Doodlebugs Day Nursery (Aberuthven) Day Care of Children
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Doodlebugs Day Nursery (Aberuthven) Day Care of Children Main Street Aberuthven Auchterarder PH3 1HE Telephone: 01764 662266 Type of inspection: Unannounced Completed on: 6 August 2018 Service provided by: Service provider number: Doodlebugs Day Nurseries Ltd SP2013012143 Service no: CS2013319773 Inspection report About the service Doodlebugs Day Nursery (Aberuthven) is located on the outskirts of the village of Aberuthven in a purpose built, two-storey building. Playrooms for the oldest and youngest children are located on the upper floor with children aged between one and three cared for in two rooms on the ground floor. Children on the ground floor have direct access to a well-resourced, enclosed nursery garden. The nursery is one of two privately owned daycare of children services, operated by Doodlebugs Day Nurseries Ltd. The service works in partnership with Perth and Kinross Council to provide funded early learning and childcare. At present the nursery is registered to provide a care service to a maximum of 74 children up to the age of eight years at any one time which includes a maximum of; - Nineteen children under two years - Twenty-one children aged two to three years - Thirty-four children aged three to those not yet attending primary school of whom there can be a maximum of 10 children of primary school age up to the age of eight years. We check services are meeting the principles of Getting it Right for Every Child (also known as 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. It supports them and their parent(s) to work with the services that can help them. There are eight wellbeing indicators at the heart of Getting it Right for Every Child: safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible and included. They are often referred to as the SHANARRI wellbeing indicators. The nursery has developed a comprehensive list of aims and objectives which include: 'We provide a loving and caring environment in which we encourage all children's personal, physical, social, spiritual, intellectual and emotional development. We provide a safe and clean environment which promotes health, individuality, dignity and an opportunity for fun, free from any discrimination such as racism or sexism. We feel children learn best through child led play supported by a variety of resources designed to encourage imagination, curiosity, discovery and fun!' A list of further aims is available by contacting the service. We wrote this report following an unannounced inspection which took place on 6 August 2018. At the end of our inspection we gave feedback to the owner and the managers of the service. Inspection report for Doodlebugs Day Nursery (Aberuthven) page 2 of 7 Inspection report What people told us We provided the service with 25 Care Standards Questionnaires (CSQs) for parents of children using the service. Seventeen completed questionnaires were returned to us before our inspection. We had the opportunity to speak with a parent on the day of inspection. The parent we spoke to and the parents who completed our questionnaires agreed or strongly agreed that they were happy with the quality of care and support their child receives while in the service. The parent confirmed some of the comments eceived.r Some comments included: 'We are very confident that Doodlebugs is a safe environment for our children. They have both settled in well and look forward to going. We have been especially happy with the provision of a healthy vegetarian diet which is well planned and excellent in terms of variety. The team is so warm and welcoming and we really do feel as if we're part of a family.' 'Doodlebugs is a friendly, happy nursery. Staff always take time to keep me informed of how my child's day has been. Noting what activities or projects they have worked on as well as informing me of his behaviour.' 'Care and services are wonderful. The only negative is that I find the exterior and some interior areas a little tired and in need of a spruce up.' 'A fantastic nursery where my child is nurtured, cared for and educated to the best standards.' 'The staff are professional and friendly and most importantly approachable.' Two comments sharing concerns were noted in the questionnaires. We explored these comments with the owner and managers throughout our inspection and during feedback. During the inspection we observed the children at play and found them to be happy and confident, enjoying their activities, lunches and snacks. The children were happy to tell us about the nursery and the things they enjoyed doing there and to involve us in their play. They told us: 'I'm making a cake, you can help me. Could you mix it?' 'Where do you live? I live near here in Auchterarder.' 'I've finished now, would you like my seat?' 'It feels like sausage rolls! It's stuck on my fingers.' (yoghurt putty). Inspection report for Doodlebugs Day Nursery (Aberuthven) page 3 of 7 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 not assessed What the service does well During the inspection we considered the quality of care and support, from the evidence gathered during our inspection we evaluated this theme as very good. We considered the quality of the environment which we also evaluated as very good. We spoke with staff about the service's child protection policy. We were satisfied that they had a good working knowledge of their responsibilities and the procedures to ensure that service users were protected. We saw that the staff knew the children and their families well, they enjoyed positive nurturing relationships. Information was shared at the beginning and end of the day. We saw staff who were responsive to the children's and parent's needs, taking into account, for the youngest children, sleep, mood and changes to routines. Across the whole nursery children approached staff for help and reassurance, demonstrating strong trusting relationships. This was reflected in the way children spoke to and looked after each other. We observed children offering hugs to each other for comfort and supporting each other during their play. Children, in all rooms, experienced a broad range of learning experiences and activities. These were well documented in children's floorbooks and recorded in children's learning journals. We looked at children's learning journals and profiles and oundf the majority of these contained good records of children's personal learning. The outdoor environment had been very well-considered providing a number of zoned areas. We observed children to be busy and purposeful, interacting well together and making good use of the space and resources available to them. We saw how they were able to use a wide range of 'loose parts' (the provision of open-ended resources) and more traditional resources to work collaboratively and creatively. Staff made the most of the parks to ensure children had the opportunity to access open spaces to be active, run freely and explore in all weathers. Most staff were skilled in encouraging children to try for themselves, they encouraged children to problem solve and take positive risks with freedom and guidance to learn from their choices. The indoor environments had been well-considered, with a focus on loose parts, heuristic and traditional resources. Staff were responsive to children's interests and made changes to the environment as required. We saw good use of mind maps in the rooms for older children which ensured children had the opportunity to share their thoughts and opinions and be included in the planning of the environment and activities. Inspection report for Doodlebugs Day Nursery (Aberuthven) page 4 of 7 Inspection report The standard of meals and snacks provided for the children are of a very high standard. Menus were very well planned and shared with all parents and carers. The cook shared recipes and regularly consulted with children and their families on their own favourite recipes, including them in her menus where appropriate. Parents spoke about how their own ideas for weaning were met and how the cook supported them with their suggestions. This helped to ensure children were healthy and parents were included with their views and opinions respected. What the service could do better Staff should review their medication permissions in line with the most recent best practice documents. Where paracetamol based medication is being held by the service as an emergency medication, staff should ensure that they record the temperature when this should be given. More detail should be recorded across all medications to ensure staff are clear about when medication should be administered. Where emergency medication is required, these should be stored appropriately in the room where the child attends. We discussed the lunchtime service and asked staff to consider how this could be developed to ensure they were encouraging children to become independent and responsible. We would like to have seen children in the 3-5 room provided with table knives to promote good table manners and eating habits. The service should continue to build on their provision of crockery and cutlery to further promote responsibility and respect. In some rooms children were asked to wait for long periods of time, especially when children were getting ready to go outside or for the lunchtime service.