(1) It is acknowledged that five staff members had certificates in first aid training for children dated 2023 and 2024. However, only one of the adults had the required First Aid Responder training certificate and this person was absent on the day of the inspection
Provider's corrective action:
Two staff members have been registered to attend First Aid Responder training in March 2025. The service will make sure that if trained staff are leaving in future other staff will be trained beforehand
Regulation not named in the report text
(1) & (3) The service was registered to accommodate children aged 2-6 years. Two children aged 1-2 years were present in the Caterpillars room. The registered provider had not notified the Early Years Inspectorate of the change in age profile of children accommodated by the service
Provider's corrective action:
A notification of change of circumstances form has been submitted to reduce the age profile of the children to 1-6 years with a maximum of 30 children attending
(4) One adult working directly with children did not have the relevant documentation on file determining the qualification held was a major award at Level 5 or equivalent in Early Childhood Care and Education. This was a noncompliance on previous inspection s on 9 November 2022 and 3 July 2023 – The corrective and preventative actions submitted on both occasions failed to prevent recurrence of this non-compliance
Provider's corrective action:
(4) The qualification certificate has now been printed off and is on the staff file. There is a form at the front of the staff files with a checklist of the documents required
Regulation 16 — Record in relation to pre-school service
(1)(i) The manager of the service was not included on the staff roster for the service
Provider's corrective action:
(1)(i) The manager is now included in the weekly roster. We will ensure that all staff are included in the staff roster including management
Regulation 19 — Health, welfare and development of child
Basic needs of children: 1. Plates were not provided for the children to eat their snack in Blooming Butterflies room. Some children were observed to place their food directly on the table. 2. Drinking water was not freely available to the children in Blooming Butterflies room. 3. Staff members did not sit with the children during dinnertime making it an enjoyable and social occasion for the children. 4. Some child stated they did not want the dinner, but no alternative meal was offered/provided. Supporting relationships around children: 5. The transition to dinner time at 11:52am was not a calm, relaxed social experience for the children as observed by the following: • Children were served their dinners at various intervals and not as a whole group, as a result children were waiting, became fidgety and bored, were getting up from the table and walking around the room and moving to other tables. • One child was observed leaving the table with their plate of food to put in the bin unnoticed by the staff, the inspector brought this to the attention of the staff member plating the food. Physical and material environment: 6. The physical and material environment in Blooming Butterflies room was not constructively planned, considered or presented from a child’s perspective. The indoor environment did not have interesting play and learning spaces which provided developmentally appropriate, challenging, diverse, creative and enriching experiences that facilitated child led play. The def ined areas of interest were poorly presented and resourced as evidenced by the following observations: • The home corner was poorly presented and minimally resourced. There was some associative equipment in a container. Dress up clothes were in a container out of reach of the children. It was not presented attractively to invite the children to engage in child led play and limited imaginative play. • The was no obvious construction area in the room. • The books were placed on a bookshelf which was a little distance away from the mat. The children were not observed to use the reading/ rest area for rest or to read a book. • Playdough was provided by the staff members for an activity indoors on the morning of the inspection , however there was no sand and water play available either indoors or outdoors for child led play. This limited access minimised the children’s awareness to experience sensorial play and restricted their choice, natural curiosity and imagination. • Puzzles, jigsaws, small world toys, arts and craft materials were all stored in containers out of the reach of the children which minimised children’s opportunity to develop their manipulation skills as well as their reasoning and imaginative play. • There was no natural, real life, loose parts or open-ended materials available. 7. The physical and material environment of Caterpillars room was not constructively planned and observed to be under resourced to provide an interesting space for children to self-direct their play and learning, for example: • It is acknowledged the children did engage with a play dough activity in the morning, however, there was no sand, shredded paper or water play available. The lack of available materials and resources minimised the children’s awareness to experience sensori al play and limited children’s choice, natural curiosity and imagination. • Four shelving units were either bare or had randomly placed items that were not grouped together to inform a child if this was an area of interest i.e. a box with some construction items placed beside a box of magnets, a box of animals and a box containing miscellaneous items. • Another unit had some dolls randomly placed on top with no indication that this was part of the home corner which was located at the other side of the room. There were no associative items in this area for example a doll’s pram/buggy or a dolls cot. • There was no mark making area as the crayons and paper were observed stored on the bottom shelf of a tall storage unit and therefore not displayed to encourage the children to use them. • There were limited jigsaws and puzzles, and it was observed that four wooden puzzles were taken from the room to be used by another pre-school room thus reducing the resources further. This was a noncompliance on a previous inspection on 9 November 2022 and 3 July 2023. The corrective and preventative actions submitted on both occasions failed to prevent recurrence of this non-compliance. 