Children 'walk around aimlessly' and babies 'sleep on their stomach’ at this Leeds nursery - Ofsted report

A damning Ofsted inspection has ruled that children were left to “walk around aimlessly” at a nursery in Leeds.

Little People Bramley, located on Lower Town Street, Bramley, was received an ‘Urgent improvement’ rating across all six inspected categories - achievement, behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines, children's welfare and wellbeing, curriculum and teaching, inclusion, and leadership and governance.

Inspectors, who visited the site on March 17 this year, found that the provider does not ensure all staff have a clear knowledge and understanding of the policies and procedures to safeguard children and protect them from the risk of harm.

The nursery, which had 81 children under its care at the time of inspection, all aged between one and four, was previously downgraded to ‘Requires improvement’ during a 2023 inspection.

“Children do not receive the targeted support that they need to develop their communication and language skills,” inspectors said. “Some children are left to walk around the setting aimlessly without any support or interactions from staff.

“The provider does not ensure that staff have a clear understanding of how to keep children safe while eating. Children, including those who require additional support around mealtimes, are left unsupervised for extended periods of time while eating and do not remain seated.”

Despite this, leaders and staff work well with parents to promote the importance of regular attendance, according to the report. They do this through having regular conversations and following up with families when a child does not arrive for their usual session.

They are clear about what they want children to learn at each stage in their development and across all areas of learning. Some children enjoy accessing the activities on offer when staff “interact and engage effectively” with them.

Although children's behaviour is not an issue in this setting, staff do not always act as positive role models through their interactions with children and each other. Staff “do not act in ways” that support and promote children's emotional wellbeing.

Staff develop children's mathematical skills as they encourage them to make comparisons of how tall the bean stalk has grown throughout the story. However, due to inconsistencies between staff practice, not all children have these opportunities to learn.

The education watchdog added: “The provider does not ensure that all staff have a clear understanding of the latest government guidelines around safe sleeping. For example, staff place some babies down to sleep on their stomach and do not respond to them appropriately when they lift their head up. This significantly compromises children's safety.

“The provider does not take prompt action to implement the setting's whistleblowing procedures in practice when concerns are raised about the conduct of staff. They have failed to report child protection concerns and allegations about staff in line with the setting's and local authority's reporting procedures.”

Little People Bramley does not have an effective system in place to ensure all staff consistently implement the setting's curriculum and children's individual learning plans in practice, according to the report. Leaders do not monitor this aspect of staff's practice consistently and effectively enough.

As a result, there is said to be variability between children's learning experiences and the quality of teaching and learning overall. For example, staff do not consistently and effectively teach children how to manage their own safety and hygiene.

Although leaders and staff work with parents and external professionals to put individual learning plans in place for those who require additional support with their learning or those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, they do not implement these plans in practice.

Little People Bramley has been approached for comment.