Broughton Manor Nursery

Inclusion: Urgent improvement

Children with emerging special educational needs and/or disabilities do not make sufficient progress over time. This is because the curriculum is not sufficiently known by staff. Teaching lacks ambition and does not sufficiently take account of children's individual needs and any barriers to their learning.

Assessments of children's learning are inconsistent and, in some cases, significantly inaccurate. They do not reliably reflect children's current abilities or potential. As a result, staff do not consistently plan or adapt learning experiences that build effectively on what children know, understand and can do. Consequently, children do not make the sustained progress of which they are capable. Furthermore, the weak assessments limit staff's ability to identify concerns promptly or take appropriate and timely action when additional support is needed.

Leaders implement some appropriate strategies to aid communication, which is particularly beneficial for children who speak English as an additional language. For example, staff use picture boards and visual timetables to help children understand routines and transitions throughout the day. This helps them to anticipate what will happen next and provides a level of reassurance.

Curriculum and teaching: Urgent improvement

Leaders have started to review and develop plans for embedding the curriculum. This includes supporting staff's understanding through training. However, this has not been effective. Leaders do not ensure that the training staff receive translates into their practice. At times, teaching is weak. The activities are uninspiring, and not all staff can explain what they want children to learn. Sometimes, the focus for children's next steps in learning is not fully relevant to their needs.

Leaders have not ensured that staff have a sufficient understanding of child development. As a result, their assessments of children's learning lack ambition and reflect the expectations for much younger children. Staff do not have high enough ambition for what children can achieve, and this limits their progress. Furthermore, this weakness affects staff's capacity to recognise when there are gaps in children's learning. Assessments are shared with parents, meaning that they are given inaccurate and unhelpful information of what their children know and can do. This hampers their ability to support children's learning at home.

Staff do not recognise factors that can impact on children's development. For example, many children across the nursery use dummies throughout the day, even when content and settled. When staff talk to children, they do not encourage them to remove their dummy. As a result, children speak out of the corner of their mouth or in a muffled manner. This inhibits children's ability to practise sounds and words when their speech is first emerging. Consequently, children are not supported well enough to develop their communication and language.

Achievement: Urgent improvement

Children are not well prepared for their next steps in learning. They do not make sufficient progress from their starting points on entry to the setting. They do not develop the appropriate knowledge and skills for their age due to poor-quality interactions and the low expectations staff have about what children can achieve.

Leaders have not ensured that staff have an understanding of children's progress relevant to their age and stage of development and that teaching is effective in practice. Any barriers to learning or emerging concerns about children's development are not readily recognised by leaders and staff. Children are not supported to develop into confident talkers. For example, children make attempts at speech with dummies in their mouths, and staff do not recognise the impact this has on their communication and language. During these conversations, children's responses cannot be heard, and they cannot practise sounds and word formation. Children are restricted in developing into confident talkers because staff do not focus on promoting their speech well enough.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Urgent improvement

Leaders provide staff with training to encourage their understanding of how to support children throughout the daily routine. However, although staff generally follow children's home routines, especially when they are very young, they do not follow established safe sleeping procedures during these routines. As a result, they do not promote children's welfare well, particularly during sleep times.

Children behave well, but they lack the motivation and stimulation they need to develop positive attitudes to learning. Activities are sometimes mundane and coupled with weak teaching. Children do not show excitement, interest or engagement in activities. Children form close attachments with staff, but sometimes this becomes over-reliance. As the delivery of the curriculum is weak, children are happy to simply sit on adults' laps or be carried around rather than taking part in learning. While this meets their basic emotional need for comfort, it does not promote their independence and confidence or expand on their social relationships and connections with others.

Leaders encourage children's attendance and understand reasons for absence, such as ill-health or family holidays. Visual timetables help children to understand what will happen next to support them during changes in the routine.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Urgent improvement

Despite recent training, leaders have not ensured that staff consistently follow safe sleeping procedures. Some staff place young children to sleep on soft cushions rather than firm mattresses. This does not comply with national guidance or the nursery's own policy and places children's health and safety at risk.

Leaders do not ensure that staff consistently follow procedures for managing children's allergies so that children are not given known food allergens. This weakness in practice compromises children's health and welfare. Leaders have acknowledged these weaknesses in practice, which have occurred since the last inspection, and have identified further training for staff in an attempt to minimise this risk going forward.

Staff do not manage the use of dummies effectively. Children use dummies throughout the day, and staff do not discourage their continual use, even when children do not need them for comfort. Some children wear dummies on clips attached to their clothing. When children play, their dummies drag on the floor and are then returned to their mouths. This is unhygienic and poses a risk to children's health.

Staff are warm and caring. However, some have a weak understanding of children's development. As a result, they do not always recognise or respond appropriately to children's individual needs. Although children form close attachments with staff, some become overly dependent on them. This limits children's independence and their ability to explore, which restricts their progress in personal, social and emotional development.

Leadership and governance: Urgent improvement

Since the last inspection, a new leadership team is in place. Leaders acknowledge that there are significant weaknesses in practice across the nursery. While they have identified areas for development and have plans for improvement, these are at an early stage. It is too soon to see any positive impact on the quality of provision or outcomes for children.

Leaders have arranged training for staff to improve their knowledge and practice. However, they have not monitored the impact of this training closely enough to ensure that staff apply what they have learned. As a result, staff demonstrate a poor understanding of the curriculum and how to implement it effectively. Staff assessments of children's development are inaccurate and lack ambition. Leaders do not routinely review these assessments to check their accuracy before they are shared with parents. Consequently, parents receive an unreliable and misleading account of their child's learning, development and progress. Leaders' monitoring of staff practice is ineffective. They do not have a clear or accurate overview of the day-to-day experiences of children in the rooms. Aspects of poor practice, including unsafe sleep arrangements, ineffective mealtime routines and the inappropriate management of children's use of dummies, have become routine. These weaknesses compromise children's health, safety and overall experiences in the nursery.

As a result of previous insufficient monitoring and limited oversight of staff practice, children do not receive a suitable standard of care and education. Therefore, at this time, some leaders do not demonstrate that they have the capacity needed to bring about the necessary improvements to ensure children receive a consistently safe, high-quality and effective early years experience.