## **Quality of Care**
## **Review September 2022 to August 2023**
Overton Playcentre CIO Quality of Care report Sept 2022 - September 2023
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## About Us Our Core Values Family:Fun:Happy:Caring:Nurturing:Safe:Inclusive
## Evidence
‘Thank you for having Albie for the last 15 months he has thoroughly enjoyed himself and learnt so much. We couldn't of asked for a better Playcentre for our little boy to attend. Thank you!’ Amy and Josh
Overton Playcentre was first established in 1967 by a group of volunteers. It is a non-profit charitable organisation that is led by a committee of parents who employ qualified and experienced staff that run the Playcentre. It has now become Overton Playcentre CIO and as of 2019 incorporates two different settings:
- Operating out of Overton Playcentre building and Registered with ESTYN and CIW (Childcare Inspectorate Wales) Overton Playcentre (referred to as Playcentre throughout this report) offers sessional and full day care for children between 18months and 12 years old during term time where we cater for Playgroup, Playgroup Plus, Early Education (EE) Childcare Offer and Wrap Around. During School Holidays our Holiday Club caters for children 18mths - 12years old. We are open Monday to Friday 730am – 6pm, 51 weeks of the year (only closed between Christmas and New Year). We welcome all children and have children attending the Playcentre from Overton and surrounding villages that go as far as Wrexham, Llangollen, Whitchurch and Ellesmere. We have close links with St Mary’s School in Overton. We pick up/ drop off from St Mary’s School, Eyton school as and when required though not this year, and we are happy to discuss possibilities with other areas.
_-_ St Mary’s Out of School Club (referred to as Clwb throughout this report): We are open 730am-9am and 315pm – 545pm term time only; We operate out of St Mary’s School hall. We are registered for 48 children from 4-11 years old; We welcome all children attending St Mary’s School.
## Self-Evaluation
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As non-maintained settings we are required to complete a Self-Assessment of Service Statement (SASS) report. The prime purpose of SASS is to improve outcomes for children through self- evaluating the children’s Wellbeing, Care and Development, Environment, Management and Leadership. Self-evaluation is an established part of the improvement planning cycle in the Quality of Care review. As an annual process, self-evaluation informs strategic and improvement plans, which will help our settings to focus on priorities for development. Self-evaluation is a process, not an event. It is the first, essential step in a cyclical process of bringing about change and improvement. It is based on professional reflection, challenge and support among practitioners. Effective self-evaluation involves taking wide-ranging decisions about actions which result in clear benefits for all children that;
- meets the highest standards of safe, quality childcare and play
- offers the best experience for children
- contributes to children’s well-being outcomes.
Quality of Care Review also fulfils our legal duty under regulation 16 of the Child Minding and Day Care (Wales) Regulations 2010.
At the heart of self-evaluation are three questions:
- How well are we doing?
- How do we know?
- How can we improve things further?
- To Self-Evaluate our setting we use evidence from the following sources; the views of the children who attend our service and those of their parents or carers
- the views of other professionals who may work with us
- details of any quality assurance scheme we participate in.
- Staff, volunteers and our committee
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## **Overview of the Year**
## **Staffing**
- Ifor Harris and Caitlyn Shaw completed their apprenticeship
- Ifor left to go to university
- Caitlyn offered and accepted role as Playcentre Assistant
- Lucy Sandham offered role in Feb as Bank and Holiday Club
- staff
- Jackie Tombs achieved her Level 3 in Playwork and won
- Work based Student of the Year Award at Coleg Cambria!!
## **New Curriculum**
● Placed in monitoring in March 2023 due to our environment. This came about as we were waiting for a shed to be built. The old shed had been emptied but the new one took a bit longer to arrive. We had a volunteer day to sort the outside out, many staff and volunteers came to help. Came out of monitoring in June 2023 ● New Curriculum ethos became further embedded in day to day running of centre
## **Projects**
- Our Parents asked us to take younger children so in November after work from volunteers and staff to change the quiet room into an 18mth room we started to take 18mth children.
