Happitots Day Nursery - Garrowhill Day Care of Children
61 Maxwell Drive Garrowhill Glasgow G69 6RP
Telephone: 0141 773 4153
Type of inspection: Unannounced
Completed on: 11 April 2019
Service provided by: Service provider number: Bertram Nurseries Limited SP2003002955
Service no: CS2003005988 Inspection report
About the service
Happitots Day Nursery - Garrowhill registered with the Care Inspectorate in April 2011. The service is provided by Bertram Nurseries Limited and is situated in a residential area within the wider Baillieston suburb of Glasgow. It provides a care service to a maximum of 61 children: ranges: 15 children aged 0 to under 2 years; 14 children aged 2 to under 3 years; 32 children aged 3 years to those not yet attending school for full days. A maximum of 10 children of school age, in their first year of Primary School only, can attend from mid-August until mid- September. The service operates from a two storey building and comprises four playrooms with access to a secure enclosed outdoor play area.
The nursery aims include: "to provide a stimulating atmosphere to each child's development, develop the child's healthy self-image through play, guidance and encouragement, and encourage children to develop respect, to learn to share, to be kind to others and develop good manners."
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 GIRFEC: safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible and included, often referred to as SHANARRI.
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 built sandcastles using plastic scoops and buckets; designed and constructed houses and rockets from a variety of magnetic shapes; transformed battery operated toy vehicles into digital robots; manipulated and flattened playdough with large wooden rollers; created colourful prints using sponges and paint.
We issued 20 questionnaires for parents and carers, seven were completed and returned before the inspection. During the inspection we spoke with an additional five parents and carers. Feedback from parents and carers was very positive. All 'strongly agreed' or that they were happy with the overall service provided by staff and management. Comments included the following:
"It's really good. All the staff are really welcoming friendly. They make it easy for you to bring your child to nursery. They take time to get to know everybody. My daughter eats food here that she would not eat at home - that's a plus. My child has started to come out of her shell and that she has taken a shine to her key worker. I would recommend this nursery to other parents."
"My wee grandson just loves going to the nursery. The girls in his room tell me what he has been learning about on pickup. My daughter, grandson and myself love looking through his learning journal. He is so amazed by all of the photos of himself. I would just like to say since the new management team there has been so many positive changes in the nursery. It's a big thumbs up from me and my family."
"The nursery has always shown us a good understanding of our child's needs and have supported them through late potty training due to health issues."
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"Since moving to Happitots, I feel my son's development has improved massively. We as parents couldn't be more happy with the care our son has received from Lorna (manager) and Lisa (key worker) and all of the other staff at nursery. Our son has allergies to which Lisa took real time to make a care plan for."
"We love our nursery All staff are amazing and I trust them one hundred percent. The only thing is I would like to see them going out more other than the garden. But I understand this can be hard with a large group."
"The staff seem to follow all the correct procedures to do with medication. They make you and your child feel at ease. I like that there are lots of rooms for the different age ranges. I like that they are right next to a park for outdoor play. There are good resources in the rooms. The sandpit in the baby room is really good. It lets them explore from a young age and try different styles of exploring as well."
"There are displays outside the playrooms that provide feedback to parents about what is going on. Everything has been good. I have been happy with everything."
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 4 - Good Quality of environment not assessed Quality of staffing 4 - 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 positive outcomes. Throughout the various play sessions and meal times 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. Staff understood their roles in relation to planning for play and were confident when sharing information about children's wellbeing needs.
Each playroom provided a regular but flexible pattern to the day which took account of children's individual preferences for eating, resting and playing. The staff provided a warm, affectionate atmosphere where youngest children felt valued and eager to try things out for themselves. Overall, this approach helped children to develop close, positive relationships and supported continuity in their care and learning.
Staff demonstrated a comprehensive understanding of the policies and procedures in place to ensure care and welfare of children including child protection. All staff received regular professional learning in safeguarding and told us they were confident in dealing with child protection concerns.
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The manager had undertaken enhanced child protection training to support her role as child protection co- ordinator, ensuring continued safeguarding of children within the nursery.
The staff routinely engaged in a wide range of professional learning activities that built on and sustained their practice. Staff felt valued, the manager gave them opportunities to take on leadership roles in playrooms and areas of the curriculum in which they had identified a particular interest or strength. For example, we discussed the impact of training in outdoor learning that had encouraged children to develop their early literacy skills during play in the nursery garden. This distributed leadership approach offered opportunities for staff to become confident in progressing new developments and enhance positive outcomes by increasing the range of approaches available to meet children's individual needs.