8. There was limited equipment available to the children in the outdoor area. There was a medium sized climbing frame, a balance beam, one ride on toys and two push along scooters, two small water and sand trays with nothing in them, balls and two tyres. Programme of activities: 9. The routine in Blooming Butterflies room was adult led and did not respond to each child’s interest. There was no written evidence of the structured planning of activities on a weekly or monthly basis. There was no evidence of planning for each child based on their individual observations which captured their emergent interests. 10. Some children were bored and were observed climbing on tables, throwing toys, running aimlessly around the room, play wrestling and fighting with other children. The noise level was raised for long periods during the morning which limited the opportunity for children to concentrate and learn. 11. Children attending Blooming Butterflies and Busy Bees rooms for the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Scheme were not provided with their three hour s provision from 9:30am – 12:30 hours as evidenced by the following observations: • The children attending Blooming Butterflies room on a full day care basis were moved to another room at 12:00pm for their lunch rather than to the outdoor area for play with the children attending on a sessional basis. • The children attending Busy Bees room were brought outside at 12:23 hours to await collection at. The room was observed to be cleaned, equipment tidied, and all toys and resources put away prior to the children being taken outside
Provider's corrective action:
s. Basic needs of children: 1. The children in Blooming Butterflies are sessional children and bring their own lunches in their lunch boxes. Staff will provide plates going forward and remind children to use the plate or their lunch box rather than the table. 2. All children in this room also bring their own water bottles which are filled up when empty. We have also set up a water station each room. 3. The staff have been reminded of the importance of sitting and chatting with the children during all mealtimes. 4. Staff have been reminded that an alternative meal option is offered if a child does not like what is on the menu that day. Supporting relationships around children: 5. All meals and snacks will be plated and served at the same time. Dinner time has been changed to 12.30pm to facilitate a calmer experience and to allow all children to get their ECCE hours uninterrupted. Physical and material environment: 6. We are working closely with an external quality mentoring service to address these issues and improve the physical and material environment. The home corner has been improved with more real-world items, dolls, prams. The dress up is now in a basket easily accessible to the children with a small table and mat. There is now a construction area which is clearly defined and blocks trucks and other building toys. The book area now has a book rack on the wall beside the cozy corner where there is a small couch m at and cushions for the children. There is always now playdough on the shelves. Sand and water are also available to the children both indoors and outdoors. Arts/ crafts and mark making are now on the shelf in the tabletop area along with manipulative activities puzzles etc. In each room the teachers are setting up nature tables or baskets of natural open-ended material. 7. We are working closely with an external quality mentoring service to address these issues and improve the physical and material environment. 8. The outdoor area has had a new safety surface installed since the last inspection. There are two balance bikes, one ride on car, one scooter and two scuttle bugs. We have commissioned a large mud kitchen for the garden, and an area that will be cordoned off for digging and construction. We have new goal posts for football and an existing basketball hoop. We have created an outdoor classroom area which has table chairs and shelves with mark making and tabletop activities. Programme of activities: 9. Through our work with an external quality mentoring service, we are working to help the staff in Blooming Butterflies move towards a more child led approach. There is short term and long -term planning in all the rooms including Blooming Butterflies which was in a file on the day of inspection. I have asked the staff to make sure that it is always displayed on the wall in that room. The staff will sign and date all observations. 10. As stated earlier the original teacher in that room had left on Friday 26/1/24 and it was the first day with a new teacher in that room. With an inspection that morning it heightened the stress and the children felt it. 11. As stated above the dinner time has been moved to 12.30pm to accommodate ECCE children and to also lessen the movement between rooms and on the stairs. All ECCE children remain in their classrooms until the session is over. Staff lunch has been moved to 12.45 to accommodate this and cleaning the room after the session is finished in preparation for afterschool children arriving
Regulation 23 — Safeguarding health, safety and welfare of child
General Safety: 1. There was no documentary evidence that d aily written environmental room risk assessments were being completed. The last risk assessment was completed on 21 November 2023 and 11 December in Caterpillar room. 2. The outdoor area was not risk assessed or prepared prior to the children using the area on the day of the inspection. There was no documentary evidence available that daily outdoor risk assessments were routinely completed. 3. There was n o documentary evidence that of syste m of managerial oversight of the environmental risk assessments was in place in the service. 4. There was no system in place to manage maintenance issues in a timely manner as evidenced by the observed repairs that were required in the premises. 5. A storage cupboard with school age resources was turned around to face the wall. There was uncovered edging exposing the internal compressed wood which created a potential risk of injury to a preschool child. 6. Two children were observed wearing necklaces in Blooming Butterflies room. Infection Control: 7. There was no documentary evidence available that daily cleaning schedules for the room environments and equipment were maintained in Blooming Butterflies room . The last written record available was dated 10 November 2023 and 17 December 2023 in Caterpillar room. 8. Children in Caterpillar room did not wash their hands before eating their dinner at 11:54pm. 9. The ventilation grid in the sanitary area used by Blooming Butterflies room had a heavy build-up of dust. 10. The brush and dustpan were accessible to the children in Blooming Butterflies room which created a potential risk of infection to the children. 11. Childrens protective bibs used for art and sensory play were stored in sanitary area used by Blooming Butterflies room. 12. The dress up clothes in Caterpillar room were visibly stained and dirty. This created a potential risk of infection to the children. Action submitted by the Registered Provider