- One of 15 settings across Wales accepted onto the first year of the Early Years and Arts Council Creative Early Years Grants which meant working with two artists for 7 sessions each (£2,500 grant)
- Paveways donated and built a replacement shed for the bikes and trikes
- Talk Support Programme
## **Manager** accepted onto:
- Anti Racist Coaching course over 10mths
- Continues to be part of the National Advisory Board for CIW
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## **Staff Training**
- Talk support programme
## **Children and Families**
●
## **Visitors and Visits**
- Magi ann
- Little Hobbits
- Sven MMA
- Blue Planet Trip with St Mary’s School Nursery class
- John Merrill and Ticky Lowe Artists
- Warm Spaces - we had a number of the older generation joining us every Wednesday afternoon during the winter months to read stories with the children and have a cuppa and a cake
- **Toddler Group and Baby Group**
- We started off the year in the Village Hall as during the winter the parents preferred the space in the hall, we ended up in the Playcentre as the hall costs us about £35 per session which we need to cover as well as the snack and a member of staff time if possible and if numbers are low at times we do not cover costs. So it was agreed to bring it back in house.
- ● We started Baby Group up again and a number of mums and babies attended however this reduced to one baby attending for a number of weeks so we closed it during the later part of the summer term.
## **Holiday Club**
- Busy Summer Holiday Club with mostly 2 year olds forming the bulk of attendees whereas in previous years it was the older children.
- Two Archery mornings and weekly MMA
- sessions
- Visit by Father Jeremy
- Holiday Club children Entered and won two
- shields in the 51st Village Produce Show! 1st for the
- bug house class and Overall Junior Winner!
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## **Leadership and management**
● article in Early Years Magazine
## **fundraising and donations**
- Easter egg “eggstravaganzer” fun day with Overton Twinning and Overton Growers £117
- Easter Bingo with school £384
- Christmas Raffle - £114
- more toys and books sorted out and sold/ donated to charity
-
## **Community**
● art exhibition in church ● joining in with community advent tree ● display of children's mother's day art for Church ● Birthday cards display for church ● entered and won in Village Produce Show ● Part of VIllage Fete ● Went to watch the Tour de
Britain
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## **Wellbeing**
This is about the progress different groups of children are making, taking into account their age, development and needs. It is about how our service is contributing to children’s well-being, helping them to have a voice, develop their skills and become independent and confident.
## Evidence
‘thank you for playing with me and teaching me lots of fun stuff
thank you for letting me play on the tyre swing and the superfast red bike
thank you for all the cuddles when I am sad’
Georgie’s voice via parent
Clwb and holiday clwb
‘they always listen to me’
‘they are really fun to play with’
‘i’m very happy because when I need help they come straight away and listen what I need help with’
‘when I have snack and I am still hungry I can have some more’
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## **How Well are We Doing?**
## - **Good**
- In the daily routine children are given free choice in what they would like to do and where they want to play indoors and outdoors and our staff are always ready to assist the children to achieve what they want from their chosen activity with boundaries set in place to ensure the safety of the children. This allows the children to follow their schemas and to develop themselves creatively through problem solving, risk taking, making sense of the world around them and while doing this they develop cooperating skills and friendships. We are embedding the new curriculum so we have loose parts indoors and have been developing them outside too. We have been given a large number of resources as well as grants to buy resources again this year to equip us for the new curriculum. We have moved to having invitations to play from adult focussed sessions. Which means that children choose whether or not to participate in the invitation.
- In the Playcentre we encourage independence through storing materials and equipment at children’s level so that they can access them and tidy them away independently. We plan and develop techniques to help children become more independent to put on their own coats, all in one waterproofs, wellies, shoes, wash hands, go to the toilet, selecting their own cup and plate for snack time and pouring their own drinks etc. For example to encourage a child who is being potty trained we can use a variety of techniques including use of a sticker reward chart but the child would choose a theme of their interest such as Superheroes, Paw patrol, Pippa pig, Frozen or anything of their choice to keep their interest in the sticker chart.
