Active discussions

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Nurseries

Find nursery advice from other Mumsnetters on our Nursery forum. For more guidance on early years development, sign up for Mumsnet Ages & Stages emails.

Original poster

OFSTED complaint - What would you do? I'm shocked.

14 replies

MoreTeaLessCoffee · 10/08/2022 12:21

My daughter has attended the same nursery since she has been 13 months old, she is now 3.5. I have never had any concerns, she is happy to go and usually full of stories about her day when she comes home. She has had the same keyworker for almost 2 years now which I also value as we have had a tough couple of years with a lot of upheaval, her dad left and we have had a couple of close family bereavements in the last couple of years. My daughter is really fond of her. If I were pushed I would say that they are not the most dynamic nursery, they don't do much in the way of trips or education, they mostly seem to play a lot, however I'm personally fine with this, at 3 I just want her to enjoy herself which she seems to do, especially as she's not there full time, she goes 3 days, I do lots of activities with her the other 4 days.

I've registered to get updates from OFSTED whenever they publish anything in relation to the nursery and got one last week, basically someone has complained to OFSTED about the nursery and OFSTED have investigated and published a response.

I don't want to link as it would obviously be very identifying but there are a few concerns OFSTED have asked them to take action on, some of which I'm not too bothered by as they are not relevant to my daughter (funnily enough inconsistency of keywork being one of them) although I suppose you could say they are signs the nursery is not brilliant.

The bit that does worry me is that OFSTED have flagged they are not always vetting new staff properly and also that they didn't take appropriate action when something that should have been deemed a safeguarding complaint against a member of staff was made. Reading between the lines it sounds like they didn't realise it should have been treated as a safeguarding issue rather than they deliberately chose to ignore it. OFSTED have said they need to retrain the staff in child protection.

I'm not sure what to do and feel quite torn. Obviously it's not great but is it bad enough to pull her out and find somewhere new at this stage? Is there anything I can do to mitigate, should I hold out to see if they improve things? I get the impression they are a bit shoddy rather than there being abuse going on but I guess the potential is there.

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Set a reminder
Oblomov22 · 10/08/2022 12:24

No. I don't think so. It's not great, but it's not unheard of. And if your dd is happy and you have been up until now...

clickychicky · 10/08/2022 12:34

Ask the manager to explain the ousted report to you

larkstar · 10/08/2022 15:11

Shocked? About what? You don't know the details or all the facts. Go and ask. OFSTED routinely raise "concerns" and often uses unclear or alarming language even when the issues are in reality quite un-concerning to most parents e.g. about record keeping for instance - actions, training, discipline, etc may all have taken place but were not documented at the time - that type of thing - so the best thing is to go and have a conversation with the head/owner.

What exactly does "vetting staff properly" mean? It could be something to be concerned about but equally it could be something quite trivial - maybe they didn't take scans of an employees proof of address, qualifications or ID, or didn't ask for a reference (or did but didn't chase it up when it was not received) - it can be all kinds of things.

FWIW I did supply work in over 60 schools in a 3.5 year period and some schools, especially Catholic schools, that had had a negative report told me they found it difficult to get supply teachers in. Having worked in a good number of such schools with poor reports - Catholic and others - I can honesty say I would not have been able to tell the difference between many of the schools with good and bad reports - obviously a few stand out at either end of the spectrum. Admittedly I am talking about primary schools mainly that I worked in on an ad hoc basis - not a nursery - I would not worry until I've had a frank conversation with the manager. It's also good to talk to other parents who might know of incidents that you're unaware of that might actually concern you.

Carrieonmywaywardsun · 10/08/2022 15:37

Speak to the manager- OFSTED have to make sure they're sticking to every guideline and sometimes that doesn't happen so they need to bring it up. The safeguarding issue could be something like the member of staff had no experience in working directly or alone with children before- which isn't necessarily a big deal! Speak to them, get a proper idea of what's going on

jannier · 10/08/2022 15:40

MoreTeaLessCoffee · 10/08/2022 12:21

My daughter has attended the same nursery since she has been 13 months old, she is now 3.5. I have never had any concerns, she is happy to go and usually full of stories about her day when she comes home. She has had the same keyworker for almost 2 years now which I also value as we have had a tough couple of years with a lot of upheaval, her dad left and we have had a couple of close family bereavements in the last couple of years. My daughter is really fond of her. If I were pushed I would say that they are not the most dynamic nursery, they don't do much in the way of trips or education, they mostly seem to play a lot, however I'm personally fine with this, at 3 I just want her to enjoy herself which she seems to do, especially as she's not there full time, she goes 3 days, I do lots of activities with her the other 4 days.

