Regulation 19 — Health, welfare and development of child
1. The physical and material environment the Baby and Toddler rooms required to be reviewed as the interest areas were not presented to engage the children with an imaginative play experience to support their learning. It was observed that a ctivities were adult led rather than enabling the children to be independent to make choices and decisions about their play. It is acknowledged that there was a good number of resources however they were stored in containers some of which did not have pictorial signage to promote independent access by the children. In the home corner in the Toddler room, there were two play kitchens and a dolls house carcass which did not have any associative toys available. This limited the play value of the area, and the children were not observed to play in it. Dress up clothes were in a container in another part of the room rather than hung up on hangers to offer the children choice. There were no sensorial materials, open ended, art and craft materials available to the children. While it is acknowledged that there were plenty of books in the reading corner s in both rooms , more single picture per page hard back books and sensory books were needed for both rooms. The covered outdoor are adjacent to the Toddler room used by both children from the Baby and Toddler rooms required to be presented in a more planned way to support the children’s play, movement, and exploration
Provider's corrective action:
1. The deputy manager and room leader worked alongside the other daycare educators to re- organise and create a new fresh and open design in the room which allows for more positive and child led learning. The dress up corner has been revamped with all clothes on display either hanging on the door or in the basket right beside the mirror and we added bags to this section. Everything is available to the children, at their height and easy to access. All resources have been labelled so the children can easily iden tify what everything is. With children who are present in the baby and toddler room, educators have to provide some play led experiences and its more so guided free play where the children are given the option with what resources they want to play. We use the ‘Plan-do-review rhetoric of Highscope approach’. The service manager and deputy manager have reorganised and swapped resources for the room. We have collected open -ended real-life resources for the children to play with and purchased new age-appropriate books for the rooms. We have revamped the decking area in consultation with all staff. We have retained the decking area for gross motor skills to help support and encourage the children’s physical development and to promote agility and balance. Each quarter the deputy manager is going to review the layout of the room and apply changes that will allow for a freer flowing atmosphere that benefits the children’s play and learning if needed. All suggestions by other staff members will be taken on board and used. We are also searching for new child friendly storage to purchase that will help with giving the room new life and provide for a freer play area. The room leader is completing continuous professional development to continue to learn and provide the best professional practice that they can
Regulation 30 — Minimum space requirements
1. Following review of the attendance record for the Pre-School room, it was noted that 11 children aged 2 years 8 months are enrolled for an ECCE service from 12:30 hours – 15:30 hours and are accommodated in the Pre- school room. This is in addition to 20 children aged 3-6 years enrolled for full day care and accommodated also in the Pre-school room. A maximum of 22 children attending on a sessional basis or 19 children attending on a full day care basis can only be accommodated in this room
Provider's corrective action:
1. A new checklist was implemented and created by the service manager to be completed by the ECCE room leader each day to check daily numbers. All staff have been trained in completing the new template for ECCE daily numbers. The ECCE room leader has to make sure that the new checklist is complete each day. All staff have been retrained in maintaining the adult: child ratio in the ECCE room am, pm and Full Daycare. This has been signed off by our service manager
Immediate action notice. An immediate action notice in respect of
Regulation 9 — Management and recruitment
1. It is acknowledged that there was a management structure in the service. However, the identified lines of authority, the roles and responsibility between the registered provider and the designated person in charge require to be explicit as this lack of clarity contributed to the delayed referral from the service to an external agency
2. With the exception of the staff signing the policies and procedures for the service there was no evidence of service wide staff training undertaken in any specific service policies and procedures. (b), (c) 3. There was no evidence of staff training undertaken in the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) Regulations 2016 and Childcare Act 1991 (Early Years Services) (Amendment) Regulations 2016
Provider's corrective action:
1. A letter and job description has been issued from the service provider to the service manager/person in charge. This outlines that the service manager/person in charge has full authority in the day to day managing of the service. Full authority has been passed to the service manager/deputy manager in her absence. The letter is on file in the service
2. The service manager has issued each policy and procedure by email to staff for review and a hard copy is left in the staff room for personnel. When staff sign off sheets, they are achieving their understanding and reading off all relevant content. The service manager provides pop quizzes to check knowledge and understanding of same. The service manager offers a particular time slot to staff. This gives opportunity to question and check content of policies. A monthly person to person review will be in place to examine each block as reviewed and signed off. (b), (c) 3. All staff now have completed their QRF training and have supplied the service manager with their certs and are now stored in their staff file. Staff who had certs already completed have provided certs to be place in their staff file. We have now made QRF training mandatory for all staff to complete. Our administration staff reminds all staff by email on upcoming training they need to complete
Regulation 10 — Policies, procedures etc. of pre-school service