- In Clwb we encourage independence through asking the children what they want to play with and bringing it to their tables or taking it outside in the large bags. Now things have changed this year. We have changed back our routines. Recently we have been given permission by the school to place a shed on the school yard so that the children can help themselves to what they want to play with so that outdoor play equipment can be stored at the children’s level. This is now in place and
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stocked with new outdoor equipment. This was highlighted in the latest CIW inspection for the Clwb.
In the Playcentre we take observations and some photos of the children when they are engaged in play that show how the children interact, what interests them and how they respond to materials and activities that they have access to. This information is then used in the planning process to feed into the next steps and towards weekly planning and the invitations to play.
The parent portal for parents, where photos and information are uploaded for parents to see what their children are doing was brought in after the first lockdown for better parent/staff communication. However in the questionnaires this has been highlighted as an area for further improvement on as a number of parents have commented in the past :
## ‘more pics on the app would be great’
The issue staff have with the portal is that it takes so long to load each child’s photo onto it. for instance staff have commented:
“I press on one child’s photo then go off and clean for 10-15 mins and if I am lucky that photo will have loaded up and I can do another child’s photo.”
“It takes so long to load up, it’s a whole member of staff out for an afternoon. You’re either playing with the children or being on the portal and even then you’re not sure that it has actually loaded up as the number of times the internet crashes and what would the parents prefer?”
Clearly therefore this is still an area we have to look at to ensure that use of the portal is made easier and appropriate staff and time allocated to it. This is still an ongoing issue Action Required
In Clwb staff use their playwork training to observe, step back, suggest, intervene all to move play forward but not annihilate play.
The use of Children’s questionnaires and brainstorming sessions, Planning in the Moment sheets all enable staff at Playcentre and Clwb to listen to the Child’s voice.
_‘ Thank you everyone for making breakfast club, after school club and holiday club somewhere that the boys love to go’ Simon and Lauren_
## **Settling children into the setting**
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## _**‘ wonderful setting!!**_
## _**Provides such a peace of mind that Molly is in such attentive and caring hands. Thank you’**_
Implemented settling in policy to ensure children’s emotional well-being is cared for when the child first joins the setting. This year with all its difficulties children have settled back into Clwb and Playcentre really quickly after the lockdowns. We had prepared parents and children with the changes by sharing photos, videos (the one of the staff dancing in full PPE so children would not be scared if we had to wear it, was very popular!) as well as letters, emails that parents had to sign that they had received and read them and this continued this year with regular information updates being sent out.
At the Playcentre we have not been able to let parents into the premises easily but we have run open Saturdays or evening sessions after 6pm, where parents could book to come with their child/children to look round. These have proved popular with prospective parents. We had a very Popular parents evening at the end of the summer term in July and will be implementing them again next year ACTION NEEDED
As we are getting more 2 year olds arriving this term, we have had to be flexible in our approach to ensure that each child and their feels supported to make their induction as smooth as possible. We do find a minimum of 2 sessions per week is best for the child’s wellbeing enabling them to settle in quicker into the setting and make friends. We have worked with parents to enable this to happen where possible.
However we did have a comment in a parent questionnaire
_‘ lovely setting, the staff are very helpful. The only negative would be there always seems to be different staff that arent introduced to parents and can sometimes upset xxx coming into playgroup. She starts getting used to staff then different staff start and she gets upset going in’_
ACTION NEEDED
Need permanent parent notice board with staff photos out and new staff added. look at other ways to inform parents of changes occurring in the settings
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## Toddler Group
“Lovely group today. Big thanks to Rachel for the great water play. Big hit all round! X” facebook
We started off the year in the Village Hall as during the winter the parents preferred the space in the hall, we ended up in the Playcentre as the hall costs us about £35 per session which we need to cover as well as the snack and a member of staff time if possible and if numbers are low at times we do not cover costs. So it was agreed to bring it back in house.We are currently working on recruiting other volunteers to support as people go back to work or children move up to school.
