Eastriggs & Early Years Day Care of Children

Nelson House Melbourne Avenue Eastriggs Annan DG12 6PP

Telephone: 07776 078400

Type of inspection: Unannounced

Completed on: 27 February 2019

Service provided by: Service provider number: Eastriggs & Dornock Playgroup SP2003002740

Service no: CS2003011683 Inspection report

About the service

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

Eastriggs & Dornock Early Years is registered to provide a care service to a maximum of 28 children at any one time aged from 2 years 9 months to not yet attending primary school.

The service is situated within a community hall in the village of Eastriggs, Annan in & Galloway. It operates Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday mornings from 08.45 to 12.35 hours. There is a secure outdoor area to the rear of the building, where children play and enjoy being outdoors.

The full aims and objectives statement is available to people who use the service. They include: "While your child is at playgroup he/she will become more independent" and "We provide a range of activities which will build on children's development through play as they meet with new experiences".

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

We sent out 10 questionnaires so that parents could tell us what they thought about their child's care and support and 7 of these were returned. We contacted parents by email and sought further information.

We talked to the children and we observed how they interacted with staff and with one another.

Parents were very happy with the quality of their child's care and support. They told us that they could talk to staff and found them approachable. They liked the outdoor play area and the opportunities children had to play outdoors.

Children appeared happy and confident in the nursery. They had made friends and liked to be with their friends.

Parents told us:

"One of the best playgroups I have been to, could not fault this playgroup in any way."

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"My child absolutely loves going to the Early Years Playgroup, and when I was asking about its service prior to sending my child, the amount of positive comments I received were overwhelming. They have an excellent reputation within the community and I am so glad I sent my child there".

"The staff at Eastriggs & Dornock Early Years are brilliant, they are so friendly and make it easy for parents to be able to talk to them comfortably about anything. My older child previously attended here and built a lovely relationship with the staff. I am now pleased to be seeing my second born doing the same. They learn so much."

Self assessment

The service had not been asked to complete a self-assessment in advance of the inspection. We looked at the service's own improvement plan and quality assurance paperwork, which was also made available to parents.

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

Children were being cared for by a friendly and approachable staff team in a safe and nurturing environment. Staff were working in partnership with parents to ensure that they knew the children well and were aware of changes in their lives. Parents spoke highly of staff and told us that they found them supportive and easy to talk to. We saw that staff used their knowledge effectively so that children's care and support needs were being met to a very good standard.

Children were having fun as they learned. They used the space in the nursery well and we observed that they moved around the setting freely. Staff had continued to develop the outdoor play area and we saw that most children chose to play outdoors for a large part of the session. Here they had a variety of opportunities to explore the natural environment, be creative and learn about the world around them. We saw the children's excitement as they found potatoes, which they later used in an art activity. Children had opportunities to learn about their local area and regularly went for walks. During our inspection, we went with them to a local carpet shop and observed that they were well known and respected members of their community.

Children were learning about healthy lifestyles and keeping active. A variety of nutritious snacks were offered, which encouraged children to learn about healthy eating and to develop social skills. They were encouraged to develop independence and do things for themselves, for example most were able to change their shoes and dress themselves. We saw that children played together well and many had made strong friendships with their peers. Staff praised children and valued their opinions by including them in planning what was happening in the setting. They were at the start of a project about pirates, which had been initiated by the children's interests.

The service was provided by a voluntary management committee of parents. Management and staff of the setting felt well supported by the committee. Staff met regularly for a variety of reasons including self evaluation, continuing professional development and planning for children's needs. There was an improvement plan for the

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service which took account of national priorities like the expansion of Early Learning and Childcare and improving attainment as well as the areas for improvement which had been identified by staff and parents.

We talked to staff about how they made sure that children were safe and found that they were familiar with the setting's child protection procedures and had opportunities to discuss safeguarding issues.

What the service could do better

Whilst children had very good opportunities to be creative and develop skills and interests, we thought that staff should have a more consistent approach to using higher order questioning when developing children's play and learning. We also observed that children would benefit from more opportunities to consider consequences and risk for themselves rather than always being told how to keep safe.

All children had personal plans and learning stories, which provided records of how children were developing and what they had done. We made some suggestions about how these could be improved and have asked the service to look at the way they record their planning, so that it clearly shows how they are involved in supporting children's achievements. We have asked that plans include risk assessments and chronologies for individual children when appropriate. We also thought that children's involvement in planning their own learning could be further developed.

We discussed the recommendation made previously about formal monitoring of staff practice. Staff told us that there had been some observations of practice since the last inspection. The manager was in the process of developing ways of ensuring continuous development of staff practice, which included a questionnaire. We discuss the wording of this and made further suggestions for improvement. See recommendation

Requirements Number of requirements: 0

Recommendations Number of recommendations: 1

1. Management should develop their procedures for formal monitoring of staff practice so that they enable staff to reflect on their childcare practice in a way which improves the service.

This is to ensure care and support is consistent with the Health and Social Care Standards which state that "I benefit from a culture of continuous improvement, with the organisation having robust and transparent quality assurance processes" (HSCS 4.19) and "I have confidence in people because they are trained, competent and skilled, are able to reflect on practice and follow their professional and organisational codes". (HSCS 3.14)

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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.

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

Management should develop their procedures for monitoring staff practice so that they enable staff to reflect on their practice in a way which improves their own practice and the service.

National Care Standards for Early Education and Childcare up to the age of 16 Standard 12 - Confidence in taffS Standard 13 - Improving the service.

This recommendation was made on 24 March 2016.

Action taken on previous recommendation The management carried out informal monitoring of staff practice which should now be taken forward to include more formal recording of staff's childcare practice.

Recommendation is not met.

Recommendation 2

Management should develop their procedures for formal monitoring of staff practice so that they enable staff to reflect on their childcare practice in a way which improves the service.

National Care Standards for Early Education and Childcare up to the age of 16 Standard 12: Confidence in taffS and Standard 13: Improving the Service.

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This recommendation was made on 28 March 2017.

Action taken on previous recommendation Management had started to develop procedures for formal monitoring of staff practice however these were at an early stage and should continue to be developed.

This recommendation is not met.

Inspection and grading history

Date Type Gradings 10 Mar 2017 Unannounced Care and support 5 - Very good Environment 5 - Very good Staffing 5 - Very good Management and leadership 4 - Good

2 Mar 2016 Unannounced Care and support 4 - Good Environment 5 - Very good Staffing 3 - Adequate Management and leadership 3 - Adequate

20 Sep 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 Not assessed Staffing Not assessed Management and leadership 5 - Very good

5 Oct 2010 Announced (short Care and support 5 - Very good notice) Environment Not assessed Staffing 5 - Very good Management and leadership Not assessed

2 Mar 2010 Unannounced Care and support 5 - Very good Environment 5 - Very good Staffing 4 - 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 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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0345 600 9527

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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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