The following policies did not meet the regulatory requirement due to the non-compliances outlined below: 1. Policy on Managing Behaviour The policy on managing behaviour referenced the 2006 the Childcare (Pre-School Services) Regulations 2006 and it did not specify that the procedures for the protection and welfare of children are managed in line with the service’s safeguarding statement. 2. Policy on Accidents and Incidents The policy on accidents and incidents did not outline the following: How the information is recorded, documented, and stored regarding accidents and incidents. Outline risk assessment procedures to be taken following an incident/accident occurring in the service. 3. Risk Management Policy The risk management policy did not set out how long risk management records will be kept. 4. Staff Training Policy The staff training policy did not set out what resources are provided for training
Provider's corrective action:
1. The Behaviour Management Policy has been amended and reference s the Childcare (Pre - School Servies) Regulations 2016, and a new paragraph has been added outlining the procedures for protection and welfare of children are in line with our safety statement. 2. Policy on Accident and Incident has been amended to state that accident and incidents are recorded and documented in accidents and incident logs in each room and are filed and stored away in the service providers office which is locked. These documents are stored away until the child is 21 years of age. Our policy has been updated, and after every accident and incident recorded in our accident and incident logbook a risk assessment must be carried out to prevent such accidents occurring again. 3. The service manager has amended our Risk Management Policy to state that the risk management records will be kept and stored in a safe place for 3 years. 4. The service manager has amended the staff training policy to provide information on induction training that is provided to new staff joining our service. This training requires Garda Vetting to be complete, all mandatory training such as child protection, fire safety, first aid, manual handling and QRF training to be completed. It now also states the service provider ensures that all training costs are subsidized. All policies and procedures are emailed to staff every six months to ensure re -training. Our s ervice manager is in contact with the Offaly Childcare Committee and provides all staff with information on different training courses. It is also stated in all employees’ contracts that they have to complete a minimum of two CPD training courses a year. A new system has been implemented where the service manager reviews all policies and procedures every six months and makes amendment s where needed, the service deputy manager will then double check all policies and procedures to ensure the correct amendment s have been made. When policies and procedures have been amended, they will be re -issued to all staff via email to retrain and be signed off when complete. Staff have been retrained in our policy on accidents and incidents with regard to carrying out risk assessments after accidents and incidents are recorded and documented to prevent such accidents occurring again. Staff have signed off on their training and will retrain every six months on all policies and procedures
Regulation 11 — Staffing levels
1. At 11:05 am one adult in the Baby room was caring for six children aged 1 -2 years, five of whom were awake and one who was asleep. Two adults were required to maintain the adult child ratio for this age group. 2. An adequate number of adults were not available at all times to care for the children attending the Baby and Toddler rooms as an adult rostered on the staff roster to work directly with the children on the day of the inspection was on leave. An adult who worked in an ancillary role in the service was rostered on the staff roster to work on the day of inspection but was on leave. The adults were not replaced on the day of the inspection
Provider's corrective action:
1. All staff have been re -trained in the baby room on maintaining the adult: child ratios of 1:5 in this age group. There had been extra support provided for the baby room to maintain a strong quality of care towards the children. The room will be provided with a daily attendance list that will be prepared by the service manager which will ensure the correct ratios per room are being adhered to. It will be the job of the room leader to double check full attendance on the day, and that the correct children are attending their assigned room. 2. One member of staff was on leave on the day of our inspection, and an ancillary person called in and was absent on the morning of the inspection. We already had our relief staff present and, on the floo r, working with the children. 3. Under normal circumstances the service manager would join and work adjacent to staff. However, on the day of the inspection the service manager felt she was required to be available during the process of the inspection. The service provide r has placed an advertisement for recruitment, interviews have been taking place, and an offer has been made, and we are awaiting vetting to provide a start date. Interviews are ongoing for an extra practitioner and for relief staff that called upon if staff are indisposed. The service manager is going to start issuing a daily real time roster to reflect the staff hours and staff who are present on any given day. Roster will be double checked each day by the service deputy manager before it is issued by the service manager
Regulation 16 — Record in relation to pre-school service
(1) (i) 1. While it is acknowledged that a staff roster was available the following was noted: • The staff roster was not maintained in real time. • The roster did not reflect the actual hours worked for some adults on the day of the inspection. • Break times and cover for breaks were not reflected in the staff roster. • The roster did not reflect the care rooms that the staff members were rostered to work in
Provider's corrective action:
1. The staff roster will now be amended daily of any changes to staff or staff hours and there will be a daily real time roster issued by the service manager. Break times will be noted on all rosters going forward and cover will be stated for each break. All our rosters will be colour coded for each room so staff know which rooms they will be working in with the room stated at the end of each staff members hours for the week. The service manager is going to start issuing a daily real time roster to reflect the staff hours and who is present on any given day. Roster will be double checked each day by the service deputy manager before it is issued by the service manager. Breaks and cover will be noted on each daily roster and staff will know which room they are assigned to be a colour coding system a note placed beside their name on the roster
Regulation 23 — Safeguarding health, safety, and welfare of child