## Children’s voice
‘more toys’
‘dominoes would be good’
‘more instruments’
## **How do we know?**
- Inspection report CIW June 2021 St Mary’s Out of School Club parent questionnaires
- children’s questionnaires
- References made in weekly planning sheets/ invitations to play showing children’s responses and next steps/ Planning in the Moment sheets
- Observations documented in the children’s portal area - more needed here
- children’s photos displayed on walls of children participating in activities throughout the year
- Parent comments
- EE Link teacher comments on review sheets
- Positive feedback from parents in cards; facebook comments; verbal comments
- Many children continue childcare with our setting from 2 yrs old through until their 11[th] birthday for Clwb, which is our current cut off as they feel secure, happy and content with our setting to the point that they don’t want to leave to go elsewhere.
- Holiday Club Parent comments
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- Information given on a daily basis is written on the daily sheet kept on the register clipboard.
## **How can we improve things ?**
- Find a way for staff to use the parent portal to upload photos and information for parents more easily - internet issue
- observations and assessment for the new curriculum
- as part of our assessment look at our feedback to parents and have more regular parent information evenings - once every term
## **Care and development**
_‘ it is really comforting to see how much you all understand George and see what a loving little boy is and can understand him when he is having an off day or needs that extra cuddle.’_
_‘Very happy, she loves coming always comes home smiling and skipping’_
_‘she’s learning and developing much faster attending playgroup’_
_‘ she is looked after in the best way imaginable’_
This is about how responsive practitioners are in meeting children’s needs – how they help children feel emotionally secure and ensuring children are physically, mentally and emotionally healthy. It is also about ensuring that children are being developed and build relationships with other children, become self-aware, confident and are achieving good well-being.
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## **How well are we doing?**
## - **Good**
Implementation of positive behaviour policy, concentrating on helping children to take ownership for their behaviour look for solutions, e.g if two children are struggling to share over a particular toy, practitioners will intervene calmly by asking the children in a gentle tone how the situation can be resolved and offering clear options to the children on how to move forward. Staff also use the 5 minute strategy, modelling this for the children and working towards the children being able to use this strategy themselves. Saying 5 minutes to each other and using the blue sand timers. We do have different length minute timers as well. This helps to develop social and also problem solving skills. Staff training has previously included Solihull and Pivatol Behaviour training. Staff have also made use of the training offered via zoom to get training on Speech and Language and Elklan. We have worked with St Mary’s School to provide consistency across the settings. This year staff have been involved in the Talk Support programme which we have recently been signed off. However we need to ensure that new staff are trained and familiar with these methods as well. ACTION POINT - to put some training for in house such as talk support into the staff induction
Being outside and physical activity has been very important post pandemic. Clwb runs outside most afternoons but the mornings tend to be inside but with plenty of ventilation
For this summer we are again employed summer staff both male and female, one who has a sports coaching qualification. We had Mixed Martial Arts weekly and we had two mornings of archery as well.
Good behaviour and discipline are essential to ensure the smooth running of Clwb and the Playcentre. The foundation is provided for the development of morals and values, whilst advocating acceptable behaviour in children. We recognise that building self-esteem and confidence will encourage positive behaviour as well as encouraging mutual respect, sharing and tolerance. We encourage this through rewarding with targeted praise, stickers and award certificates but most of all we discuss with the children what they are being
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rewarded for and make sure that they understand what they are being rewarded for. We are moving away from praise such as ‘well done’, ‘clever boy’ to targeted praise such as ‘well done, you put away the garage in its place” or “clever boy you persevered and solved the problem”. This move aims to build resilience as well as self esteem in a child.
Each child is valued as an individual and their feelings and viewpoints will always be considered when planning and running sessions.
Staff have opportunities to observe children while they are involved in activities within the continuous provision, indoors, outdoors and within the daily routines. Staff will find out how the children’s skills are developing and what they can or cannot do. Staff give children time for reflection and engage in discussions with them as they allow them to develop their natural curiosity and creativity. They are also able to gather information on what the children know and understand, as well as their personal preferences.
