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?

This happened to our nursery, they then got good 5 months later.

safeguarding automatically reduces the score but I asked for more detail and our nursery struggled on radicalisation and British values both didn’t bother me as I knew this didn’t apply to my child.

Go off your gut feel OP, ask for the action plan, see when the reassessment is by Ofsted and start looking at preschools if they are 2.5yrs, you could move them to if needed.

I’d be surprised if they were closed down.

I would 100% remove my child. Well, I wouldn’t send her to any nursery in the first place.

with that level of turnover, v junior ‘management’ and comments about staff being overwhelmed would seek other childcare.

We used several nurseries - good and bad - and two childminders and IMO DC had far better childcare from childminders.

In the nurseries we used (London and commuter belt) there was what seemed like high turnover but reasonable continuity of ‘key worker’ and site manager.

Hi OP- I just wondered if you'd decided how to move forward? The nursery my DS has been attending since he was 11 months ( now 2.5) has just been rated inadequate in all four areas:( It has been rated good or Outstanding in previous years. I'm shocked as I've never had any concerns before.

If it’s all four areas it is genuinely a bad provision. It’s really not hard to get good. Good is the bare minimum. Move your child! 100% x

High staff turnover is a very bad problem. If nothing else it is extremely disruptive for the children, it's not fair for them to constantly be making relationships and then have them broken all the time. How are they meant to feel safe in childcare?? We are currently in the process of moving our DC and one of the main reasons is high staff turnover. I am fed up because in the 3 years my 5yo has been at this nursery (we're abroad, later school starting age) he's made attachments to five different staff members, all of whom have left. (And we've had way more than five leave in total over the three years - more than twice that.) They are now baffled by the fact that he will only relate to one staff member (who is one of the original ones that has been there from the start for him) and ignores all of the others. It's really frustrating. And my 2yo went through a whole long settling in process specifically designed to form an attachment to one person and then she left. They then end up with staffing issues so they are short staffed so they have to move people around constantly and even in the baby room they don't have consistent staff - it's absolutely mad. Plus, when the staff are that unhappy that they are leaving constantly, that means they are going to be stressed at work. Do you want a stressed caregiver for your child or do you want one who is well supported? Think about how you tend to parent when you're stressed vs when you feel well supported.

With this and safety issues being highlighted if you have any other options at all - take it. I'm sorry to say and I know it's rare but when there are incidents in the news of a child dying accidentally at a childcare facility it's ALWAYS "there was high staff turnover, shortcuts were being taken and safety procedures were not being followed".

I'm not bothered about "quality of education" because for a 2/3 year old I don't think this is particularly important, but their safety absolutely is, and the fact the report mentions that staff are not communicating so there is a lack of consistency which is affecting some children's emotional wellbeing - this also sounds like inconsistent discipline approach which is confusing for young children.