Ofsted issued a Welfare Requirements Notice to the nursery after finding safeguarding standards were not met
Ofsted has enforced regulatory action against a Bexley nursery after discovering it did not carry out DBS checks when recruiting staff. Inspectors from the education regulator visited Easy Peasy Nursery and Daycare at 57 Glimpsing Green in Erith on April 21 and found that its safeguarding measures were not met.
An Ofsted report also detailed how multiple areas at the nursery required urgent improvement. As meeting Ofsted’s safeguarding standards is a legal requirement for any educational facility, the regulator issued a Welfare Requirements Notice to the nursery which required it to complete several tasks to bring its safeguarding back up to scratch.
Following the April visit, Ofsted inspectors wrote: “Leaders have not ensured that there is an open and positive culture around safeguarding that adequately protects children from harm.
“They have not ensured that new staff have a secure knowledge of safeguarding procedures, consequently, staff do not demonstrate a clear understanding of their child protection responsibilities.
“Staff are not consistently vigilant and do not identify potential risks within the setting promptly, which further compromises children’s safety. In addition, leaders have not followed appropriate safer recruitment procedures to ensure staff are suitable to work with children.”
Ofsted inspectors found that children were not safely secured in high chairs and they were able to access the garden and indoor areas without appropriate adult supervision, occurrences they called “significant failings”.
SEND provision was also described as “ineffective” and Easy Peasy’s management was criticised for not carrying out DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) checks and requesting references when recruiting new staff, something that “places children at risk of harm and demonstrates a failure to understand and fulfil statutory safeguarding responsibilities”.
The Ofsted report stated: “High turnover of staff has a significant negative impact on children’s experiences. Leaders have not sufficiently explored or addressed the underlying cause of instability.
“Leadership capacity is severely stretched. Managers carry an excessive workload due to limited confidence and support from the team. This results in insufficient oversight of daily practice, routines, staff deployment and the quality of teaching.
“Although training is recorded and monitored, leaders fail to ensure that training leads to meaningful improvements in practice.”
Since the inspection, Easy Peasy has provided safeguarding training for all of its staff, ensured equipment is used safely with appropriate supervision and stopped children from accessing areas where staff are not present. The nursery has also obtained and checked references for all of its employees.
Easy Peasy Nursery and Daycare has been approached for comment.
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