St Aidan's Primary School Nursery Class Day Care of Children

27 Pages·2012·0.59 MB·English

St Aidan's Primary School Nursery Class
Day Care of Children
Coltness Road
Wishaw
ML2 7EY
Inspected by: Aileen Quinn
Type of inspection: Unannounced
Inspection completed on: 4 October 2011
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Contents
Page No
Summary 3
1 About the service we inspected 5
2 How we inspected this service 6
3 The inspection 10
4 Other information 25
5 Summary of grades 26
6 Inspection and grading history 26
Service provided by:
North Lanarkshire Council
Service provider number:
SP2003000237
Care service number:
CS2010248661
Contact details for the inspector who inspected this service:
Aileen Quinn
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 5 Very Good
Quality of Environment 5 Very Good
Quality of Staffing 5 Very Good
Quality of Management and Leadership 5 Very Good
What the service does well
Management supported and valued staff. Staff were skilled and caring in the way
they cared for children. Children found the environment exciting and they were eager
to learn.
What the service could do better
The service could further develop how they consulted with families. Action taken as a
result of suggestions made should be celebrated through the notice board,
newsletters, or similar.
What the service has done since the last inspection
This is the service's first inspection. Since their registration, the service had
established very good relationships with families. Staff were working very well as a
team, and had been welcomed into the school.
Conclusion
Outcomes for children attending the service were very good. Staff interacted
positively with children, enhancing their learning and helping them achieve their
potential.
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Who did this inspection
Aileen Quinn
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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 1 April 2011 this service continued its registration under the new
body, SCSWIS.
The service is registered to provide daycare for children. It is registered to care for a
maximum of 40 children aged from three years and not attending school. The
service is registered to operate between the times of 8.30am and 4.30pm. It
currently operates two sessions. The morning session is available 9.00-11.30am, and
the afternoon session between 12.45-3.15pm. There are currently 40 children
registered for the morning sessions and 30 children registered for the afternoon
session. The service is available Monday to Friday during term time only.
The service is provided from St Aidan's Primary School. The head teacher manages
the service, and a nursery teacher and three care staff provide the day to day care.
The service is provided by North Lanarkshire Council.
The service had developed aims and objectives which include, "We aim to provide a
safe, stimulating and caring environment where every child is treated as an individual
and encouraged to develop their confidence and self esteem."
Based on the findings of this inspection this service has been awarded the following
grades:
Quality of Care and Support - Grade 5 - Very Good
Quality of Environment - Grade 5 - Very Good
Quality of Staffing - Grade 5 - Very Good
Quality of Management and Leadership - Grade 5 - Very Good
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 an unannounced inspection that took place on Monday 3
October 2011 between the times of 9.15am and 4.30pm. A second announced visit
took place on Tuesday 4 October 2011 between the times of 9.00am and 1.15pm. We
observed parents/carers leaving and collecting their children. The inspection was
carried out by SCSWIS inspector Aileen Quinn.
As requested by us, the service sent us an annual return and completed a self
assessment form. We issued 25 questionnaires to the service to give to families using
it, and 12 of these were returned before the inspection.
In this inspection we gathered evidence from various sources including the relevant
sections of policies, procedures, and records including:
• observing how staff worked with children
• evidence from the self assessment
• evaluations of the service carried out by staff
• children's floor books
• children's learning stories
• records of meetings with parents/carers
• Improvement Plan
• service Handbook
• staff Handbook
• staff training
• support from other agencies
• aims and objectives
• child protection procedures
• risk assessments
• accident records
• medication records
• records of management monitoring visits
• discussion with the head teacher
• discussion with all four members of staff
• discussion with groups of children over both days and sessions
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• brief discussion with a group of parents/carers leaving their children
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
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 recommendations we made
at our last inspection
This is the first inspection for this service. No recommendations have been made
since the service was registered with us.
The annual return
Every year all care services must complete an 'annual return' form to make sure the
information we hold is up to date. We also use annual returns to decide how we will
inspect the service.
Annual Return Received: Yes - Electronic
Comments on Self Assessment
Every year all care services must complete a 'self assessment' form telling us how
their service is performing. We check to make sure this assessment is accurate.
The self assessment had been completed to a satisfactory level. The head teacher
and staff had highlighted the strengths of the service and also identified some areas
for development. When updating this document, the nursery could further develop it
to include how the views of parents/carers and children had impacted on their
assessment of the service.
Taking the views of people using the care service into account
We saw three sessions of the nursery taking place. Children attending morning and
afternoon sessions enjoyed their time at nursery. They found the environment
exciting, and were eager to play and learn. They enjoyed playing with their friends,
and were supported very well by caring staff. Children spoke to us throughout the
inspection visit. They told us that they like the nursery, and they spoke about the
variety of activities they took part in. Children particularly liked dressing up, playing in
the home corner, using the climbing frame, and using the music area.
Taking carers' views into account
We spoke to a group of parents/carers while they were leaving their children for the
afternoon session. All were happy and comments included, "(children) settled in
brilliantly".
Twelve SCSWIS questionnaires were returned before the inspection. Overall, all
indicated that they were happy with the service. They had been able to visit the
service before starting, staff were sharing information about their child's learning and
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development, and also about what was happening in the service. Comments from
parents/carers included, "Both my children have come on leaps and bounds since
starting", "Really good nursery", "My child likes the nursery", and "I cannot praise the
staff highly enough."
One parent/carer raised some concerns about the nursery. They commented that
"The cloakroom area is unacceptable although staff have tried to put in place other
methods to cope with the shortage of space, it is still unacceptable." They also
commented that there was no parent's room in the nursery. The parent/carer also
commented that they would like more information about their child's learning
throughout the year. Although the parent/carer raised these concerns, they wrote,
"The staff at St Aidan's Nursery are really approachable and my (child) loves going to
nursery each day. Overall, the remained happy with the service.
The views of parents/carers are included in this report.
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3 The inspection
We looked at how the service performs against the following quality themes and
statements. Here are the details of what we found.
Quality Theme 1: Quality of Care and Support
Overall grade awarded for this theme: 5 - Very Good
Statement 1
We ensure that service users and carers participate in assessing and improving the
quality of the care and support provided by the service.
Service strengths
There were very good opportunities for parents/carers and children to assess and
make suggestions for improvement to the quality of care and support in the nursery.
Since the service opened, staff had involved parents/carers and children in the life of
the nursery. A notice board welcomed parents/carers on arrival, and this included an
area where their views were displayed. A suggestion box with paper and pen were
also available. Parents/carers using the nursery were also able to join the school
Parent Council. Information about these opportunities were included the in the
nursery Handbook. The nursery Handbook contained a statement about the nursery
participation policy and encouraged parents/carers to provide feedback for
improvement.
The nursery had developed home links to build relationships between home and the
service. These included family fun bags, and a lending library. The lending library
was observed to be enjoyed by children who eagerly involved their family when they
arrived to collect them from the service. Interaction between staff and parents/carers
was observed to be generally of a high standard. It was friendly and open, and
parents/carers were able to share sensitive information about their home life with
staff. This was helping parents/carers to feel more comfortable in the nursery
environment.
Staff in the nursery had carried out various evaluations to help develop the service.
They valued suggestions made by parents/carers and were eager to involve them in
their child's day. Evaluations carried out to date had been very positive. One
evaluation had been carried out with parents/carers before their child started the
service. This provided staff with information about parent/carer expectations of the
service, and of their child's learning at nursery. Staff had also evaluated the progress
reports given to parents/carers each year, as well as the information displayed in the
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