Wick daycare service make changes after staffing provision branded 'weak' by report
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A children's daycare service in Wick has made a number of changes after an unannounced inspection earlier this year found weaknesses in staffing provision.
PPP Childcare Service, a full-time daycare service provided by Pulteneytown People's Project in Wick, received a visit from the Care Inspectorate on March 2, 2023.
Checks were carried out on four areas of the service – care, play and learning, setting, leadership and the staff team. Inspectors use a six-point scale to evaluate the quality of service, with 1 meaning "unsatisfactory" and 6 being "excellent".
While most areas were found to be adequate, the authority rated the staff team as "weak" after receiving a score of 2 – with several areas required for improvement.
The report read: "Staff recognised the importance of nurturing, warm, responsive attachment and interactions. However, due to competing demands placed on them they could not always offer the level of support and interaction they wanted to.
"The service was staffed above the minimum adult to child ratio required – however, the deployment and number of staff working in the service was insufficient to ensure high quality outcomes for all children.
"The approach to staffing in the service was not outcome focussed and did not take into account, the complexity of individual children's needs and the layout of the building. As a result, the quality of children's experiences was compromised and their wishes and choices were not always acknowledged."
As a result, the inspectorate stated that the service provider must ensure that at all times suitably qualified and competent staff are working in the nursery in such numbers as are appropriate for the health, welfare and safety of children.
Julianne McKillop, registered manager at PPP Early Learning Centre welcomed the report, and confirmed that they had shared the report with parents, and that several improvements have been made ahead of an April 28 deadline set by inspectors.
She said: "We have a great staff team who want the best for our children, and we have taken on board all the findings in the report. We have already made improvements to deploy staff more effectively.
"We immediately put in place a revised and more structured snack and mealtime, to support our children with additional support needs, with members of staff now able to sit with the children at the table, providing individual care for those children who struggle in that kind of a social setting, and holding focused learning conversations.
"We have also increased the number of staff hours to support this. Additionally, we have held training sessions for all of our staff to improve their practice.
"We shared the report with our parents, and let them know how disappointed we were, but that we will be working hard to continue to improve our service for our children over the next while and we will continue to work on these and a range of improvements with the Care & Learning Alliance (CALA), who we’ve been working with over the last year, to support me and the staff to improve the setting."
In other areas, the report rated the setting of the service as "good", noting that playrooms were clean and well-ventilated, and that displays around the rooms were used to reflect children's interests and experiences, providing opportunities for children to revisit their play and learning and share their achievements.
The report also stated that since the last inspection, an outside sink had been installed to allow children to wash their hands before returning to the playroom, supporting good infection prevention and control practice.
When evaluating care, play and learning, the service was found to be at an adequate level, however several recommendations were made for improvement.
The report stated that overall, children benefited from warm, caring relationships from staff, with comfort, cuddles and caring interactions offered when needed. However, due to competing demands placed on staff, it was noted that they did not always pick up on children's cues for support and interaction. As a result, children did not always receive the right support at the right time.
The same level was reported for the service's leadership qualities, with the report recommending that the service develop and implement robust quality assurance processes to monitor daily practice, in an effort to identify opportunities for improvement.
