An Openshaw nursery has been dealt a double blow after being deemed ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted AND in need of ‘major improvement’ by the Food Standards Agency.
And Happy Bears, on Ashton Old Road, is still displaying their old ‘good’ rating from an Ofsted report from May 2014 – a rating they only managed to hold onto for one year after receiving another ‘inadequate’ report.
In March this year, the nursery was given the lowest of the Ofsted ratings in all areas inspected, including their provisions for the ‘well-being of children’.
Inspector Stephanie Nixon said: “The leadership and management team is inadequate. Safeguarding practices are not checked well enough by managers and they are not fully understood by all staff.
“Records about safeguarding concerns, and other sensitive information are not stored in ways which ensure confidentiality.
“The manager is new in post and has not had time to check the work of the staff team.
“Consequently, some concerns about children have not been referred without delay, to the appropriate authorities. This does not help in keeping children safe from harm.”
It was not just the endangerment of children that was highlighted in Ms Nixon’s report summary, but also the ‘inconsistent’ teaching and lack of opportunities for children to be active or develop their creativity.
She said: “The quality of teaching is inconsistent; not all staff have a good enough knowledge and understanding of the areas of learning and how children learn.
“This impacts on staffs’ ability to plan activities that reflect children’s interests.
“In addition, staff do not organise and explain activities well enough to children.
“This results in the children quickly losing interest, which impacts significantly on their ability to learn and experience new things.
“Children have very limited opportunities to develop their creative skills.
“This is because resources are limited in this area and staff do not use existing resources well.
“Staff rarely plan activities that support children’s individual needs.
“In addition, when children are playing outdoors staff do not provide enough opportunities for children to move in different ways.
“This therefore limits how children develop and improve their physical skills.”
Happy Bears’ FSA inspection took place in February to assess the nursery’s preparation and serving of food to children but it received the second lowest possible ranking.
The rating of one is listed in the report under the heading ‘major improvement needed’.
Four key problems highlighted by the FSA included the storage of raw chicken next to ‘ready-to-eat’ flapjacks and a lack of anti-bacterial wipes.
Other problems mentioned were a lack of pest control records, poor implementation of the FSA food safety pack and ‘poor stock management in the refrigerator’.
MM contacted Happy Bears Nursery but they declined to comment.
Image courtesy of Google Mpas, with thanks.