What the service could do better
We discussed with staff approaches to planning that would help written records to be more manageable and avoid any unnecessary duplication. We found some individual learning journals could be used more effectively to document the flexibility displayed by staff in their esponsiver support for children's play. Staff agreed, that their observation and recording approaches could be adapted to capture more of the depth and richness of the challenge children experienced through play.
We highlighted the value of linking staff and parents' observations of patterns of the youngest children's play behaviour or 'schemas' to children's individual records of learning. 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 supporting transitions between home and the setting, recognising children's achievements and demonstrate how the centre's approach to supporting children's play is personalised.
We discussed with staff approaches for ensuring that their interactions were tuned in to the communication needs of all children in the setting. We discussed an approach that would support staff to reflect upon their practice using video clips of their interactions with children. The management team agreed that this could be used to support shared professional dialogue within the team and strengthen the nursery's overall capacity to deliver improved outcomes for children.
We discussed hand washing routines for children in the baby and toddler room and the need to ensure close monitoring of this to ensure all children were consistently supported to wash their hands before snack and mealtimes. Staff agreed that these measures would help reduce the risk of spread of infection and encourage children to form good hygiene habits.
We highlighted to the management team how leadership roles for staff could be extended using indicators from national quality assurance tools, such as 'How good is our early learning and childcare?' This will support staff in promoting service user involvement in the self-evaluation of the service.
We pointed out that reference requests for any potential new employee should specifically ask about the issues of safety, such as previous disciplinary issues, dismissals, demotions and adherence to regulatory codes of practice.
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The management team should build on the variety of opportunities for staff to lead curriculum developments within the service. Through discussion staff highlighted the positive impact of current initiatives in literacy, numeracy and outdoor play. Working together to extend these approaches through planned staff development opportunities will enhance the depth of children's learning.
Requirements Number of requirements: 0
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
Recommendation 1
The service provider should ensure that appropriate systems are put in place to record children progress in learning and development and that staff are supported to use these effectively.
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National Care Standards Early Education and Childcare up to the age of 16: Standard 5 - Quality of Experience.
This recommendation was made on 6 April 2017.
Action taken on previous recommendation Training had been provided or planned to staff to support personal planning including: the use of observations to support children's online learning journals; supporting children with additional support needs; fulfilling the oler of a key person; assessment for learning. We found that staff followed an effective system for recording children's play and learning. This recommendation has been met.
Recommendation 2
The service provider should ensure that the main door to the 3-5 playroom is repaired to enable it to close securely at all times.
National Care Standards Early Education and Childcare up to the age of 16: Standard 2 - A safe environment.
This recommendation was made on 6 April 2017.
Action taken on previous recommendation We found that the main door to the 3-5 playroom had been repaired and was able to close securely. This recommendation has been met.
Recommendation 3
The service provider should develop a proposed plan and timetable for refurbishing the toilets within the toddler room and submit these to the Care Inspectorate.
National Care Standards Early Education and Childcare up to the age of 16: Standard 2 - A safe environment.
This recommendation was made on 6 April 2017.
Action taken on previous recommendation The provider had submitted notifications and electronic communications relating planned refurbishment and alterations to the premises. They told us they had referred to National Nappy Changing Guidance and checked that changes complied with guidance from Care Inspectorate and Environmental Health. This recommendation has been met.
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Inspection and grading history
Date Type Gradings 14 Mar 2017 Unannounced Care and support 4 - Good Environment 4 - Good Staffing 4 - Good Management and leadership 4 - Good
27 Jan 2016 Unannounced Care and support 3 - Adequate Environment 3 - Adequate Staffing 4 - Good Management and leadership 3 - Adequate
26 Jan 2015 Announced Care and support 3 - Adequate Environment 4 - Good Staffing 4 - Good Management and leadership 3 - Adequate
27 Feb 2013 Unannounced Care and support 5 - Very good Environment 5 - Very good Staffing 5 - Very good Management and leadership 5 - Very good
14 May 2010 Unannounced Care and support 4 - Good Environment 4 - Good Staffing 4 - Good Management and leadership 4 - Good
25 Sep 2009 Unannounced Care and support 3 - Adequate Environment 3 - Adequate Staffing 2 - Weak Management and leadership 3 - Adequate
19 May 2008 Unannounced Care and support 2 - Weak Environment 2 - Weak Staffing 2 - Weak Management and leadership 2 - Weak
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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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Tha am foillseachadh seo ri fhaighinn ann an cruthannan is cànain eile ma nithear iarrtas.
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