Nursery withdraws bid to provide free care hours
Move comes after inspectors raise further concerns about mealtimes
A NURSERY group has withdrawn its bid to provide free childcare hours for East Lothian families, after concerns over the feeding of youngsters was raised for a second time.
Care inspectors visiting Pear Tree Nursery Meadowpark in Haddington raised concerns over a “lack of understanding of nurturing actions” towards children and mealtime supervision.
They revealed that, during their visit, they witnessed a baby who had slept through a scheduled mealtime being given tinned soup as an alternative once awake, while some children were left to eat unattended, leaving them at risk if they choked.
Inspectors said: “Staff must adopt a more responsive and nurturing approach to their interactions with children.”
Bright Stars Nursery Group, which operates three Pear Tree nurseries in Haddington, and The Pumpkin Patch Children’s Nursery in North Berwick, said it was “disappointed” by the findings of the report.
A spokesperson said: “We take the inspectors’ observations very seriously.
“Since taking over the nursery in June 2022, we have made significant investment in the environment and development of the team.
“We recognise further improvements need to be made but are pleased inspectors highlighted the excellent feedback parents had for our team and the nursery, the community connections we are building and the determination of the leadership team to make progress.
“We have a detailed action plan in place and are working with the Care
Inspectorate to ensure that the requirements and areas for improvement they have identified are met within their timescales.”
The nursery group was dropped from East Lothian Council’s list of funded partners in 2022 after concerns were raised over some of its policies.
The group had been in discussions with the local authority about rejoining its funded list; however, it said it had now “temporarily withdrawn” its application.
The report into the nursery at Meadowpark came after an unannounced visit in January gave it a “weak” grade for its care.
It acknowledged parents’ praise for the staff and their children’s experience which had been expressed to inspectors, but said that the approaches mentioned by parents were not “consistently embedded in the overall ethos of staff practice during the day”.
The report said: “Children did not consistently experience caring or responsive interaction from staff.
“Staff frequently failed to interpret what babies were experiencing, lacked an understanding of nurturing interactions and performed actions without warning, invitation or interaction, such as lifting children with no interaction and, after nappy changing, placing children back in the playroom with only their vest on.”
And it said about meal times: “The majority of children benefited from homemade and nutritional balanced meals; however, this was not the experience of all children.
“Children that were not ready to eat during designated mealtimes were not provided with the same quality of experience. For example, tinned soup was the alternative provided to a baby.
“Staff frequently missed children communicating that they needed help or comfort.
“Staff were not always sitting with children during mealtimes due to performing mealtime-related tasks.
“This meant there was an increased risk that staff would not recognise or be able to respond quickly to the signs a child was choking.”
It is not the first time that mealtimes have been raised as a concern at one of the Pear Tree nurseries in Haddington.
In November 2022 inspectors visiting the group’s West Road nursery had to intervene to find food for hungry children after an issue with the meal provided.
East Lothian Council confirmed that it was no longer in discussion with the group over joining its 1,140 hours provision list.
The Bright Stars Nursery Group spokesperson said: “We are in regular contact with East Lothian Council and have taken the difficult decision to temporarily withdraw our application to become one of the nurseries used by the authority to provide free hours.”