The 82-place nursery was inspected on 17 March and downgraded from good to inadequate.
Busy Bees Childcare said it was 'very disappointed with the overall outcome, however immediately put an action plan in place to address the points raised by the inspection team.'
Within its Ofsted report, the inspector highlights a failure of staff to ‘notice and remove risks in the environment’, including trailing wires within easy reach from a ‘music centre’ and giving children ‘tiny bottles of bubble mixture to play with unsupervised, placing them at significant risk of harm.’
The report also found that interactions with children are ‘poor’ and staff do not ‘consistently manage children’s behaviour to help them understand right from wrong’
It goes on to acknowledge that there have been ‘many staff changes’ at the setting, which is due to staff leaving and sickness, and says as a result, the key-person system is ‘weak’. The report mentions babies being unsettled for long periods of time because the only member of staff who knew them well was deployed in the kitchen to cook.
A lack of knowledge of all child protection and safeguarding among new members of staff and those providing cover, such as agency staff, is also highlighted within the Ofsted report.
It states, ‘The provider has not ensured that the newly appointed manager has the time and resources she needs to ensure the safe and effective running of the setting. Staff do not get the support they need to understand their individual roles and responsibilities or to improve their practice. As a result, the quality of care and education practice is weak across the setting. Children are exposed to undue risks in the environment.
‘This is because staff do not implement the setting's procedures for risk assessment well enough. The required staff qualifications and ratio requirements are not always
maintained. In addition, staff are not deployed well. As a result, there are times
when children's needs are not met and accidents to children occur due to the lack of supervision.’
The report does however acknowledge that parents are happy with ‘the level of service provided for them and their children.’
Ofsted gave the nursery until 31 March to make a number of improvements.
Busy Bees said a team from its National Support Centre has been working with staff at the nursery, providing training and support to ensure they meet the standards expected. Also, that the 'management team has been strengthened and significant progress has been made in key areas around quality, operational practice and safety.'
The nursery group's operations director Chris Coxhead commented, 'We acknowledge that there were areas found during the inspection where we could do better, however immediately following the visit we took action to address all the points identified by the inspectors.
'The care of children in our nursery is at the heart of all we do and we apologise to parents and children for letting them down on this occasion. Our staff team at Altrincham are working really hard and we are keeping parents up to date with all the steps we are taking and the progress that is being made at the nursery. We are committed to providing the best possible experience for both children and parents and I am sure there will be a much improved outcome when Ofsted return.'