As a team, we have worked hard to collect information about children’s stages of development using a selection of different observational methods and techniques, skills that involve looking, seeing, listening and interpreting what the children are doing, learning, practising, sharing, enjoying and many more attributes that have an influence on what level and how the children are learning and developing. Examples of these are shown through photographs, written observations, updates on the parent portal software package. Parents used to receive a keepsake book at the end of the year in the past showing craft, mark making, discussions and photos that illustrate the skills their child has learnt and developed. The parent portal has superseded this though we are still working on how to ensure that parents get something lovely to remember their child’s time with us. (see action above). We are in the process this coming year of changing our recording and reporting for our younger and non EE children to be more in line with the 0-3 strategies and the new curriculum to include more parent evenings as well. Action Needed
Snacks help stabilise energy levels until the next meal. Because children’s eating habits are largely determined by age two, we play an important role in teaching good nutrition to young children. To drink children have a choice between milk or water at Playcentre and water bottles at Clwb. To eat we offer fruit snacks mostly but also a wider range of snacks that include breads, cereal, yoghurts where needed. Recently a member of staff at Playcentre realised that the children are sometimes hungrier at afternoon snack and will then add a carbohydrate too. It has been discussed whether we need a protein snack during the morning snack to aid concentration levels in certain children.
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However Lunch follows on quickly and it is currently felt that this might prevent children eating lunch.
We also think it is important for children to taste different foods that they may not be accustomed to, therefore encouraging children to try different foods from around the world.
At Playcentre they tasted noodles for snack which all the children enjoyed and asked to have noodles for snack again which we continue to do. We celebrated Diwali with our creation of rangoli patterns using spices and dry paint. The children enjoyed watching the story of Rama and Sita on our large screen. They then followed candles to an Indian banquet and tasted samosas, rice, korma curry, Tikka masala, onion bhajees and naan bread. This year the children really enjoyed the Indian food and much was eaten! The children enjoyed getting dressed up in tunics and saris and tried out their indian dancing skills.
As children grow their taste buds change therefore we will continue to give children opportunities to taste new foods as the more variety of foods they are exposed to the more accustomed their taste buds will become.
At the Playcentre our Christmas Meal was extremely popular and good fun with staff and children. Staff and children thoroughly enjoyed the occasion. However having been part of the Early Years Anti-Racist Coaching group across Wales and the New Curriculum for Wales, there has been much discussion regarding the multicultural work that we have carried out in the past and how we encorporate it now. We looked at the need for really understanding Cynefin and bringing that into our practice. Action Needed.
During lunch times children are encouraged by practitioners to eat their main / healthy food, e.g. sandwiches and fruit before they have any treat food that may have been provided.
Lack of sleep can have an impact on children’s mental and physical development therefore we offer a sleep time at 1pm to children who are still used to having a daytime sleep or for children who are tired and need an extra sleep, however if a child is tired before 1pm we will accommodate their sleep time earlier. We are guided at all times by parental wishes.
Practitioners encourage children to develop friendships with each other, recognising where personalities are well suited and then encouraging those children to play together or work together on a particular activity. Staff also feedback such observations to parents so they are aware of friendships as they develop friendships that are formed in playgroup very often remain as children
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move into school, this is particularly apparent in the transition from playgroup into school as these friendships give children security and confidence as they start school and the friendships then continue to grow.
Also children make friends with the children who come over from school which makes the transition to St Mary’s school easier as they are familiar with some of the children who already attend school. It has been brilliant this year to be able to carry out face to face transition and we have taken the children to forest school and look forward to increasing the transitions as we had prior to the pandemic. This year we invited St Mary’s school staff to join us for our end of year celebration with our children when we had Ticky Lowe, an artist, for an extra day from the art project.
We are good at responding to issues that parents have with the care of their children while they are with us.
One parent was concerned that they did not know all the staff so we responded by creating an outside notice board and put up photos of all the staff and their roles. This is an ongoing issue and the production of a permanent parent board is something we are looking for grants for. Action Needed We work as closely with our parents as possible.
We put into the Welcome pack a ‘This is Me’ Sheet that parents fill in prior to their child attending the setting. This meant that staff can read, and sign that they had read, information for settling the child in when they arrived.
