Golden Beginnings Day-Care

Inclusion: Needs attention

Leaders are starting to identify and support children who have barriers to learning, however, strategies for identifying and supporting these children are in the early stages.

When new children join the setting, leaders do not check if they are known (or previously known) to social care. Without this knowledge, leaders are limited in understanding if any children require additional support and are unable to liaise with other agencies effectively. However, there are some instances where leaders have worked effectively with parents and outside agencies to put support strategies in place for children, who have presented with identified needs. This support has been impactful in supporting these children to make progress.

Leaders and staff are not yet ensuring that there is a consistent approach to inclusion and, as a result, not all children's needs are responded to quickly and accurately. For instance, where staff have recognised that children struggle with transitions within the daily routine, they have not made adaptations or used strategies to support children in coping well at these times. As a result, children become upset and struggle to re-join the routines. Staff understand some strategies that work to calm children, when they have become upset, such as the use of comforters, however, there is not yet enough support in place to reduce the triggers that lead to children's distress in the first place. Furthermore, leaders do not ensure that assessment of children's needs accurately identifies the appropriate use of any additional funding children may receive.

Curriculum and teaching: Needs attention

Leaders have an appropriate ambition for the curriculum and know what it is they want children to learn. They have recently identified that there is a weakness in how staff support the transitional routines in the nursery. However, leaders do not have an accurate understanding of the inconsistencies in the overall quality of teaching and implementation of the curriculum. As such, they do not have a clear action plan to bring about improvement.

The quality of children's learning experiences is inconsistent. Some staff do not understand the key areas of learning within the curriculum and are not skilled in ensuring that their interactions with children are consistently high quality, particularly in relation to supporting children's personal social and emotional development. The inconsistent teaching impacts on how well staff support children's overall progress.

Leaders have considered how to support babies' physical development by providing a soft play area, which they have access to during some parts of the day. However, support from staff while they use this area is minimal and the designated baby area limits how well babies can practise physical skills, such as crawling, due to the cluttered floor space.

Leaders have not ensured that the outside area is a suitable environment to effectively support all children's learning. The opportunities for babies to explore outdoors and develop key skills are particularly limited. For instance, there is a lack of stimulation to encourage babies' speech and language skills. The flooring is an uneven, hard surface, which is a trip hazard and does not support babies who are learning to walk.

Some activities are thoughtfully planned and link to children's experiences with their families outside of the setting. For instance, by providing opportunities to talk about visits to the beach and play out these experiences with small-world toys. There is a focus on sharing songs and stories with babies. They develop their concentration and listening skills as they listen to staff read familiar stories.

Achievement: Needs attention

Children are not developing knowledge and skills well enough across all key areas of the curriculum. In particular, there are weaknesses in their personal social and emotional development. Quieter children do not yet have the confidence to fully join in with the activities and experiences on offer, while a minority of more confident children dominate these activities. Children find it difficult to manage their behaviour, including when social skills are required, such as turn-taking and sharing. At times, this results in children becoming upset.

There have been some recent successes in children's achievements. Babies and toddlers are now successfully sleeping at nap times, without the need of a pushchair to sleep in. Babies also show enjoyment when listening to favourite stories. Toddlers practise their pencil control as they carefully draw, showing skills in concentration. Parents are pleased with this progress and share that their children are also developing some key skills that they show at home, such as drinking from an open cup and eating with increasing independence.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Urgent improvement

Leaders do not support staff to implement a clear, consistent approach to supporting behaviour. Strategies to support children's behaviour are not in place. As a result, children do not demonstrate consistently positive behaviours. Children snatch toys and push each other, causing other children to become upset. Children do not consistently tell staff when they have been hurt by another child, showing that they have become accustomed to these poor behaviours. Staff do not teach the desired behaviours of turn-taking and sharing, which means children are not being supported to improve these behaviours well enough. Staff do provide some comfort to children, who have become upset due to the behaviours of others, such as giving cuddles and comforting words, however, the approach to improving the behaviours of the children who have caused the upset is inconsistent.

Not all staff arrive at the setting in advance of children arriving, and many arrive at the same time as children. This limits how effectively staff can prepare for the day and leads to a busy environment, meaning children do not start their session in a thoroughly supported and calm manner.

Transitional routines throughout the day are not well embedded. For instance, staff do not help children understand when it is time to tidy up and get ready for lunchtime. This leads to a chaotic and disorderly environment. Some children are supported to wash their hands and sit down at the table, while others do not respond and continue to play. Children do not develop skills such as taking care of their environment and tidying up.

Leaders say that children attend well and they follow up on any instances, where children do not attend as expected. However, as leaders do not check whether children are known to social services, they are not able to share information with other agencies when relevant.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Urgent improvement

Risk assessments are not well embedded across the nursery. For instance, leaders and staff do not ensure that activities are safe and suitable for the age of children who have access to them. For instance, dried pasta is used as a resource in an area with small babies. Leaders and staff do not identify that this is a choking risk and supervision is weak. There is a lack of close supervision during mealtimes and babies are given their bottle of milk to hold, while laid flat and without direct supervision. This does not ensure children's safety when eating. Hazards that are known to staff, such as a sharp corner on the radiator in the soft-play area are not consistently minimised. The outdoor area is not thoroughly checked to remove hazards, such as a cigarette butt on the floor. There is not a suitable procedure for taking the register of children if staff and children need to evacuate the premises, for instance, if there were a fire. The premises are not consistently kept secure during opening hours, which presents a security risk. Leaders have acknowledged the risks that have been highlighted and confirmed that they will make the necessary improvements to immediately resolve the risks.

Staff do not ensure that good hygiene is maintained, including weaknesses in relation to children's handwashing. Bins are not regularly emptied and nappy changing areas are not thoroughly cleaned.

Although staff speak kindly to children, there is a lack of care and consideration in their practice. For instance, during snack time, staff stand by children who are seated at the table and drop fruit into their bowls. Children who are sitting on the other side of the table have their fruit thrown into their bowl. Children's happiness and wellbeing are negatively impacted by the poor behaviours in the setting.

Leadership and governance: Urgent improvement

Leaders do not ensure that safeguarding requirements, including in relation to child protection are met. This does not assure children's safety. Leaders have not ensured that staff have the professional learning and expertise needed to provide children with high-quality teaching and learning experiences and care. This includes a failure to ensure that enough staff have undergone the necessary training in caring for babies.

Weaknesses in leaders' ongoing monitoring of the quality of provision means that they do not identify key areas for improvement, including where there are breaches to requirements. For instance, leaders have not recognised the weaknesses in risk assessments across the setting or the need to improve strategies to better support children's behaviour. Leaders have also not considered the impact of admitting a high number of babies into the small, designated baby area, or the subsequent impact on staff workload. The number of children in the limited size of the indoor and outdoor spaces makes it a challenge to successfully meet the needs of all children and provide quality learning experiences.

Despite previously receiving a notice to improve with an action relating to failure to meet suitable people requirements, there continues to be breaches to the statutory requirements. This demonstrates the provider is not able to sustain improvements and comply with the requirements of their registration.

Leaders do not have organised systems in place for record-keeping and this impacts on how well policies and procedures are followed, including in relation to recording information about Disclosure and Barring Service checks and child protection concerns.

Parents do explain that they have received support from the setting with their children's development, for instance by improving sleeping routines. They explain they are pleased with the feedback they receive from staff.