Inspection of 29 February 2024 — Inspection Report
Regulation 22 — Food and drink
- The healthy eating policy omitted to specify the arrangements in place regarding the provision of food throughout the day for children. There was no sample menu provided in the policy for children attending the service on a full day care basis. As the main meal in the service is brought from the child’s home, the policy did not advise parents and guardians what foods can be brought into the service. The second snack provided to the pre-school children by the service was at 14:00 hrs consisted of toast, this was insufficient in nutritional content and for children availing of full day care remaining in the service until 17:20hrs. Food and Nutrition Guidelines for Pre-School Services advise that children attending full day care (for more than 5 hours) have at least two meals and two snacks offered to them, one of which is a hot meal. If a child does not want the food offered for any reason, a healthy alternative should be offered. Please refer to these guidelines for further information
Provider's corrective action:
- The first CAPA response submitted to the inspectorate on 9 April 2024 was insufficient and required further clarification. The manager stated in the 2nd CAPA response on 18 April 2024 the following: 1. Children are offered breakfast upon arrival if they have not had it parents will tell us by informal verbal handover this would consist of porridge or cereal. 2. Children have toast and fresh fruit each morning at approx. 10am. 3. Children have a hot meal at 12.30 sent from home. 4. A snack consisting of toast or food from home is provided at 2pm. Our children bring a variety of healthy food each day that they can access on demand. 5. At 4pm children regroup, and lunch boxes are checked by their key worker. We keep breadsticks and babybel cheese to offer if they require a snack at this point. As mentioned on the day of inspection we have offered yogurt in the past, but children had declined as they would also have it in their lunchbox. 6. A rolling snack is important to us so children can access healthy food on demand each child is monitored by their key worker. The manager stated in this response on 18 April that key workers monitor hand hygiene, and that is offered on demand as well as set times in this child led setting. This is carefully monitored via key worker system and parents are advised if children are not eating adequately
Found compliant: Regulation 9, 11, 20, 25, 26.