Children that need extra support have been given Targeted Universal Provision - TUP’s and these are reviewed regularly.
## **How do you know?**
- Observations recorded on the parent portal.
- Children’s EE Profiles
- Comments from parents in cards, questionnaires
- questionnaires
- photos
- Estyn report
- Link Teacher’s report
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- CIW monitoring calls
- weekly planning sheets
- Diary sheets
- funding applications
- Staff certificates
Emails
Facebook
## **How can we improve things ?**
- ACTION POINT - to put some training for in house such as talk support into the staff induction
- We are in the process this coming year of changing our recording and reporting for our younger and non EE children to be more in line with the 0-3 strategies and the new curriculum to include more parent evenings as well. Action Needed
- We looked at the need for really understanding Cynefin and bringing that into our practice. Action Needed.
- Continue to work on the New Curriculum and assessment
- The production of a permanent parent board is something we are looking for grants for. Action Needed
- Increase use the Outdoor Learning area through forest school sessions Action needed
- ACTION NEEDED
- Need permanent parent notice board with staff photos out and new staff added. look at other ways to inform parents of changes occurring in the settings
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## Environment
This section is how you ensure that the physical environment you provide is of good quality and meets the needs of the children using your service.
## **How are we doing?**
## - **Good**
Clwb operates out of the school hall and school grounds. We have put a loose parts stocked shed in the school grounds for after school clwb play as per CIW inspection suggestion.
## Playcentre -
## New Curriculum states that:
_“The environment we create in our setting, indoors and outdoors, should be central to children’s authentic experiences. For this reason, we should continually monitor and review the effectiveness of the environment and adapt accordingly. During the early years, exploration of the environment is a key driver for development. Through exploration of their environment, children begin to develop a sense of belonging and an appreciation of the world around them.” Curriculum for Non- Maintained Nursery Settings._
We have worked hard this year and have spent a large amount of time and
energy this year changing our environment to be able to fit the new curriculum. We have received grants and resources to enable us to do this.
We were placed in monitoring in March 2023 due to our environment. This came about as we were waiting for a shed to be built. The old shed had been emptied but the new one took a bit longer to arrive. We had a volunteer day to sort the outside out, many staff and volunteers came to help. Came out of monitoring in June 2023. See reports
New Curriculum and assessment ethos became further embedded in day to day running of centre
To ensure the children benefit from playing outdoors we continue to sustain free flow between indoors and outdoor play during EE sessions . The staff rota is devised in a way that all staff can support children’s learning throughout the daily routine and in all areas but also gives the children opportunities to learn and develop skills in a secure safe environment outdoors as well as indoors.
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Children have the opportunity to experiment with their play in natural surroundings. This year they have wanted to turn the Willow Wigloo into a bird hide and have enjoyed the pond with tadpoles and bug hunting. Our rabbit and fish have also given much emotional wellbeing to the children as well. We have created a Pet’s Policy. We have made use of the drive for extended play giving the children more freedom to develop their physical skills riding on trikes and scooters.
We have obtained funding to train one member of staff as a forest school leader. Action to support our staff member to obtain the Forest School qualification and lead sessions in it.
Maintenance of Playcentre buildings outside area ACTION REQUired
- Paving slabs have been sorted but wall needs repointing and chimney for future longterm
- chairs and tables need replacement
- outdoor water table needs replacing as broken and removed - trays are being used currently
We are looking at how we can improve our outside area throughout for the benefit of the whole of Playcentre including Holiday Club
_To further develop the outdoor space and to think about how to utilise the whole of the area safely with due regard to safeguarding._ EE Self Evaluation
- Staff provide quality of care to the children through adhering to the following standards;-
- children are signed in and out on Dayshare, our new software package bought to run advance booking and billing. To ensure that we have enough money in the bank for wages during Covid.
- Visitors are being allowed back into the setting for educational and wellbeing they sign in the visitor book and are informed of the safeguarding measures
- Attend necessary training for children who need special medicine treatments i.e. using inhalers and epi pens etc.
