Little People of Habergham

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision requires improvement Recently, the setting has been through a lot of staff changes.

This has led to a decline in standards. As a result, there are breaches of requirements that have a negative impact on children's care and education. The new senior leadership team is working with staff to implement improvement plans.

They have already started to take action to address some identified weaknesses. However, these are still in their infancy and not yet having the desired effect to raise the overall quality of the setting. There are times when there are not enough qualified staff on site.

In addition, the setting often relies on temporary... staff or staff from sister settings. This means these staff do not always know the children well enough to meet their care or educational needs consistently. Some aspects of the intended curriculum are not consistently implemented to a good standard.

In addition, some interactions with children are weak. As a result, children do not make the progress they are capable of. Due to staffing issues, a small number of permanent staff are expected to have a high number of key children to oversee.

This has a negative impact on some partnerships with parents. Despite these weaknesses, children are happy and cared for by kind and attentive staff. The intended curriculum for helping children develop their independence and personal, social and emotional skills is implemented well overall.

As a result, children have high levels of self-confidence and self-esteem and, in the main, have a positive attitude to learn. Staff are good role models. Consequently, children are well-mannered, respectful and behave well.

What does the early years setting do well and what does it need to do better?

Despite leader's best efforts, there are times when the correct adult-to-child ratios are not maintained. Staff are also expected to do tasks, such as cooking. This limits the time they get to spend supporting children's learning.

In addition, during these times, the environment can become a little disorganised and chaotic. This results in some children not engaging well enough and, therefore hinders their enjoyment of the activities and the progress they make.Leaders do not currently ensure that staff receive enough targeted support to help them raise the quality of their practice and implement the curriculum to a consistently good standard.

For example, during group activities, staff often focus their attention on more confident children. In doing so, they miss opportunities to include less confident children. Additionally, they do not always adapt activities quickly enough to ensure that all children can follow their own thinking and ways of learning.

This means children quickly lose interest, become bored and wander off. That said, a lot of work has been done with staff to ensure that their well-being is supported.The manager does not ensure that temporary staff receive support and guidance to help them understand and implement the setting's nappy change procedures.

These staff do not use the personal protective wear that is available. In addition, they sanitise the change mat in between changing children. This compromises children's health.

The key-person system is not effective to maintain positive relationships with all parents. Some parents are concerned that as of late, there has been a decline in the amount and quality of information they receive about their child. For example, due to staff changes, some parents do not know who their child's key person is.

Additionally, they do not always feel fully informed about their child's day, or how they can continue to support children's learning at home. This has a negative impact on the progress children make. That said, parents say that they are confident that their children are safe and secure in the setting.

Some parents also said that they can see some positive changes beginning to happen.Children's physical development is supported well. Babies and toddlers explore different textures, such as shaving foam and paint with their hands.

Older children confidently scale equipment, use plastic hoops and display good small physical skills. For example, they confidently thread beads onto a lace and demonstrate their good hand-eye coordination, as they insert a pencil into a small pencil sharpener.Staff help children to develop a love of books and reading.

Babies sit with staff and snuggle in to hear their favourite story. Older children select a familiar book and discuss this with the staff. Older children predict what might happen next and imaginatively make up their own ending.

These experiences also support children's communication and language development.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Children are helped by the staff to take sensible risks and to develop an understanding of how to keep themselves safe.

For example, babies and toddlers scale low-level equipment under the close supervision of the staff. Older children are invited by staff to undertake a risk assessment in the outdoor area. The setting is safe and secure.

Staff have attended safeguarding training and all staff hold a valid paediatric first-aid qualification. All staff have a secure understanding of the safeguarding roles and responsibilities. This includes what they need to do should they be concerned about another staff member.

There are robust recruitment and vetting procedures in place. This ensures that staff are suitable and safe to work with children.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage, the provider must: Due date ensure there are enough qualified staff to meet the minimum adult-to-child ratio requirements 11/08/2023 improve the key-person arrangements so that all parents know who their child's key person is and that they are provided with information to continue children's at home 25/08/2023 implement planned activities in a way that ensures all children are included and have opportunities to follow their own thinking and ideas 25/08/2023 implement targeted supervision, coaching, and monitoring of staff practice to help raise the quality of educational practice to a consistently good level across the team.

25/08/2023