A damning inspection found that staff fail to notice when babies are at risk of harm
Kids Planet in Audenshaw
Babies were allowed to ‘crawl around with toast in their mouths’ at a Greater Manchester nursery slammed by Ofsted inspectors.
Kids Planet Audenshaw, on Mount Pleasant Street, must make ‘urgent improvements’ in five areas following an Ofsted visit in January. In the newly published inspection report, inspectors said staff ‘do not supervise babies appropriately or follow safer eating protocols’.
“When rooms are overcrowded and not staffed effectively, babies become distressed,” said the report. “Staff fail to notice that some babies are at risk of harm, for example, when crawling with toast in their mouths.”
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Babies could not explore because they were ‘distressed’ as their ‘needs were not always met’, the report went on. The probe also criticised staff attitudes to child safety, adding: “Staff make on-the-spot decisions, which undermine children’s safety.
“For instance, by straddling fences outdoors while holding babies, instead of using the gate. In addition, staff do not clean children’s cutlery after they have been on the floor, despite some children having severe allergies where cross-contamination is of concern.”
Staff also told inspectors their ‘workload is not sustainable’ to the point where it ‘impacts on their wellbeing’ and that nursery leaders ‘fail to support’ requests for more training.
Inspectors also noted that safeguarding standards were met at the nursery, but childcare register requirements were not met.
Ofsted told Kids Planet Audenshaw to implement six measures by late-February. A follow-up report detailing its progress has yet to be published.
Kids Planet in Audenshaw
A spokesperson for the nursery said: “The recent Ofsted inspection outcome which identified areas requiring urgent improvement is naturally very disappointing for us. We take the findings seriously and immediately implemented a comprehensive action plan to fully address the areas highlighted.
“This included enhanced staff training, strengthened routines and consistency across the setting, and improvements to our learning environments and curriculum delivery.
“We are reassured that safeguarding standards were confirmed as met, reflecting the strong culture we have in place to keep children safe which remains at the heart of everything we do.
“We have worked closely with our Local Authority and internal quality teams, and are encouraged that early changes have already had a positive impact. We remain fully committed to providing a safe, supportive, and high-quality environment for all children to learn and thrive and are confident we have delivered the improvements needed ahead of our next inspection.”