- Before administering any medication parents/carers must bring in written information on what, why and how much medicine is to be given to the child. If a child is on medication we write it on the daily sheet on the register to remind us to administer the medicine
- Parents/Carers are notified of infectious diseases through the parent portal, telling parents/carers when dropping off and collecting children, put on parent facebook, emailing parents and on website.
- Accident and incidents are recorded
- Regular fire drills are carried out and fire safety equipment is checked annually by Walkers fire service department.
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- regular reverse evacuations are carried out.
- Regular PAT testing of electrical appliances is annually checked out by Cantab.
- Staff attend child protection and first aid training every 3 years
- First Aid box is available and checked regularly to ensure all items are in date. Cupboard where first aid box is kept is marked with a white cross with a green background.
- Children have to stay off for 48 hours after sickness and diarrhoea
- Nappy changing times are part of the daily routine at the Playcentre.
- Lunch boxes and snack items are kept in the fridge and fridge temperature are logged.
- Meals are warmed up to appropriate temperature using a probe if heating food for tea or during the Holiday Club at Playcentre.
- Tables and worktops are wiped with steriliser before preparing food and serving snack and dinners.
- Playcentre building is cleaned every night, floors hovered, swept and mopped, toilets and sinks cleaned and kitchen worktops, microwaves and dishes washed and wiped and bins emptied as per the IC&P Policy
- Clwb is cleaned by School staff.
- Maintain a clean and safe environment for children and practitioners
- Risk assessments carried out where needed and dynamic risk assessments are filled in.
- Playcentre Building is continually assessed and maintained by staff and committee, necessary repairs, e.g. drains are undertaken by professional trades persons or by volunteered help of parents
- Equipment in the building is continuously assessed for necessary repairs or disposed of if no longer fit for purpose.
- Children are kept safe indoors and outdoors through a secure gate. All practitioners are aware of key locations for doors
- the outside area has a health and safety tick list for staff to do prior to using the area. .
- Conduct monthly accident and incident reviews
- These were all assessments carried out and work completed an asbestos report carried out and remedial action taken
- a fire assessment created and report given
- cctv down the drains and report given
## **How do you know?**
- We keep records and certificates on the following:-
-
- Daily signing in forms for each session and weekly registers
- Child Protection certificates
- Behaviour policy
- Food and Hygiene policy
- Nappy changing policy
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- Parent contracts
- Weekly Cleaning Plan
- Fridge temperature
- teas and in holiday club, lunches provided by parents and what temperature they were heated to
- Snack menu
- Medical administration forms.
- Training certificates
- Fire drills records
- Fire equipment safety checks
- carbon monoxide safety checks
- Pat testing certificate of electrical equipment
- Boiler maintenance checked -date on boiler
- Planning file
- 5* hygiene rating achieved
-
- Estyn Report
- Link Teacher Report
- CIW report
-
-
- Reports on fire, asbestos and Drains.
- Building certificates such as boiler and PAT testing.
- EE Self Evaluation
## **How can we improve things ?**
## ACTION REQUired
- Paving slabs have been sorted but wall needs repointing and chimney for future longterm
- chairs and tables need replacement
- outdoor water table needs replacing as broken and removed - trays are being used currently
- Action to support our staff member to obtain the Forest School qualification and lead sessions in it.
## **Leadership and management**
## Overton Playcentre CIO Quality of Care report Sept 2022- Sept 2023
Page 21
## Evidence
This section is about the effectiveness of your leadership and management. It covers:
- meeting the requirements of the Welsh Government National Minimum Standards
- (http://cssiw.org.uk/docs/cssiw/publications/160303regchildcareen
- .pdf) and other government requirements e.g. Building for a
-
- Brighter Future (http://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/130716 - - -
- building brighter future en.pdf)
- self-evaluation and improvement planning
- performance management and professional development
- safeguarding
- developing children and contributing to their well-being
- your vision for the service
- management and development of practitioners
- partnership working.
## **How well are we doing?**
## - **Good**
-
- Continue to create, embed and lead a professional staff team.
