ABC Childcare Services Cheshire Ltd

Inclusion: Expected standard

Leaders and practitioners promote inclusion and have high expectations for all children. Practitioners have accessed suitable training to support their work in helping every child feel like they belong. This means they confidently find out about children's stages of development and abilities when they start at the setting. They identify if children have any special educational needs and/or disabilities. For instance, the key person uses specialist assessment tools to clearly identify the children's areas of strength and areas for development. Practitioners work well with external professionals, such as speech and language therapists and physiotherapists, alongside children's parents and/or carers to formulate appropriate next steps. Children's progress is assessed regularly. Specialist equipment is acquired and used appropriately in the setting so that all children are able to access the provision.

Curriculum and teaching: Needs attention

The curriculum is not precisely planned. Some areas of learning are not as well promoted as others. Practitioners promote personal development through daily routines. For example, children learn independence skills, but literacy and mathematics are less well planned and taught. Practitioners' support for developing children's language skills is inconsistent. They do not provide effective support during teaching activities to help all children access the learning more effectively. Despite this weakness, physical development is supported appropriately through daily outdoor play.

Leaders are in the early stages of identifying the improvements needed in teaching. They have not identified with practitioners what their strengths and areas for development are in relation to teaching. This means that practitioners do not take every opportunity to support learning, especially when in large teaching groups. Not all practitioners know why the activities have been planned and how they will be used to support children's individual learning. Furthermore, leaders have not identified and adequately addressed unhealthy lunch box items. This means children are not learning how to fuel their bodies in a healthy way.

Practitioners monitor children's development effectively. They gather information about their abilities and next steps in learning. They complete statutory assessments and ensure parents have had the opportunity to consider them.

The curriculum supports children to develop a deeper understanding about their community. Visitors to the setting, such as firefighters, enable children to learn about occupations and keeping safe.

Achievement: Needs attention

Children are not typically making progress in all areas of learning. Babies do not develop communication and language skills readily. For example, practitioners do not always remove children's dummies when they no longer need them. This reduces the opportunities for babies to learn to babble. Babies do not always fully engage in their play and learning. This means they get bored and do not learn new actions and words quickly.

Older children develop imaginative thinking skills that promote literacy development. For example, they delight in pretending to walk through the Arctic as they imagine seeing polar animals. However, children do not always benefit fully because they are not yet able to screen out other distractions and focus on learning and build connections. Pre-school children learn the sequence of counting numbers, but they do not develop mathematics skills such as knowing how many they have in total.

All children make progress in developing age-appropriate independence skills. Children learn how to feed themselves, pour drinks and put their own coats on as they engage in the setting's daily routines. Children make progress in physical development skills, such as pedalling bikes, scooping mud and running in the garden. This helps children gain some of the foundation skills they need for their future learning.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard

Leaders and practitioners provide an emotionally positive environment. Practitioners create effective friendly and professional relationships with children and their families. Children gain trust in the adults and settle in quickly. Children's attitudes towards their play are positive. For example, they are excited to explore scooping and pouring the winter 'gloop'. Practitioners help children to learn the routines of the setting. For instance, children know that when it is time to go out to play, they must collect their outdoor clothing. The familiar routine helps all children to develop a firm sense of security. Practitioners teach children to be kind and considerate of others and to follow simple rules, such as using 'kind hands' and kind words. Children learn from the adults' positive modelling and behave in age-appropriate ways and know what is expected of them. Practitioners provide praise consistently, which supports children to maintain appropriate behaviours. Leaders ensure that children attend the setting regularly, and they understand the action to be taken should attendance be of concern.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Needs attention

Care routines, such as toileting and intimate hygiene, are managed appropriately. This supports children to gain the required personal skills they will need for their eventual move to school. Occasionally, hygiene procedures are not encouraged, for example children do not always wash their hands after wiping their noses. The snacks and baking activities offered by the setting are healthy. Practitioners should further develop how they support children to build an understanding of healthy food choices, including through partnership with parents.

Leaders understand the importance of developing children's positive mental health. They promote secure attachments between key persons and babies and children. Key persons know children well and understand their unique family situations. This helps the care to be tailored to each child. Practitioners help children to understand emotions and feelings by sharing relevant storybooks and talking to children about their behaviour. As a result, children are positive and happy. They develop age-appropriate understanding of their feelings.

Leadership and governance: Needs attention

There have been significant changes to the leadership and staffing arrangements of the setting since the last inspection. The new managers demonstrate a commitment to offering high-quality education and care. Leaders are making limited assessments of the quality of the setting and are often overly positive about the setting's work. This means they do not identify and understand the setting's weaknesses well enough and do not accurately identify the areas for development.

Managers provide practitioners with coaching and training. However, this is not yet closely linked to the practitioners' individual understanding of the curriculum and their skills in teaching. This means that practitioners do not know what they need to do to improve their own personal effectiveness. This impacts negatively on the quality of the education provided. That said, leaders and managers have focused on developing practitioner wellbeing through the period of change. Practitioners report that they feel well supported by their leaders and very much enjoy their work in the setting.