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Original poster

Son's nursery has just had inadequate Ofsted rating - what now?

13 replies

brizzagirl · 15/04/2011 10:51

Hi, the title just about says it all! DS is 15 months and has been at his nursery for 5 months. We liked it when we were shown round, a colleague recommended it and he seems to be doing well there. It previously had a satisfactory rating from 2007 which is all we had to go on but gut feel said it would be a good choice and we have so far been happy with it.

The inadequate rating is from a visit in January this year, it has just been published and we have not (yet) received a copy from the nursery but I think they are obliged to send it to parents.

I do not want to have a knee jerk reaction and move him as we are expecting DC2 in June and were planning to keep sending DS a couple of days a week to give me a break and for him to maintain some stability.

I am concerned about his longer term development and also the fact that if the Ofsted rating stays at inadequate for the next 4 years (does it? - how often do they re-inspect?) that obviously other people will not send their kids there! Plus the fact the other nurseries round here will get even more oversubscribed.

Does anyone have any advice or know a bit more about how the Ofsted follow ups are done?

OP posts:

HarrietJones · 15/04/2011 11:40

If it's like schools it will get a notice to improve (NTI) and have a year to get up to scratch then be reinspected. In that time it will have regular checks from inspectors.

To whether I would remove a child depends on why they got the NTI. It's v easy to fail on safeguarding but its often that paper work isn't up to date or someone didn't ID check properly which are easy to resolve than if there are teaching& learning issues. If somewhere fails safeguarding they fail so it doesn't matter how good everything else is.

Read the report & if you have concerns post back on here for advice or translations. There are a lot of people on here that can help

frakyouveryverymuch · 15/04/2011 11:47

I agree - it totally depends on why they're inadequate. They will have been given specific areas to improve and inspectors will be keeping an eye on them. It's difficult to judge without seeing the report though.

Did you read the 2007 report which said they were satisfactory? What areas were they give to improve then (if you can remember)? Are they the same areas that they're now failing on? If they're failing in the same areas then I probably would remove the child, but if it's a paperwork error or something tangible which can be correct and the current report shows that they've implemented the recommendations from the last report I'd have more faith.

verybored · 15/04/2011 12:09

Have you checkjed to see if the report is online yet? A local school went from inadequate to outstanding from one Ofsted to the next, so sometimes it really isn't all that important. As others have said, you willl need to see where the problems are before you can make a decision

cat64 · 16/04/2011 00:56

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

BluddyMoFo · 16/04/2011 00:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

jade80 · 16/04/2011 01:13

I would look carefully at why they failed. If your son gets on well there, I wouldn't set too much store by ofsted. Some inspectors are... well... 'inadequate' themselves! As poster above said, some dreadful places come out with great results and vice versa.

lljkk · 16/04/2011 06:22

I agree you have to read the report, and ask the staff what they are doing to fix things.

I came onto a preschool committee (with an under 2s creche) just after they got an inadequate. I got their CRB checks organised enough to scrape a Satisfactory in the next inspection (6 months later, I got the impression that 6 months was a pretty standard revisit interval) Ofsted very keen to motivate you to improve.

Main failings were paperwork-related, especially re CRB checks & related paper trail keeping; all staff had CRBs up to their eyeballs from other current employers, but due to an Admin oversight some of the CRB checks for our setting hadn't been completed; the Preschool had been slow to find out what the delay was. Also some fuss about the toilets -- not that they were filthy, but not as easy for the children to use independently as inspectors wanted. Other bits and pieces were cited (like not having explicit written policies about things that used to be common sense), none of which took very long to rectify.

Pekkala · 16/04/2011 06:43

I agree with the previous posters' comments. It's important to find out the reasons why it was 'unsatisfactory'. Before I retrained as a primary teacher I worked in several nurseries. One had an 'outstanding' rating but was, imo, pretty unpleasant - young, inexperienced, very poorly paid staff, with very questionable educational practices. Another I worked at was 'satisfactory', but was staffed by dedicated practitioners and the whole place had a lovely 'feel' and ethos.
Check the reasons, but trust your gut instincts too.

Mellowfruitfulness · 17/04/2011 13:06

Ofsted itself was in the news today. Apparently there's a report out that says Ofsted is doing too many things and recommends that it should stick to schools, rather than nurseries, social services (?) etc.

cath100 · 17/04/2011 14:37

if they have just got that report i would be worried, but if they had that report a few years ago, they might be up to scratch now.

Original poster

brizzagirl · 18/04/2011 09:55

Hi everyone, thanks so much for the replies and advice, sorry I have been slow to get back on MN as we were away for the weekend.
I read the report online as soon as it was published (Friday), it was only by chance I decided to have a look for it as I knew they had an inspection in Jan this year and they sent a form home last week to be filled in and I thought hmm I wonder if that came out of the inspection...
Anyway, they have failed on a few things 1. inadequate safeguarding policy (i.e. reporting suspicions to child protection agency) 2. risk assessment / safety issues 3. precautions to prevent the spread of infection 4. Self evaluation of childrens development plans

It is good to know from your comments that they will be re-inspected within 6-12 months. It is a very recent report which I why I am concerned. They have not sent home the report to parents yet but have organised a parents evening for 2nd June.

I think I will wait and see what they say at the parents evening and raise my concerns. Overall with the new baby coming I would be ok to leave DS there until the next inspection (if it is within the next few months) as he is happy there and settled. He is 15 months old so I am less worried about the development issues than I would be with an older child.

I don't think the nursery is as bad as it has been made out in the report but there is certainly some room for improvement and I am going to suggest a parents panel which I am happy to be on and then keep an eye on things closely.

Thanks again for all your advice.

OP posts:

frakyouveryverymuch · 18/04/2011 11:59

TBH it sounds like the nursery have been slack on updating policies and therefore can't prove to OFSTED that their procedures are adequate:

inadequate safeguarding policy (i.e. reporting suspicions to child protection agency) - that's very easily remedied and I bet they do have a policy which would work fine if they ever had to invoke it

risk assessment / safety issues - more worrying, does it give any more detail? You can fail for the most minor of things which are out of your control on safety though e.g. a parent who's picking up doesn't close a door properly and, even if a child couldn't have got out and someone unidentified couldn't have got in and a staff member was the first one to spot it and recitified it immediately the fact it had happened would count as a safety issue. It may also be that they have risk assessment where nothing has changed but they're 'out of date'. Or there may actually be an issue.

precautions to prevent the spread of infection - sounds like another not-updated policy

Self evaluation of childrens development plans - that's rather woolly and I suspect by itself wouldn't get the nursery an inadequate overall. Does that mean their SEF was inadequate in this area?

A parents panel is a good idea, and well done for volunteering to step up to the plate, however be careful when suggesting it that you're very clear on exactly what the function would be etc. It could be taken the wrong way.

ragged · 18/04/2011 12:25

Most of that is paperwork related. I'd try to find out more details about the risk assessment... precautions to prevent infection; with my previous CM that would have meant that I (the parent) hadn't been instructed to provide a freshly laundered facecloth each day (to be used for my child only). Incredibly petty & impractical procedures in some cases, is what Ofsted expects.

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