Carstairs Junction Primary Nursery Class Day Care of Children

Home , South Lanarkshire

Coronation Street Carstairs Junction Lanark ML11 8QY

Telephone: 01555 870301

Type of inspection: Unannounced

Completed on: 8 November 2018

Service provided by: Service provider number: South Lanarkshire Council SP2003003481

Service no: CS2003015281 Inspection report

About the service

The Care Inspectorate regulates care services in Scotland. Information about all care services is available on our website at www.careinspectorate.com.

This service was previously registered with the Care Commission and transferred its registration to the Care Inspectorate on 1 April 2011.

Carstairs Junction Primary Nursery Class is registered to provide care to a maximum of 20 children aged from three years to those not yet attending primary school. The provider is South Lanarkshire Council.

The service is located in the rural village of Carstairs Junction, South Lanarkshire. The nursery is part of Carstairs Junction Primary School. Children have access to a bright interconnecting playroom and an enclosed garden. They can also make use of the school gym hall, multi use games area, dining hall and sensory room.

The service aims to ensure that every child achieves their full potential in an inclusive, supportive, safe, stimulating and motivating environment.

All areas of the nursery were in operation during our inspection. We found that 21 children were using the service on the day we inspected.

The Care Inspectorate is committed to improving the health and wellbeing of all children receiving a care service. We want to ensure they have the best start in life, are ready to succeed and live longer, healthier lives. We check services are meeting the principles of Getting It Right For Every Child (also known as GIRFEC). Set up by the Scottish Government, GIRFEC is a national approach to working in a consistent way with all children and young people. It is underpinned by the principles of prevention and early intervention. The approach helps services focus on what makes a positive difference for children and young people - and what they can do to improve. GIRFEC is being woven into all policy, practice, strategy and legislation that affect children, young people and their families.

There are eight wellbeing indicators at the heart of GIRFEC. They are: safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible, and included. They are often referred to as the SHANARRI indicators. We use these indicators at inspection, to assess how services are making a positive difference for children.

What people told us

For this inspection, we received verbal views from three parents whose children attended the service. They told us they were very happy with the care that their children received at the service. People spoke highly about the friendly and supportive staff. They also commented positively on the quality of children's learning and said that they liked the online learning journals that had recently been introduced.

We observed children at play and found them to be happy within the nursery environment. Children were particularly busy in the nursery garden and building area. The children gave us their verbal views on the service. They talked positively about their experiences at nursery. Some of their comments are noted below;

"We've been doing lots of stuff every day. We've been doing We're Going on a Bear Hunt." "We are excited because we are going to the park tomorrow." "Look at this play-dough, it's good." "The puddles are the best in the garden."

Inspection report for Carstairs Junction Primary Nursery Class page 2 of 6 Inspection report

Self assessment

The service had not been asked to complete a self-assessment in advance of the inspection. We looked at their own improvement plan and quality assurance paperwork. These demonstrated their priorities for development and how they were monitoring the quality of the provision within the service.

From this inspection we graded this service as:

Quality of care and support 5 - Very Good Quality of environment 5 - Very Good Quality of staffing not assessed Quality of management and leadership 3 - Adequate

What the service does well

Children received very good care from staff who were kind, loving and responsive to their needs. Children confidently asked orf help when they needed it and staff listened to them and responded, treating them with respect. Comfort and cuddles were also offered when needed, helping children feel secure, loved and valued.

The atmosphere in the nursery was relaxed and welcoming. Parents spent extended time in nursery as part of regular stay and play sessions. On the day we visited, many parents had joined the service on a fundraising teddy bear walk. Parents told us they enjoyed this time and found it useful to see what their children were doing at nursery. At the end of each nursery session, a member of staff was available to engage in informal chats with parents about their child's time at nursery. This provided good opportunities for discussions about how best to meet children's needs.

Children's views were sought and their choices were respected. Planning was responsive to the interests of children. For example, when a child mentioned that a dinosaur lived in a swamp, the staff created a swamp role play area outside using sand, mud, slime and leaves. Incorporation of children's interests ensured they were motivated to play and learn.

