Regulation 19 in Offaly
Health, Welfare and Development of Child: 6 non-compliance(s) in the latest reports we read.
An inspection records what inspectors saw on one day; services respond with corrective actions — how to read this.
4 June 2026
Just 4 Kids Crèche, Portarlington · Regulation 19 — Health, welfare and development of child
- 19(1)(a)(b) 1. The environment in the Daisy room did not support the pre-school children in initiating play activities. The room was under resourced for the seven children in attendance in the room. There was a limited range of equipment available to provide varied opportunities for the young children to engage in physical and gross motor activity through self-initiated movement. For example, • The doors were missing from a play kitchen and there was no supporting kitchen equipment such as pots and pans or play food to use during play. • Two storage units were missing their containers and had no toys. This limited the ability for children to play with toys of their choosing. 2. The emotional wellbeing of children was not prioritised at all times during the day by the staff present. Staff members delayed responses to children who were upset evidenced by the following; On arrival at the service, from the front carpark, the inspector could hear a child crying in the outdoor play area. A staff member could be heard talking to the child in a stern tone. On entry into the service, the inspector saw the child who had been upset in the hallway. No staff member was supporting the child. The child informed the inspector that another child had ‘wet the child with water in the garden’ the inspector observed that the child was attempting to get a change of clothes from their bag. A staff member from another preschool room on route to the office stopped in the hallway and assisted the child to retrieve the change of clothes from his bag. The child was observed to change his clothes independently in the sanitary accommodation located in the hall. The children from this child’s care room had all returned indoors, the staff member covering the Daffodil room where the child was in attendance did not check on the child during this time
Provider's corrective action:
- The registered provider has taken immediate corrective action to ensure that the environment and practices fully support the wellbeing, learning, and development of all children attending the service. 1. A review of the resources available to children in the Daisy Room was undertaken. Additional age- appropriate equipment has been sourced. The play kitchen has been fully replenished with appropriate accessories, including pots, pans, utensils, play food and other role-play materials. Storage units have been restocked with a variety of toys and learning materials to ensure children can independently access resources of their choice. The registered provider will liaise with a quality improvement organisation regarding the layout, resources, and learning environment. 2. Staff have been reminded of their responsibility to respond promptly and sensitively to children who are distressed or require emotional support. All staff have participated in a reflective practice meeting focusing on children's emotional wellbeing, responsive interactions and active supervision. Staff have been reminded that children who become upset or require assistance must receive immediate support and reassurance. Supervision arrangements have been reviewed to ensure children are not left without appropriate adult support during transitions or while attending to personal care needs. Daily observations of staff practice are now undertaken by management to monitor compliance with the service's policies. The registered provider will continue to monitor practice through regular supervision, mentoring and team meetings to ensure children's emotional wellbeing is prioritised at all times and that high standards of care are consistently maintained
26 May 2026
Memory Lane Pre-school, Edenderry · Regulation 19 — Health, welfare and development of child
- Physical and material environment: Room 1 1. It was observed that activities were adult led rather than enabling the children to be independent to make choices and decisions about their play. 2. The physical and material environment in Room 1 required to be reviewed to ensure that these areas are presented and adequately resourced to enable the children to engage in child led imaginative play. There was a play kitchen, and shop carcass which ha d a small number of associative toys available. This limited the play value in these interest areas, and the children were observed to not play with them. 3. Dress up clothes were observed in a metal basket in another part of the room rather than hung up on a rail to assist children’s choice. 4. There was no mark making area, paint and paper, art and crafts or open ended materials available to the children to provide child led creative opportunities. 5. A large storage unit ha d trays of various play toys including trains and train track set , plastic and wooden building blocks, small world animals, cars and trucks however they were not taken out or put on top of the storge unit as an invitation to play. The children were not observed to play with them. 6. A tuff tray was available for sensory play but was not used. There was no sensorial play available to the children in the room on the inspection. It is acknowledged that a messy play ice cream activity had been provided earlier in the service however it was tidied away and no other sensory play material was available for the remainder of the morning. Room 2 7. It was observed that there was no mark -making area with paper/crayons available for the children to readily access; the staff member advised the inspector the crayons were stored in a closed cupboard in the pre-school room. It is acknowledged the adults provided the children with colouring templates and crayons after dinner. 8. The interest area containing a wooden shop unit was observed with no associative play equipment and the wooden play kitchen was observed with minimal associative props to encourage the children to use the space for creative and imaginary and meaningful play. It is acknowledged a container of wooden play food items were brought to the room mid-morning; however, the container was placed in a storage unit at the other side of the room and not organised in or close to these areas to promote invitations for the children to play
Provider's corrective action:
- Toys were being sterilised that morning and returned to the appropriate areas once the sterilising was complete. A clothes rack has now been moved into each classroom where the children can access the dress up clothes. Painting and creatives expression are a regular and consistent feature of our provision and are generally available within the environment on a daily basis. The storage unit which we have placed in the middle of the floor space is easily accessible to the children throughout the day. We have always believed that allowing the children to choose, retrieve, and put away their toys is a fundamental pillar of early childhood education. Choosing a tray, carrying it to a play space, and deciding when they are finished gives children a sense of agency and control over their learning environment. On the morning of inspection, an extended sensory play experience had taken place across the environment including both construction and role play themes. Crayons, paper and mark making material readily available for the children to participate with. We will ensure that the toys continue to be available as usual when not being sterilised