General Safety: 1. The entrance gate and entrance door to the building where the Baby and Toddler rooms were located were not secured to prevent unauthorised entry to the service. An immediate action notice in respect of Regulation 23 Safeguarding health, safety and welfare of child was issued onsite to the registered provider on 23 October 2025. 2. There was no documentary evidence available that daily indoor room environmental risk assessments were completed to ensure a safe play and work environment for the children and staff. 3. The chairs used in the Toddler room were not suitable for children aged 1-3 years to use for meals and tabletop activities as evidenced by the following observations: • At 13:17 hours it was observed that eight children aged 1-3 years were sitting on chairs that were too high for them as they were unable to place their feet on the floor for stability and balance. • A child aged 1-2 years was observed to fall off the chair while waiting for dinner to be served. • The two chairs used for the children in the Baby room did not have supportive sides to the chairs. Two children aged 1-2 years were observed to sit on chairs that were too high for them as they were unable to place their feet on the floor for stability and balance while eating their dinner. 4. The cupboard door under the sink unit was not secured to prevent the children accessing the contents which included a container of table salt and art materials. 5. There were no visibility strips on the glass patio doors in the outdoor covered area which created a potential risk of injury to a child if they failed to recognise the glass door. Action submitted by the Registered Provider
Provider's corrective action:
General Safety: 1. The maintenance man was due in the day of our inspection to carry out any repairs we had. That evening we purchased two new bolts, a piece of wood and two new doorbells. Our maintenance man then applied the two new bolt locks on the inside of our entrance gate to provide an extra safety measure to protect our children along with blocking the hatch. We also attached new doorbells for parents to alert us of their presence. This was to ensure our service is secured from any unauthorised entry. The service manager trained all new staff on our new gate safety measure and how it is to be locked at all times and parents will ring the doorbell to alert us of their presence. All staff signed off on the training. We are exploring options to update our entrance system. 2. The service manager has now implemented a daily checklist created by our service manager to be completed by staff every morning to ensure safe play and work environments for all staff and children indoors and there is a section provided to make note of any maintenance that needs to be carried out. Notes will also be made in our maintenance book of any maintenance required. All staff have been trained in completing our new daily checklist to ensure that we provide a safe play and work environment for all sta ff and children indoors. Our maintenance man will be calling every two weeks from now on guided by the service deputy manager to carry out any maintenance needed. Our service deputy manager will then sign off on the maintenance books what has been carried out on each visit. 3. New chairs have been purchased for both the baby and daycare room. We purchased chairs with arms for both rooms to provide the children with extra support and balance when they are sitting. We have implemented a new system for the older children with a flower symbol on our old chairs that are of appropriate height that they can identify and know that they can use. 4. The service manager has a new daily checklist in place that allows for the checking of cupboards and other safety features in all the rooms in our service. This check list provides the staff with the opportunity to report any risks or maintenance works that need to be carried out in a quick and timely manner. 5. Visibility strips were purchased placed on the windows of the patio door to prevent any potential risks of injury to children if they failed to recognise or see the glass door. The service manager has new daily checklist in place that allows for the checking of windows and doors and other safety features in all the rooms in our service. This check list provides the staff with the opportunity to report any risks or maintenance works that need to be carried out in a quick and timely manner
Regulation 27 — Supervision
1. The supervision of the maximum number of nineteen children aged 1-3 years observed to be attending the Baby and Toddler rooms was compromised on the day of the inspection . This was due to overcrowding of children aged 1-3 years in the Toddler room. There were too many children in a mixed age group with increased care needs in this room , and this had an impact on the care of the children as evidenced by the following observations: • At 11:05 it was observed that a child was settling into the Baby room until 11:32. As a result, another child aged 1-2 years was moved from the Baby room to the Toddler room during this time to accommodate this child. • At 11:03 a child was observed sitting alone at a table while finishing snack in the Toddler room. One adult was cleaning the table and sweeping the floor after snack while another adult was encouraging the other thirteen children to sit in the cosy corner for a story while the clean-up was completed. • There was no adult available to carry out physical sleep observations as part of the required care of sleeping children. From 12:4 1 – 13:00 the inspector did not observe any physical checks being consistently completed on four sleeping children in the sleep room adjacent to the baby room. It is acknowledged that there was a viewing panel on the dividing wall between the baby room and the sleep roo m. S leeping children must be physically observed every 10 minutes to ensure their safety. • At 13:17 a child was observed to place their head on a table and fall asleep at the table while waiting for dinner to be served. Sleep facilities were not available in the service until the Toddler room was transitioned to a sleep room after dinner was finished
Provider's corrective action:
1. A new settling period plan has been implemented for the parents by the service manager. This is also double checked by the deputy manager. This outlines a more descriptive plan for child settling. All daycare staff are now trained and receive a handover sheet which states the details of all the new children starting. The staff have been retrained in regard to meal times, to ensure that the children start and finish together. The service manager has designated a staff member to be in charge of nap times and to check the children every ten minutes by entering the sleep room and observing the children. All staff have been retrained on safe sleeping procedures. Each room in daycare have their own logbooks and children are physically checked every 10 minutes and are signed by the designated person. The service manager has designated the ancillary staff member to clean up after mealtimes which allows for the practitioners to stay and care with the children
Found compliant: Regulation 19, 28.