Children played outside every day and regularly explored a natural environment. Access to the nursery garden from the playroom was free-flow, meaning children could make choices about where they wanted to play. The children also regularly made use of the school's multi use games area, and visited the nearby forest. Staff embraced muddy play and had been developing a mud kitchen outside. Children had great fun as they splashed in puddles and created imaginary meals using water, mud, leaves and sticks.

Children were becoming more resilient because they had opportunities to make informed decisions about positive risk taking. For example, they climbed and jumped from wooden crates and used ramps with their bikes.

Transitions between home and nursery were nurtured as children had the opportunity to bring items from home to nursery. Children proudly showed us their teddies from home on the day of inspection. Children were also encouraged to bring their bikes or scooters to nursery on a Wednesday for 'wheelie Wednesday'.

Staff had a clear understanding of how to protect children from harm. They were alert and responsive to any signs of deterioration in children's wellbeing and worked closely to help keep them safe. The manager had a very good understanding of how to support families within her child protection role.

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What the service could do better

The service told us they were keen to change the way that they displayed children's art work. We agreed that this would be a positive step to show children more clearly how their creations were valued. We suggested focusing on the process of art work instead of the end product, so that children's work displayed reflected their experiences in nursery.

Loose parts were gradually being introduced to each area of the nursery. We encouraged the service to continue developing this. Loose parts are materials that can be moved, manipulated and changed within play; for example, a stick can become a wand, a walking stick or a mixing utensil. Increased access to loose parts play capture children's curiosity and imagination during play.

The service was registered to provide a care service to a maximum of 20 children at any one time. On the day of the inspection we found that 21 children were attending, and viewed attendance registers which showed that more than 20 children were attending on other days of the week. The provider had applied to the Care Inspectorate to increase their capacity, but this variation had not been granted at the time of the inspection. We were confident that the provider understood their responsibility to comply with their conditions of registration and the procedures for varying conditions of registration, including timescales. However, increased their number of children despite this. This could have resulted in children being required to move to another service and could have impacted on their care and wellbeing and that of their families.

Following the inspection visit, we undertook an assessment of the variation application which proposed that additional space within the premises would be used to accommodate more children. This resulted in the variation to increase the numbers of children being cared for being agreed. We are now satisfied that the service is complying with it's new conditions of registration, and that children are cared for in an appropriate environment.

We discussed with the provider the importance of planning for any expansion more carefully in future. This will ensure that the environment is suitable to meet the needs of children.

Requirements Number of requirements: 0

Recommendations Number of recommendations: 1

1. The provider should ensure that future expansion plans are well led and managed. This will ensure that children's care and support is provided in a planned and safe way. To achieve this, consideration should be given to how and when key stakeholders, including the service manager are involved and communicated with.

This is to ensure that children's care and support is consistent with the Health and Social Care Standard's which state "I use a service and organisation that is well led and well managed" (HSCS 4.23) and "My care and support meets my needs and is right for me" (HSCS 1.19).

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Complaints

There have been no complaints upheld since the last inspection. Details of any older upheld complaints are published at www.careinspectorate.com.

Inspection and grading history

Date Type Gradings 12 Nov 2015 Unannounced Care and support 5 - Very good Environment 5 - Very good Staffing 5 - Very good Management and leadership 5 - Very good

14 Nov 2012 Unannounced Care and support 4 - Good Environment 4 - Good Staffing 4 - Good Management and leadership 4 - Good

22 Nov 2011 Unannounced Care and support 4 - Good Environment 4 - Good Staffing 3 - Adequate Management and leadership 4 - Good

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To find out more

This inspection report is published by the Care Inspectorate. You can download this report and others from our website.

Care services in Scotland cannot operate unless they are registered with the Care Inspectorate. We inspect, award grades and help services to improve. We also investigate complaints about care services and can take action when things aren't good enough.

Please get in touch with us if you would like more information or have any concerns about a care service.

You can also read more about our work online at www.careinspectorate.com

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Other languages and formats

This report is available in other languages and formats on request.

Tha am foillseachadh seo ri fhaighinn ann an cruthannan is cànain eile ma nithear iarrtas.

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