Manager leaves as Blackpool nursery is criticised

Primrose House Nursery on Devonshire Road, Blackpool called in the lawyers after being branded ‘inadequate’ in 2016 – and was last year told it was ‘good’.

But now a new report, following another inspection, said quality has gone downhill – with legal requirements not being consistently met.

Dawn Brocklehurst from Quality Childcare Limited, which runs the nursery, said in a statement: “The previous manager responsible for the decline in practice has now left the company.

“However, we have a new highly qualified early years professional manager with lots of enthusiasm and ideas, and she is working closely with Blackpool Council’s early years team to regain the ‘good’ judgement with Ofsted at their next visit.”

In her report, Maxine Allmark said: “The provider has not monitored the nursery sufficiently well. Legal requirements have not been consistently met.

“For example, staff deployment has meant that children’s needs have occasionally not been met. The provider has introduced more robust monitoring of the provision.

“She acknowledges that there was a decline in practice and is taking action to improve the quality of the provision.

“However, improvements in the quality of teaching have only recently been implemented. As a result, the quality of teaching and learning is not consistently good.”

Maths was not being promoted as well as other areas of learning, Ms Allmark added, and a system for monitoring children’s progress was not being used to plan activities.

However, several positives were also pointed out.

They included staff using ‘creativity and initiative to develop children’s understanding of the world’, children developing a good understanding of how to keep themselves health and safe, and staff working ‘closely’ with external agencies, which means the most vulnerable children get the support they need.

Ofsted said the nursery currently cares for 60 children aged from two to four.