I've registered to get updates from OFSTED whenever they publish anything in relation to the nursery and got one last week, basically someone has complained to OFSTED about the nursery and OFSTED have investigated and published a response.

I don't want to link as it would obviously be very identifying but there are a few concerns OFSTED have asked them to take action on, some of which I'm not too bothered by as they are not relevant to my daughter (funnily enough inconsistency of keywork being one of them) although I suppose you could say they are signs the nursery is not brilliant.

The bit that does worry me is that OFSTED have flagged they are not always vetting new staff properly and also that they didn't take appropriate action when something that should have been deemed a safeguarding complaint against a member of staff was made. Reading between the lines it sounds like they didn't realise it should have been treated as a safeguarding issue rather than they deliberately chose to ignore it. OFSTED have said they need to retrain the staff in child protection.

I'm not sure what to do and feel quite torn. Obviously it's not great but is it bad enough to pull her out and find somewhere new at this stage? Is there anything I can do to mitigate, should I hold out to see if they improve things? I get the impression they are a bit shoddy rather than there being abuse going on but I guess the potential is there.

So for example if a parent made a complaint saying worker x did something to my child yesterday and the manager knew worker x had not been in for a month they are supposed to report themselves even if they know its unfounded that would be a breach of safegaurding. You need to discuss it with management.
Children of this age should not have formal structured learning they learn through play so that sounds perfect....children sat doing flash cards and work sheets is an example of outdated methods done to please parents not benefit the child.
Outings many settings can no longer afford trips due to rising costs and low funding they will be reluctant to ask parents who maybe struggling for food to contribute to a trip.
I would want more information and go from there.

Original poster
MoreTeaLessCoffee · 10/08/2022 17:11

Okay thank you. I have never had this before so the way Ofsted works is a bit of a mystery to me, I will speak to the manager.

OP posts:
HipsterCoffeeShop · 10/08/2022 17:14

If the safeguarding issue was a serious one, Ofsted have immediate powers of closure while an investigation takes place. So I think you can be reassured that while they might have picked up on something important, it doesn't suggest your DD has necessarily been put at risk.

The advice from PP to speak to the manager is a good one.

Original poster
MoreTeaLessCoffee · 14/08/2022 21:40

Just to update, I spoke with the owner and am satisfied there is not much of substance in what Ofsted were saying. Without being too outing the initial complaint made to Ofsted was found completely unsubstantiated and there was no actual safeguarding incident it was just that the staff didn't answer the inspector's safeguarding questions on what they should do in a theoretical situation correctly.

It's so difficult if you are not used to the way Ofsted write and operate to understand what is really going on so I really appreciate the advice given here.

OP posts:
LightningAndRainbows · 14/08/2022 21:41

it was just that the staff didn't answer the inspector's safeguarding questions on what they should do in a theoretical situation correctly. that's not very reassuring though tbh

FuchsAndMöhr · 14/08/2022 21:44

The language OFSTED use is terrible and that’s just the start of it!

Whilst I 100% think childcare needs to be regulated OFSTED aren’t fit for purpose!

VerifiedBot2351 · 14/08/2022 21:44

No, don’t take your child out. The nursery will be acting on the advice from ofsted and so will be a lot better from now on.

Original poster
MoreTeaLessCoffee · 14/08/2022 21:45

@LightningAndRainbows the manager told me what the question was and it's related to the Prevent agenda, not something I can get too worked up about in a nursery setting tbh.

OP posts:
HappyNL · 31/08/2022 15:00

Hi everyone,

I am currently looking into nurseries in Blackheath. I am pregnant (first time). Would you be able to recommend good nurseries? I am currently looking into RIMU.

Any advise is welcome :)

nottodaytomorrow · 02/09/2022 05:25

MoreTeaLessCoffee · 14/08/2022 21:45

@LightningAndRainbows the manager told me what the question was and it's related to the Prevent agenda, not something I can get too worked up about in a nursery setting tbh.

Prevent duty is an extremely important part of safeguarding -all childcare workers should be aware of and sound in actually Confused

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread