Inspection of 19 July 2024 — Inspection Report
Regulation 9 — Management and recruitment
- (2) (a)&(b) • One staff member who provides relief in the service did not have documentary evidence of 2 written and validated references. • A 2nd staff member who also provides relief in the service did not have evidence available that 2 written references available were validated. (3) All vetting procedures were not completed prior to 2 staff members being appointed or allowed contact with children in the service. (4) The requirement for all staff members who work directly with children to have an appropriate childcare qualification was not achieved as follows; • Although not present on the day of the inspection, one staff member who is reported to provide relief in the service did not have documentary evidence of the minimum required Level 5 childcare qualification. • A 2nd staff member who was observed working directly with the children during the inspection did not have documentary evidence available of an official translation of their qualification to determine that it meets the minimum required level 5 in childcare
Provider's corrective action:
- s (2) (a)&(b) • Both staff members now have 2 written and validated references each. These documents have been emailed to the Early years inspector when they were received. In future all staff will have 2 written and validated references before they start work. (3) The staff members had garda vetting. In future these documents will be in place before staff start working with the children
- • The relief staff members level 5 childcare qualification is now on file. The 2nd relief staff member has emailed the college to get a translation of the qualification and is waiting on a response from the college. In future all documents that is needed for inspection for each staff member is in the staff folder, including any required translation
Regulation 16 — Record in relation to pre-school service
- (i) The staff roster on display in the service was inadequate for the following reasons; • It did not detail the names of all staff present in the service during the inspection. • It did not detail the start, finish, break times and cover for break times of each person in attendance every day. • It did not include information about staff who were on leave and what staff were providing relief cover in the service
Provider's corrective action:
- s (i) • All staff now sign in even if it’s a relief staff member for a short time. • All staff now fill in start, finish, break times and cover for breaks. • Records will now be in place if a staff member is on leave and name of relief staff that will be covering f Staff information regarding start, breaks, finish, leave or cover will be checked regularly to make sure everything is filled in and up to date for inspection in future. Summary Comment The registered provider submitted details of the corrective and preventative actions taken in the service to address the non-compliance. Based on this information the non-compliance under Regulation 16 has been addressed. Implementation and sustainment of the corrective and preventive actions will be assessed at the next inspection
Regulation 20 — Facilities for rest and play
- (1)(b) There were instances were sleep facilities were found to be inadequate as demonstrated by the following: 1. In the sleep room observed in use, one of the cot mattresses was unsuitable for use as it had brown stains evident on it and it was ill-fitting creating a foothold which is a potential safety risk. 2. During the allocated rest time after dinner, 2 day beds were positioned on the floor in the Toddler area for the 2 children who required a sleep. These were positioned directly in front of 9 children who did not wish to sleep and were seated on chairs to watch the television which was in use for a brief time. This does not provide a suitable rest area conducive to rest/sleep
- 1. In the partially covered play area outside there were a number of unprotected wooden support posts which were a potential impact and injury hazard
Provider's corrective action:
- 1. A new mattress has been purchased for the cot. Cot mattresses will be checked more often and replaced if any stains are on them. 2. The day beds are now in the sleep room where the cots are. All children that are resting or sleeping will go into the sleep room from now on
- 1. A carpenter has been contacted about putting up a surrounding fence in front of the posts. He said it would be done by mid-October 2024. In the meantime, the posts have been covered with a foam cover. All outdoor posts and fences will be checked regularly for any wood splinters and add this to our risk management log
Regulation 23 — Safeguarding health, safety and welfare of child
- The Inspectorate was not assured that adequate steps had been taken to ensure the health, safety and welfare of the pre-school children attending the service for the following reasons: General Safety: 1. There were no child appropriate handrails available on the staircase for the children aged 3-4 years attending the upstairs room. This was also acknowledged by the registered provider who confirmed that some of the smaller children “have difficulty, particularly at the bend at the bottom of the stairs”. 2. The maintenance records available for the fire fighting equipment on the premises was dated 05/2023, which is outside the recommended best practice guidelines of a requirement for a minimum of annual maintenance. Infection Control: 3. The grey highchair cover was in a defective condition with foam exposed, which does not allow for effective cleaning. 4. Ineffective hand washing practices were observed. Some of the children were observed washing their hands with cold water as the one of the hot water taps in the sanitary area was broken and did not provide a constant supply of hot water. Safe Sleep: 5. The safe sleep records reviewed did not include the actual written details of each 10-minute physical observation instead a “symbol was used rather than documenting the actual observation made
Provider's corrective action:
- Corrective & Preventive Action General safety: 1. A carpenter fitted a new low-level handrail. 2. The fire protection servicing company was contacted and carried out maintenance on the fire fighting equipment. The registered provider will make sure in future that the fire maintenance does not exceed 12 months. Infection Control 3. A new highchair cover has been purchased. In future all highchairs will be checked to ensure they are in good condition with no tears. 4. The registered provider has been in contact with the plumber to ensure that all taps have a constant flow of thermostatically controlled hot water. Safe Sleep 5. On the safe sleep records, staff will not use inverted commas (“) anymore
Found compliant: Regulation 11, 22, 25, 26.