Littlemill Early Childhood Centre Day Care of Children
Littlemill Rankinston Ayr KA6 7HJ
Telephone: 01292 590221
Type of inspection: Unannounced Inspection completed on: 20 April 2018
Service provided by: Service provider number: East Ayrshire Council SP2003000142
Care service number: CS2003015815 Inspection report
About the service
This service transferred registration to the Care Inspectorate on 1 April 2011.
Littlemill Early Childhood Centre is registered to provide a daycare service to a maximum of 10 children aged from 3 years to those not yet attending primary school.
The service is provided by East Ayrshire Council and managed by the head teacher of Dalrymple and Littlemill Primary School. Littlemill primary school's principal teacher assumes day-to-day responsibility for the work of the service and liaises with the head teacher over management decisions.
The service is based in the primary school in the village of Rankinston in East Ayrshire. It is in one large playroom which is divided into different play zones. It has its own adjoining toilet facilities. There is direct access to a large enclosed outdoor play area. The nursery also makes good use of other areas within the school and the local community.
A copy of the service aims and objectives are available.
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 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. Getting it right for every child 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 'Getting It Right For Every Child'. 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
During our inspection we spoke with 6 children who were eager to tell us about their time in the nursery. The children told us they enjoyed attending the nursery, they liked their teachers and they enjoyed playing with their friends. We observed the children enjoy taking part in a range of good quality activities.
Throughout this report, any reference to 'parents' also includes carers and guardians.
Prior to inspection, we sent 3 care standards questionnaires to the manager to distribute to parents using the service. We received 1 completed questionnaires prior to this inspection. The respondent to our questionnaire agreed that they were happy with the quality of care provided by the service.
During inspection we spoke with 4 parents who all felt they had good opportunities to be involved in the nursery, comments they made included;
"Very happy, I feel that the children are settled and they are experiencing a great range of activities."
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"My child has made excellent progress, I feel that the staff are very approachable."
"The staff are friendly and kind, they know all the children very well."
"Staff go over and above what they need to do. I feel that they have provided support to my child and my family."
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 not assessed Quality of staffing not assessed Quality of management and leadership 5 - Very Good
What the service does well
We saw that families and children were welcomed on arrival and staff had time to listen and chat with the children and their families at both arrival and departure times. Parents we spoke with told us that they spoke with staff on a regular basis. They found staff to be approachable and were confident that any concerns would be addressed.
We found that staff were skilled in developing relationships with children and parents. Children were being nurtured in an inclusive environment where their achievements were recognised and celebrated. Staff recognised where individual children would benefit from additional support and they had worked hard to ensure that children's needs were met.
Staff had been receptive to change, they were eager to ensure they provided a fun nurturing environment for the children. Staff were utilising the 'Leuven Scale of Engagement' to observe the children in a range of scenarios. Staff are committed to providing very effective Nursery to P1 transition experiences.
Children were supported to learn about healthy lifestyles within the service. We saw the children had good opportunities to be independent, they helped prepare and serve at snack time and they were encouraged to put their own shoes/jackets on for outdoor play..
Staff told us of their plans to use ideas from training attended to further extend outdoor play opportunities. Children's ideas and views were gathered on a regular basis. Staff used this to influence their planning. This offered children opportunity to contribute to planned experiences.
All parents we spoke with during inspection spoke highly of the staff team, they felt that the staff were caring towards their children. We saw that relationships were warm and friendly.
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The principal teacher, who had delegated responsibility for the day-to-day management of the service, told us they planned to undertake a range improvements. This included additional systems to monitor and assess quality across the service including. Staff we spoke with during inspection confirmed they had been consulted and were contributing in developing quality assurance systems throughout the early childhood centre.
What the service could do better
During this inspection, our observations highlighted that children's experiences within the setting could be further developed. For example mark making tools could be improved on in the outdoor area and additional open-ended resources and natural materials would stimulate the children's natural curiosity, learning and creativity (recommendation 1).
Discussion with staff and management during this inspection highlighted that staff did not always use the current best practice guidance when planning the service. We shared current guidance with the service and discussed methods that would support staff to ensure they had access to current best practice information (recommendation 2).
During our inspection we spoke with the management team on progress made meeting a recommendation made in their previous inspection, staff appraisal and supervision should be implemented as planned. We found that staff supervision was still being developed and the current principal teacher was awaiting training for conducting staff appraisal. We have asked the service to continue to develop and progress staff supervision and appraisal processes.
Requirements Number of requirements: 0
Recommendations Number of recommendations: 2
1. Littlemill Early Childhood Centre should expand opportunities for children by providing activities and resources that extend the children's social, creative, physical and learning experiences. This is to ensure that care and support is consistent with the Health and Social Care Standards which state that as a child, I can direct my own play and activities in the way that I choose, and freely access a wide range of experiences and resources suitable for my age and stage, which stimulate my natural curiosity, learning and creativity (HSCS 2.27)
2. Littlemill Early Childhood Centre should ensure staff use current best practice guidance to direct their practice. This is to ensure that care and support is consistent with the Health and Social Care Standards which state that, I experience high quality care and support based on relevant evidence, guidance and best practice (HSCS 4.11)
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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 4 Jun 2015 Unannounced Care and support 5 - Very good Environment 5 - Very good Staffing 5 - Very good Management and leadership 4 - Good
27 Feb 2013 Unannounced Care and support 4 - Good Environment 4 - Good Staffing 4 - Good Management and leadership 4 - Good
19 Nov 2008 Unannounced Care and support 5 - Very good Environment 5 - Very 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.
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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