Concerns raised over care at Celtic Manor's Evergreen Day Nursery

The service provided by the Evergreen Day Nursery, based at the Celtic Manor Resort, "does not always support positive outcomes for children" according to a report from the Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW), following an inspection in July.

Serious concerns were reported, resulting in the issuing of five non-compliance notices, in respect of supervision of children, safeguarding, environmental risks, practitioner qualifications, and supervision of practitioners.

The service provided at Evergreen Day Nursery was also found to be not technically compliant with regulations in respect of practitioner recruitment and in ensuring practitioners' criminal record checks were completed on time.

Fifteen recommendations for improvement are made in the report, ranging from ensuring all staff fully understand the service's policies and procedure, and ensuring all documents are signed and dated, to ensuring children's attendance records record times of arrival and departure, and ensuring that staff support children throughout meal times to encourage independence and develop social skills.

Children's internet access must be supervised and monitored for appropriateness, and access to sufficient engaging resources and activities must be available to the children throughout the day.

The day nursery offers full day care and has 61 places for children aged 0-12 years.

Evergreen was only registered last March, and this was its first inspection, following which its management has, states the report, provided evidence of a number of improvements.

It continues: "There has been a very recent change in management and we found them to be committed and proactive to improving the service."

Much of the CSSIW's concern from the inspection relates to provision for pre-school children, the report stating that many of whom "were disengaged and there were issues with behaviour and interactions."

"In general, children have good relationships with the practitioners and there are caring and affectionate interactions between them," it said.

"However, children are not always supervised appropriately by practitioners who are aware of their individual needs."

Although the report said parents had said they were happy with the service, it was found daily routines for pre school-aged children were "poorly organised" and youngsters had "limited opportunities to enjoy engaging activities or develop skills".

"We saw children sat for long periods of time and as a result some children became restless and agitated," it said.

"At times the practitioners followed routines rigidly and did not meet the individual needs of children.

"The quality of leadership and management is poor at the service and this reduces the quality of service delivered to parents and children.

"The service environment is clean, light, spacious and secure. However, leaders do not always ensure that health and safety issues are addressed consistently and this impacts upon children’s care and experiences they have at the service."

A spokesman for the Celtic Manor said: “The Celtic Manor Resort is disappointed with the recent inspection report from the CSSIW which falls short of the high standards set by Evergreen Nursery since opening in 2011.

"The outcomes of this inspection have been taken very seriously and steps have already been taken to address all of the shortcomings detailed in the report.

"We will continue to make improvements at the Evergreen Nursery to ensure that all children experience the best levels of care, welfare and development.

"The link to the report was communicated to all parents last week and a meeting has taken place, at which the report and the improvement plan was discussed at length and all parents were invited to attend this meeting.”