5 May 2026
Kilcormac Community Childcare, Kilcormac · Regulation 19 — Health, welfare and development of child
- (1)(a) Physical and material environment: 1. The physical and material environment in Green 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. It is acknowledged that there was materials and resources present however they were on shelving out of reach of children or in protective covers / boxes. 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. There was an absence of defined interest areas in the room. There was a play kitchen, a plastic garage and farm carcass which did not have any associative toys available. This limited the play value of these toys, and the children were not observed to play with them. There was no d ress up clothes, no sensorial materials such as sand, water, shredded paper, open ended, art and craft materials, puzzles available to the children. While it is acknowledged that there were plenty of age appropriate books, they were not available to the children. 2. The covered outdoor area used by the children from the Green room required to be presented in a more planned way to support the children’s play, movement, and exploration
Provider's corrective action:
- Corrective and Preventive Action 1. The layout of the room has been changed to include diverse creative and developmentally appropriate experiences with an emphasis on child led play. Resources accessible for the children have been increased . Equipment has been ordered and a tuff tray has been introduced to the room on a permanent basis which changes each day, included animals/ shredded paper, sand, water/ice, play dough, bubbles/ pasta play and cornflour. We received confirmation that we had been allocated support from an external quality development service on 15 June 2026. We hope to learn and maintain a child centred physical environment with their guidance and support. During fortnightly planning meetings , we will be looking at what we can change or add to the weekly room lay out to enhance, observing the children’s experiences, what has been working well and identifying interests that we can build on in the areas of the room. We will also take photographs of the room layout for future reference. 2. We have added in more outdoor equipment in the morning, and afternoon set ups of the garden area. We have introduced a sand t ray to the middle of garden, removed the two pieces or equipment that were never used. Chalk is available for chalk boards; balance stones have been introduced; we moved the position of the slide to allow space for ride on toys as well as smaller cars/trucks. A water tray has also been ordered for the outdoor area. We received confirmation that we had been allocated support from an external quality development service on 15 June 2026. We hope to learn to continuously create an inviting outdoor area for the children with their guidance and support . During fortnightly planning meetings we will discuss the outdoor environment, consider if the children are getting bored of any of the equipment, what can we add, theme, change up the layout or introduce. Keeping these planning notes and taking photos of the area will help us look back at layouts and what has and hasn’t worked previously
24 March 2026
Tullamore Community Pre School Ltd, Tullamore · Regulation 19 — Health, welfare and development of child
- While it is acknowledged that the children were provided with freedom of choice in their play and there was a wide variety of activities and areas of interest available to the children the following observations require a review of the practices around management of transitions, routines and children’s behaviours. 1. The management of transitions in the service require to be reviewed as they were too long. It was observed that the children were sitting at tables waiting for food to be served and became bored. Some children were observed getting up and moving around the care room with their drinks, a child did not want to eat and then engaged in a noisy activity which distracted some children eating. 2. Boundaries around snack time were not managed as one child sat at the teacher’s desk to eat snack rather than at the table with the other children, another child declined snack and played noisily in the care room with other children leaving their snack to join in. 3. While children were getting ready to go outdoors, some children were observed running in the care room and diving on to the floor. Other children were observed climbing on the furniture, another child was observed pushing over chairs on the floor. It is acknowledged that the staff members attempted to manage the behaviours however the children did not respond to the requests to stop their running. 4. The noise level in the room was very loud and did not create an environment conducive to suit every child’s opportunity and experience for learning
Provider's corrective action:
- 1. Within the preschool going forward, we will continue to implement the smaller groups routine. Lunches are prepared early to ease the transitions around lunch time and with a smaller group at each lunch time. 2. Children are now sitting in smaller groups for lunch time at the same table . We will continue to have smaller groups eating lunch together at the same table. This will help with children focusing on the task at hand and ease their transitions from one activity to the next 3. Dividing the group into smaller groups makes it an easier and quieter transition from inside to outside and vice versa. We will continue this routine as it is working well. It is easier for the children to focus and listen to instructions when in a smaller group. 4. By dividing the groups into smaller groups, the noise levels have reduced. We will continue with this routine as it is working well. It is easier for the children to focus and listen to instructions when in a smaller group
24 February 2026
Clever Clogs, Geashill · 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
5 February 2026
Durrow Pre-School No 2, Tullamore · Regulation 19 — Health, welfare and development of child
- 1. During conversation with the Early Years Inspector, the staff demonstrated knowledge of the prohibited strategies which are unsuitable in the management of children’s behaviour . However, a ‘thinking chair’ was used to manage challenging behaviour in the service rather than approaches which supported a child to self- regulate to encourage pro-social behaviour. This behaviour management strategy did not align to the behaviour management policy for the service
Provider's corrective action:
- 1. The practice of ‘thinking time ’ to manage children’s behaviours has ceased. We have attended training in managing behaviours and the service have updated and sent policy to all staff members on Managing Behaviours. All staff are working on their tone (playful) when managing children’s behaviour. The manager will complete spot checks in the care rooms and intervene if a staff member needs assistance when managing children’s behaviours. The one-to-one supervisory meetings held every two months will be an opportunity for staff members to discuss with the Registered Provider any practice issues or challenges that they may have or need support with