Arthurlie Family Centre Day Care of Children
Auchenback Hub Auburn Drive Barrhead Glasgow G78 2EU
Telephone: 0141 570 7500
Type of inspection: Unannounced
Completed on: 27 February 2020
Service provided by: Service provider number: East Renfrewshire Council SP2003003372
Service no: CS2003014611 Inspection report
About the service
Arthurlie Family Centre is provided by East Renfrewshire Council and has been registered with the Care Inspectorate since 1 April 2011. It is registered to provide a care service for a maximum of 170 children not yet attending primary school of whom no more than 50 are under three years old and of whom no more than 15 are under two years.
The service is based in a purpose built community hub within the Barrhead area of East Renfrewshire and includes free flow access orf children to their safely enclosed outdoor play areas. The service aims include: "Providing a safe and stimulating environment in which children feel happy and secure. Encouraging positive attitudes to self and others and by developing confidence and self esteem. Encouraging children to reach their full potential in each aspect of development and learning."
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 (GIRFEC); Scotland's national approach to improving outcomes and wellbeing for children by offering the right help at the right time from the right people. GIRFEC supports children and their parents to work with the services that can help them. There are eight wellbeing indicators at the heart of GIRFEC: safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible and included.
What people told us
Children attending on the day of inspection were observed as happy, busy and engaged. Positive, nurturing relationships had developed between staff and the children as well as with the children themselves. We found the whole staff team were very kind and caring with respectful approaches observed.
We found staff responded in a sensitive and supportive manner to the children during play, for example, as they: rolled out, shaped and moulded playdough to make 'lemon flavoured' pancakes; engaged in role play as domestic pets during home corner play; designed a variety of towers and buildings with large wooden blocks; experimented with early writing and mark making at a drawing table; developed number awareness including one to one correspondence at table top counting activity; engaged in friendly conversations in a tent; participated in energetic play including sliding down muddy slopes outdoors.
We issued 70 questionnaires for parents and carers, 27 were completed and returned before the writing of this report. Feedback from parents and carers was very positive and wide ranging. They 'strongly agreed' or 'agreed' with the following statements about the family centre:
'My child and I were able to visit the service before starting to use it.'
'The staff encourage my child to form positive relationships with other? children.'
'My child appears happy and confident with the staff.'
'The staff treat any information about my child as confidential, and only? share information where appropriate.'
'I am confident that staff have the skills and experience to care for my child and support their learning and development.'
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'The service has a suitable range of equipment, toys and materials for the children. The staff treat my child fairly and with respect.'
'The service is a safe, secure, hygienic, smoke free, pleasant and stimulating environment.' I am confident that the staff will protect my child from harm, abuse, bullying and neglect. The staff treat my child fairly and with respect.'
'The staff ask for my child's views about the activities and outings, and use them to plan future activities. My child regularly gets fresh air and energetic physical play. There is enough space for the children to play and get involved in a range ?of activities. 'The service has involved me and my child in developing the service, for? example asking for ideas and feedback. 'Overall I am happy with the quality of care my child receives in this service.'
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 provision within the service.
From this inspection we graded this service as:
Quality of care and support 6 - Excellent Quality of environment not assessed Quality of staffing 5 - Very Good Quality of management and leadership not assessed
What the service does well
The service's planning approaches for children's care, learning and development ensured they experienced high quality outcomes. Throughout the various indoor and outdoor play sessions we observed it was clear that children experienced sensitive and respectful caregiving. We observed staff being consistently responsive to children's changeable interests and demands. Children were spoken and listened to in ways that encouraged them to feel valued and included. Staff followed an effective system for recording children's play and learning and made use of and shared this information with parents. This encouraged genuine partnerships that respected parents' knowledge of their children. Children's voice was evident within their individual learning journals and planning big books. Planning systems contributed to continuity in children's care and helped to ensure staff followed a consistent approach to supporting children's development through play.
Staff demonstrated a comprehensive understanding of the policies and procedures in place to ensure care and welfare of children including children protection. All staff received regular professional learning in safeguarding and told us they were confident in dealing with child protection concerns. The head teacher had undertaken enhanced child protection training to support her role as child protection co-ordinator, ensuring continued safeguarding of children within the centre.
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Staff had reflected on current attachment research to develop comprehensive transition arrangements within the service. This focussed on building positive expectations about change, fostering children's emotional resilience, and promoting social competence and self-esteem. The transition programme included: home visits by staff to create individual transition plans that reflected children' and parents' needs; initial 'taster sessions ' to introduce children to life within the centre; on-going dialogue with families as children transitioned between each playroom stage; working in partnership with receiving primary schools supported by family information sessions. Staff had shared the successes of this initiative within a local network of other early learning and childcare providers influencing professional thinking and practice beyond their own setting.
Staff were given opportunities to take on leadership roles in other areas of the curriculum in which they had identified a particular interest or strength. These covered a wide range of areas such as numeracy, literacy, health and well-being, parental engagement, musicality and eco-approaches. The distributive management style contributed to positive outcomes by increasing the range of approaches available to meet children's individual needs.
What the service could do better
We highlighted a need to enhance the frequency and detail of recording of next steps for children's play within children's individual learning journals This can ensure each journal becomes a more meaningful planning tool, is forward looking and more closely reflects the links and challenges available to children through play.
We discussed with staff a range of observation and planning approaches that focus on capturing and responding to the play interest of a child or group of children in the present moment. Staff agreed that further adaptations to their evolving systems for recognising children's play interests could enhance opportunities for child-initiated play. It will extend opportunities for staff to reflect on when children display deep level engagement within play spaces and support them to provide greater autonomy and choice as to how this will be taken forward.
We highlighted the value of linking staff observations of patterns of the youngest children's play behaviour or 'schemas' to children's individual learning journals. This approach can help staff to identify what will hold individual children's interest as well as help them with the stage of development that they are currently working through. It can consolidate existing approaches to recognising children's achievements and demonstrate how the nursery's approach to supporting children's play is personalised.
We reviewed children's personal care plans, medical administration records and storage systems. We identified a need to ensure more space was available within filing cabinets to ensure efficient access to children's emergency medication. The senior management team agreed this will enhance the robust systems already in place for ensuring all staff understood and were responsive to children's particular medication needs.
We highlighted to staff the benefits of eflectingr on and eviewingr the balance of free-flow and structured small group activities including story time sessions that children typically experienced across the daily playroom routines. Staff agreed to continue to monitor and review their approaches to ensure opportunities for children to engage in challenging and purposeful play were maximised.
Requirements Number of requirements: 0
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Recommendations Number of recommendations: 0
Complaints
There have been no complaints upheld since the last inspection. Details of any older upheld complaints are published at www.careinspectorate.com.
What the service has done to meet any requirements we made at or since the last inspection
Previous requirements
There are no outstanding requirements.
What the service has done to meet any recommendations we made at or since the last inspection
Previous recommendations
There are no outstanding recommendations.
Inspection and grading history
Date Type Gradings 12 Dec 2017 Unannounced Care and support 5 - Very good Environment 5 - Very good Staffing Not assessed Management and leadership Not assessed
24 Feb 2016 Unannounced Care and support 5 - Very good
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Date Type Gradings Environment 5 - Very good Staffing 5 - Very good Management and leadership 5 - Very good
27 Feb 2013 Unannounced Care and support 5 - Very good Environment 5 - Very good Staffing 5 - Very good Management and leadership 5 - Very good
21 Feb 2012 Unannounced Care and support 5 - Very good Environment 4 - Good Staffing 5 - Very good Management and leadership 5 - Very 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.
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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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