. We carry out these
inspections where we have assessed the service may need a more intense inspection.
What we did during the inspection
We wrote this report after 2 unannounced inspection visits that took place on Friday 3
June 2011, 9:15 - 3:30 pm and Thursday 9 June, 1:45 - 5:30 pm. (The manager was
not present during the first visit.) Feedback was provided to the owner and manager
during a third visit on Thursday 16 June, 2:00 - 5:00 pm. The inspection was carried
out by SCSWIS Inspectors Helen Bell and Ruth Orrock.
As requested by us, the service sent us an annual return and a self assessment form.
We asked the service to issue questionnaires to parents, in order to allow us to take
account of their views. Eleven questionnaires were completed and returned to us.
In this inspection we gathered evidence from various sources, including the relevant
sections of policies, procedures, records and other documents.
* observing how staff work
* evidence from the nursery's most recent self assessment
* personal plans of some children who attend the nursery
* accident and incident reports
* concerns/complaints records
* Discussions with various people, including:
* company directors
* manager
* nursery staff
* parents and relatives of children who attend the nursery
* feedback from parents via our questionnaires
* viewing equipment and the environment (for example, is the nursery clean, is it set
out well?)
Grading the service against quality themes and statements
We inspect and grade elements of care that we call 'quality themes'. For example,
one of the quality themes we might look at is 'Quality of care and support'. Under
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each quality theme are 'quality statements' which describe what a service should be
doing well for that theme. We grade how the service performs against the quality
themes and statements.
Details of what we found are in Section 3: The inspection
Inspection Focus Areas (IFAs)
In any year we may decide on specific aspects of care to focus on during our
inspections. These are extra checks we make on top of all the normal ones we make
during inspection. We do this to gather information about the quality of these aspects
of care on a national basis. Where we have examined an inspection focus area we will
clearly identify it under the relevant quality statement.
Fire safety issues
We do not regulate fire safety. Local fire and rescue services are responsible for
checking services. However, where significant fire safety issues become apparent, we
will alert the relevant fire and rescue services so they may consider what action to
take. You can find out more about care services' responsibilities for fire safety at
www.firelawscotland.org
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What the service has done to meet any requirements we made at
our last inspection
The requirement
All mats should be in a condition which ensures they can be cleaned properly to
reduce any risk of infection.
What the service did to meet the requirement
We observed during the first inspection visit that some sleep mats were torn and as a
result could not be cleaned effectively. The changing mat was also torn. However,
new mats had been obtained prior to the final inspection visit.
The provider has taken the required action.
The requirement is: Met
What the service has done to meet any recommendations we made
at our last inspection
There were 3 recommendations made at the time of the previous inspection.
Progress made by the provider and manager towards addressing these matters was
as follows:
Recommendation
The service should ensure that it provides opportunities for all parents to be involved
in assessing and improving the quality of care and support and that results and
actions it may take as a result of questionnaires, is fed back to parents.
Questionnaires about the nursery menu had been distributed to parents, however,
results had not yet been collated, analysed or shared with parents.
The provider has not completed the recommended action.
Recommendation
The service should ensure that "space standards for non domestic premises as per
annex A of the early education and childcare standards are adhered to at all times.
The manager was unable to confirm the floor space within the playrooms and
therefore unable to confirm whether the space available was in accordance with the
care standards.
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The provider has not taken the recommended action.
Recommendation
To ensure good hygiene practices children should be given the opportunity to be
seated at a table during snack time.
On the day of the second visit, children within the toddler room were served snack
whilst sitting or lying on the floor.
The provider has not taken the recommended action.
Further to a subsequent visit, a requirement and 4 recommendations were made by
the Care Commission in a letter, dated 21 February 2011.
Requirement
See Requirement (1) under outstanding requirements
Recommendation
Staff should be made aware of the procedures, ensuring blankets and sheets are
either stored appropriately for individual children, or washed between each session.
A written laundry procedure was not in place. Staff stated that blankets and cushion
covers were not allocated to individual children and were not washed after each use.
The provider has not completed the recommended action.
Recommendation
The service should consult available guidance to ensure they are following best
practice when children are sleeping.
There was no evidence that guidance had been consulted.
The provider has not completed the recommended action.
Recommendation
The service should review sleep monitoring forms to ensure they meet their needs.
The sleep monitoring forms had been amended to provide additional space for staff
to write down the information they need to record.
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