Ofsted rate Chipping Sodbury nursery as inadequate as 'children at significant risk of harm'

Raysfield Preschool, Chipping Sodbury were first inspected by Ofsted on March 8, and found inadequate in all four categories.

In the damning report Oftsed inspectors Karen Allen and Lisa Large said the provider was not meeting a number of requirements and said the provision had failed to keep the children safe.

The officers said children's safety and welfare were compromised after finding the premises not secure, meaning anyone can access the children without being challenged and that children can leave the premises unsupervised.

They also said children's safety was compromised by staff taking home images and CCTV of the children.

The report said:"The manager and staff fail to implement the setting's risk assessment procedures to keep children safe. They do not ensure that staff are well deployed or that children are supervised effectively at all times."

The inspectors said that there is an insufficient understanding of what they want children to learn and that 'most learning is incidental.'

The report also said that "Children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, spend long periods of time with limited interaction with staff and play alone or wander aimlessly.

"They do not follow the correct safeguarding procedures to inform the local authority designated officer or Ofsted when allegations are made against staff. This puts children at significant risk of harm."

Inspectors found that the entrance doors were were not secured and said this 'means that individuals can access children without challenge from staff or children can leave unsupervised.'

The report went on to say that staff did not supervise children effectively at all times and miss occasions where children physically hurt others.

It said staff in the baby room struggled to meet all children's needs and put them at a risk of choking:

"They do not notice that children with additional needs lie upside down in the soft-play corner and drink from a bottle. Staff sit with their backs to babies in high chairs who are eating their lunch while they tend to other children. These failures put children at risk of choking,"the report stated.

It also said they do not promote children's good health well enough including saying children are left in dirty nappies on outings and not given drink with meals.

However the report did also state: "Staff are friendly and demonstrate they are caring. Some children show they are happy and settled."

A spokesperson for Raysfield Pre-school said: “We accept the findings of the Ofsted report and are disappointed for letting our families down. We addressed the safeguarding concerns raised quickly and are determined to make this right. We are using this as an opportunity to review our practices and to get our preschool back to the high standard it was.

"We are working closely with Ofsted and the Local Authority to ensure we take all the appropriate actions needed to improve”

On March 31, the Watchdog made a second visit to the site to ensure safeguarding and welfare actions had been met, they say some had, but 'not all'.

Another legal welfare requirements notice was served for the actions that were not met.

You can read the full report here.