Inspection of 26 November 2024 — Inspection Report
Regulation 8 — Notification of change in circumstances
Police vetting was not available in respect of one staff member who had lived outside the state for a period of longer than six consecutive months
Provider's corrective action:
The registered provider stated in the response that: Garda vetting (Irish) was in place for the staff member before they began their employment within the service. International police vetting application was in process at time of inspection relating to a period within 2008/2009. International police vetting was received was received on 03/12/24 on behalf of staff member. Significant delay in issuing same was due to typing error on application, with initial application dated 09/10/24. (Police vetting included) Going forward all staff must have international police vetting in place before commencing their employment within service regardless of its practicality. Strengthening of staff recruitment and retention procedures for staff, by ensuring recruitment procedures are followed and re-checked by Deputy Manager. A step-by-step process will be strictly adhered to and verified at each stage. (Recruitment checklist included) Introduction of checklist system for staff file to record dates of issue of vetting clearance and dates of expiry. (Staff vetting checklist included) Summary Comment In respect of the corrective action taken documentary evidence was submitted to the office of the Early Years Inspectorate, reviewed by the Early Years Inspector and deemed to meet the regulatory requirement
Regulation 23 — Safeguarding health, safety and welfare of child
General Safety: 1. The most recent Garda vetting disclosure presented in respect of one staff member was not dated within the previous three years in adherence with the Early Years Inspectorate Regulatory Notice ‘EYI-RN12.3 Renewal of Garda Vetting’. 2. In the outdoor play area, the mat under the slide required replacement to provide a safe landing to children when using the slide. 3. In the outdoor play area, the protective rubbers on the handlebars of two balance bicycles were worn with exposed metal handlebars protruding which posed a potential injury risk to children. Action submitted by the Registered Provider
Provider's corrective action:
General Safety: 1 Vetting application for staff member was in the process of re application in the week of inspection. Vetting application documents were issued to all staff for block processing on Monday 25th November, due for review on Tuesday 26th November before forwarding to the nominated vetting agency. Going forward, block vetting applications will be issued at least a month before expiry date of vetting disclosure. A checklist has been formulated as an addition to staff records to record vetting applications, disclosure receipt and expiry date of disclosure. Block applications will ensure consistent review of vetting process within service, as instigated in November 2024. (Garda vetting application receipt included) 2 Area at base of slide has had old matting removed. It has been re padded with fresh bark chip and new mat added to area. (Photograph included) Strengthening of regular daily checks carried out in outdoor area. Addition of each area of equipment now highlighted, with direct transfer of damages to maintenance list. Both documents now stored together in lobby, for ease of transfer of information. (Photograph included) Recently acquired independent maintenance services, to provide regular system of repairs to equipment and environment both indoors and outdoors. This system will ensure that fortnightly maintenance will occur, with arrangement made for serious matters to be dealt with quickly on an emergency basis. 3 Removed damaged balance bikes from garden. Replaced bikes with extra tractors to ensure adequate numbers of wheeled toys in outdoor space. (Photograph and receipt included) Outdoor wheeled toys now identified numerically, with addition to outdoor checklist to record damaged or broken items by number. (Playground checklist included) Broken toy recording system to be stored with both outdoor checklist and maintenance list in lobby for ease of transfer of relevant information. Summary Comment In respect of the corrective action taken documentary evidence was submitted to the office of the Early Years Inspectorate, reviewed by the Early Years Inspector and deemed to meet the regulatory requirement