Provider's corrective action:
General Safety: 1. Daily risk assessment sheets are outside the office and a member of staff checks the garden each morning. We have now moved them to the door area in the garden room. 2. The outdoor area is risk assessed every morning and staff double check each time they use the garden. 3. The manager now signs off on the risk assessment sheets. 4. Maintenance issues are addressed as soon as they come up. We now have a past parent who is our handy man, and this is working out well. 5. The after-school shelves have been turned around to prevent any potential risk of injury to the preschool children. 6. All staff are to make sure no children wear necklaces or anything around their neck. Infection Control: 7. These were in a folder in the press in the room but are now displayed on the wall in each classroom. 8. Hand washing before meals is common practice in all the classrooms and very unusual that it did not happen on the day of the inspection. The staff have been reminded of the importance of this. A refresher in hand washing protocol has been completed in each classroom. 9. The cleaning of the ventilation grid in the sanitary area in Blooming Butterflies is now added to the weekly cleaning chart. 10. The dustpan and brush are stored behind the bin and out of the reach of the children. 11. The children’s protective bibs for arts and crafts have been moved to the storeroom outside the classroom. 12. Dress up clothes are now included on the weekly cleaning chart
Regulation 25 — First aid
1. There was no person trained in first aid for children (FAR) immediately available at all times to the children attending the pre-school service on the day of the inspection. 2. There was no adult available trained in first aid for children immediately available to the children between 18:00 – 18:30 hours following review of the staff roster. A corrective action was taken by the manager to correct this risk. (2) (a) 3. There first aid box in Caterpillar room was not stored in an easily accessible and conspicuous position as it was placed flat on top of a wall cupboard and there was no signage. There was signage in Blooming Butterflies room however there was no first aid box
Provider's corrective action:
1. Two staff are attending FAR training on the 10th 17th and 25th of April 2024 2. Two staff have up to date First Aid training and one of them is rostered at the beginning and end of the day so there is always someone on site. 3. The first aid box is now in the storeroom between both classrooms and there is a First Aid sign on the door
Regulation 26 — Fire safety measures
(1)(b) There was not an up-to-date maintenance documentation for the firefighting equipment which was last serviced in November 2022
Provider's corrective action:
(1)(b) The fire company came the same day as the inspection
Regulation 27 — Supervision
1. The supervision of the children in Blooming Butterflies and Caterpillars during the transition which commenced at 11:45am, where full day care children moved to Caterpillars room for lunch, and the sessional children were prepared to go outdoors for play and then collection from the service, was disorganised and chaotic. Low level sleep beds were observed being brought in the Blooming Butterflies room by an adult during this period Another adult was observed coming up the stairs with a tray containing hot dinners while the seven children from Blooming Butterflies room were on the small landing running abo ut while the adults from Blooming Butterflies room were organising the full day care children to go to Caterpillars room to eat their lunch. 2. Children were left unsupervised in Caterpillar room when sitting at the table to eat their dinner at 11:54pm. One staff member was changing a child’s clothes in the bathroom and the other staff member had their back to the children as the food was being plated at the sink unit area in the room
Provider's corrective action:
1. This routine has been changed; dinner time is now at 12.30pm when ECCE session is over. Beds are put down after the children have gone home. 2. The staff have been asked that in a situation like this where one staff member is preoccupied with a child that the other teacher stop what they are doing so she can give her full attention to the group until the other teacher is finished
Regulation 29 — Premises
(d) 1. The paintwork in all the care rooms was stained, chipped, faded in areas and marked. Plasterwork was observed to be broken off in areas in Blooming Butterflies room . Residue marks associated with plastic adhesive were observed on the wall in rest area in Busy Bee’s room. 2. The wooden stairgate on the first floor was broken as the left-hand side of the vertical stairgate frame had split. 3. A wooden gate on the left side of the outdoor area securing a pathway to the side of the building had come away from the two securing bolts and was observed to be rotting in areas. 4. A drain was covered with debris and required to be cleaned as it was causing rainwater and other debris to spill out on the play surface
Provider's corrective action:
1. All rooms have been cleaned and adhesive has been removed as much as possible. All rooms will be freshly painted in the summertime. 2. The wooden stair gate has been fixed. 3. The outdoor gate has been replaced. 4. The drain is clear and has been added to the outdoor risk assessment weekly sheet