Inspection of 24 April 2026 — Inspection Report
Immediate action notice. The inspection focused on an examination of compliance under Regulations 9, 11 and 19; however, on inspection additional non-compliance which posed a risk was identified under Regulation 16. These findings are outlined within the relevant regulation within this report.
Regulation 11 — Staffing levels
- (1) An adequate number of adults were not working directly with the children attending the service at all times during the inspection as detailed below under (2)
- The registered provider did not ensure that the minimum ratio of adults to children was maintained in the service at all times. An insufficient number of adults were available to the children intermittently during the morning of inspection attending on a p art time and full day care basis in the Senior Preschool, Senior Toddlers, Junior Toddlers, and Junior Wobblers: - From 8:35am until 9:22am across the aforementioned five care rooms, adults were observed caring for preschool children aged between 1 to 4 years for periods of 2 to 12 minutes not within the required minimum adult to child ratios for the ages of the children in attendance in these rooms. Staff members who were not rostered to work in the service on the day of inspection arrived resulting in the adult to child ratio being met as follows: - The area manager was present working directly in the care rooms with the children when the inspectors arrived at the service. At 8:58am, 9:04am, 9:18am, and 9:32am three adults employed in other centres operated by the registered provider, and one adult em ployed in the service’s head office, arrived to the service to work directly with the children across the care rooms
Provider's corrective action:
- (1) The service has since had three employees commence their employment and also still has additional support provided from an external agency, operations manager and other Cocoon services when required. The companies Emergency Relief Panel also remains in place as support to the service if required due to unexpected absences. The services operating hours were also temporarily reduced to 8:00am – 5:00pm in response to this. (2) Due to unexpected absences on the morning of the inspection and time required to arrange alternative cover and transport this resulted in momentary lapses in the adult to child ratios. Once notified of the unexpected absences, team members and the emergency relief panel was contacted to arrive to the centre. The service has since had three employees commence their employment and also the services emergency relief panel has been on site along with a member of the operations team where required to ensure adult to child ratios are being met each day and offer support in the event of unexpected absences. The centre also reduced their operating hours temporarily in response to this. Three additional team members have commenced their employment with an additional five staff due to commence as soon as garda vetting returns. The registered provider has recruited for additional team members to ensure if extra support is required for the service in the event of unexpected absences or further garda vetting delays. The centre will continue to be supported by the operations manager, other centres, an external employment agency and emergency relief panel if required. The service temporarily reduced the centre operating hours in response to this and has recruited additional team members for the service to ensure additional support is available when required. Members of the operations team, other services and emergency relief panel have been on site and will continue to do so where required. The centre manager will ensure to update the centre roster regularly throughout the day where required to reflect any changes in staffing scheduled for the service
Regulation 16 — Record in relation to pre-school service
- Although it is acknowledged that a staffing roster was in place in the service detailing staff members hours of work each day, the roster was not reflective of the staff members present during the inspection who were working directly with the children as follows: - Five adults present during the inspection, including the area manager and four adults from other centres operated by the provider and the service’s head office , were present and working directly in the care rooms during the inspection. The area manager was present on the inspector’s arrival. The four other adults arrived subsequent to the inspector’s arrival
Provider's corrective action:
- Due to unexpected absences within the service and staffing challenges due to Garda Vetting delays the staff roster on file was unable to be updated as the operational manager on site was required to support the care rooms and the staff roster was updated later that day to include the additional support that arrived to the centre after the inspectors arrival. The centre manager will ensure to update the centre roster daily where required and as soon as possible when there are any unexpected changes to facilitate any changes in staff members or arrival of support to the centre
Found compliant: Regulation 9, 19.