Our nursery is Inadequate. Too bad?

[WhatDoWeDoIfAnything]

Our nursery has just been rated Inadequate by Ofsted (used to be good in 2018). I have not been been too impressed by how things are run but my DD (probably one of the youngest there) seems quite happy and loves going there. Would you be concerned? What would you do?
We pay huge money for it as it is for the whole week. It is very conveniently located and the only one that can take us for 5 full days.
I feel sorry for the staff. Seems no one wants to work there for longer than 2-3 months. We joined last Nov and so far 6 members of staff have left.

And if you have seen this before what can we expect now? Will they improve? Do they have to improve? How quickly?

Read the report - the report tells you what issues they see .

Ask the nursery what there plan is .

management may we’ll change with that report.

also trust your gut instincts

My child's nursery was required to close after an Inadequate report... it reopened a few weeks later with new management.

Does this sound too bad? The girls who I see on sight seem loving and caring.
Who is supposed to make the improvements? The guy who owns it? It is a private one and the owner is obviously a non existent figure who is invisible to the parents.

Bump

How old is your DD?

I'd be asking serious questions of the nursery of how they are going to address what's been said in the report whilst looking for other childcare options in the background.....

The first sentence of the report details issues with wellbeing and safety. On that alone, i’d remove my child tbh.

She is 2,5. So we still have a lot of time to spend in the nursery before school

No chance would I send my children to an inadequate nursery with crazy staff turnover.
6 staff have left because it is not a nice place to be. If it's miserable for the staff, that impacts the children.

Something like 90% of nurseries are good or outstanding by the way - it's pretty unusual to get requires improvement in an inspection, let alone inadequate.

Our was rated inadequate, mainly because they didn't do prevent work (around terrorism - yes with 0 - 4)
They were inspected 3 months later and got good!

To me that reads that staff aren't clear on safeguarding policy and what to do if they had concerns about a child, I'd expect they will all go on training very soon, I wouldn't pull my child out unless things do improve.

As a PP said I'd want to know from the nursery what they are doing. Ofsted will have given them recommendations.

That should say unless things don't improve

It depends on your local authority, but some childcare providers are unable to offer funded childcare (the free hours when they get to age 3) if they are judged inadequate. So on a purely financial basis that would have forced my decision.

I think going forward it is likely that the nursery will now get support from the local authority and will be given like a list of steps to improve by ofsted. They will get re inspected within 6 months.

This info on gov.uk gives more details: www.gov.uk/guidance/early-years-and-childcare-providers-judged-inadequate-or-not-complying-with-requirements-at-inspection

sorry for posting bit by bit. I thought. I will not go into too much detail but actually there is no point if one cannot see the report

Have the nursery responded at all? Ours got a good rating earlier this year and sent a long email to parents setting out the elements that hadn't been marked as outstanding and an action plan of what they were doing to address the (relatively minor) points raised. I wouldn't be happy with that Ofsted report in isolation but may be okay if the nursery has a plan in place.

Generally I would say to take Ofsted with a pinch of salt in both rating directions. BUT if staff aren't managing to have only positive interactions with children in the very brief time the inspector was present, I'd have mine out of there in a heartbeat.

Sounds terrible I'd move

There are some real postivie things in there about the things your DD will experience - outdoor play, lunchtimes. I wouldn't remove her yet, not least because the staff ratios will massively improve because other people will pull their kids out. Your DD is happy and settled; now you want confirmation of what they're going to do to improve. Had your DD been tiny or unsettled or have challenging behaviours, I'd have said different, but see how this pans out.

So, in schools, Ofsted sometimes rate inadequate based on safeguarding totally out of the blue. Whilst this does seem slightly different - ie they can’t be doing it to attempt to make the nursery become an academy - the points raised seem solvable and they will be re inspected in 6 months.

Example of where local lack of faith in Ofsted comes from - Queen Emma, Cambridge.

Same tbh, doesn't sit right

That actually makes it sound even worse - just read the first point! Overwhelmed staff are having interactions with children that do not promote children's wellbeing??? And this is when staff are putting on their very best performance while being observed by an inspector, imagine what it is like the rest of the time.

Hmm I'm not sure. I've read far worse inadequate nursery reports. If your DD doesn't have any additional needs in terms of emotion and behaviour, and she's happy, and you're happy for the time being, I'd probably give them a chance. I'd research alternative options and ask the nursery what their improvement plan is, then see how things look in a month or so. But any further red flags/if you have any concerns about Dad's safety, then I'd pull her out asap.

The big problem seems to be the high staff turnover and high absence rate.
That means the children aren't getting consistent care, staff are having to cover so don't know the children well. Information sharing is poor.
Managers can't make improvements as they are stuck working in rooms to ensure legal minimum staff numbers.
The remaining staff are unsupported and overwhelmed.

they haven't communicated much with us. communication has never been one of their strengths. To be honest I only found out about it now though Facebook out of all places cause it is the only place where they mentioned it. The inspection took place in early summer 🙄🙄
I'm unhappy about the staff turnover. My daughter gets attached to her key person so easily and then talks about them for weeks. But they have some positive sides too. They have a biggish garden (others have tiny) and children run in and out freely, my daughter has good friends there that she adores.
I feel for the staff and hate the fact that the management is doing their job so poorly. I mean the owner or smb who is properly in charge. Cause the manager girl on sight is only junior and actually stepped into this role a month ago or smth. The managers have changed three times already.

If OFSTED highlighted issues with safety I would withdraw my child immediately.

Agree with this.