- We are good at training new entrants into the profession as well as creating opportunities for new entrants. We are following on from last year giving young adults in the village the opportunity to bring their expertise into the Holiday Clwb.
- Continue to Financially survive Covid 19 so far currently mainly due to the ability to write and get grants; support of the community; dedication of the Management Team; great support from staff.
- Now a number of parents have formed a fundraising group and have successfully carried out a number of fundraising events.
- We have had articles and advertising in Overton Oracle as well as the wider distribution of Essentials.
Overton Playcentre CIO Quality of Care report Sept 2022- Sept 2023
Page 22
- Performance management – Annual Appraisals and half termly supervisions are back in place following our wellbeing supervisions during covid.
- We have recruited one new Holiday Club staff who has completed the short training in Playwork by Mel from the Playwork Team.
- Most Practitioners continue to be happy with current provision of leadership and management both from the manager and also the committee as supported during their appraisals where feedback was positive and nearly all practitioners felt well supported and valued in their job roles.
- To continue to develop good communication between staff we have set up Communication forms, staff emails, to complement the group Whatsapp for Playcentre staff and committee and for formal communications the OVerton Playcentre CIO whatsapp group
- We have sessions/ inductions prior to going back to the Playcentre prior to it opening for all staff moving from the Holiday Club to term time and back.
- Practitioners attended courses including EE to enhance personal and professional development throughout Covid.
- Termly staff meetings where each voice is heard and all practitioners have opportunity to discuss issues or bring things to the team as a whole. The last one being a hybrid of face to face and zoom. This was not successful being a hybrid and we need to review this at the next meeting. Issue raised of not enough meetings per year so are looking at increasing to twice a half term if we can financially Action needed
- Wage increases implemented in line with National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage. This year it also included a wage review for staff not on NMS and was brought in line with job descriptions and creating a senior staff structure that reflects working practices.
Overton Playcentre CIO Quality of Care report Sept 2022- Sept 2023
Page 23
- Partnership working – with professionals including Health Visitor, Speech and Language, Speech and Feeding.
- Working in close partnership between management, practitioners and committee providing mutual support for one another and the committee contributing to raising essential funds via events throughout the year.
- Our links with St Mary’s school have been good and we are continually looking to improve
- Manager continues to be a governor of St Mary’s School. Sarah our Administrator is now also a governor
Aim to Deliver High Quality Experiences for all our Children
- Safeguarding – all staff attend safeguarding training when it is due. It is on all of our meeting agendas
- ACTION TO ensure that we fufil the new NMS by November 2024 for FIrst Aid and for safeguarding
Business Continuity Planning and Business Plan including market research to ensure long term financial viability.
Management Committee decisions throughout the Pandemic have been to ensure long term Financial viability.
Having a robust staff recruitment policy; staff induction policy that ensures we attract and recruit good quality staff. retain good staff too
## **How do we know?**
- Estyn Report.
- Estyn monitoring calls
- Estyn themed report
- https://www.estyn.gov.wales/system/files/202107/Summer%2021%20NMS%20EV%20Summary.pdf
- CIW monitoring calls
Overton Playcentre CIO Quality of Care report Sept 2022- Sept 2023
Page 24
- Link Teacher EE reports and reviews.
- CIW report
- Staff files show training, appraisals and contracts of employment
- continuing to update Policies and Procedures File
- All training certificates are up to date or are in the process of being updated
- Staff meeting minutes and Management meeting minutes show how leader management issues are addressed and solved
- Communication to parents on how the playcentre is being run and moving forwards through parents facebook page, website, e-mails, notice boards and welcome pack.
- Early Years Education end of year review;-
- staff attended a variety of training including yoga elklan EE and others
- Carrying out EE and parent information evenings
- Staff appraisals and Supervisions are in place – see Supervision Policy
- Effective and relevant areas for short term development have been identified. Long term development will need to be rethought in light of the disappointing decision by the school not to continue with the New build.
- The EE Action Plan
- A new planning board has been put up to ensure that communication between staff is more effective as well as Memo Folder, Communication Forms and staff emails.
- Home links continue to be developed
- The committee are very supportive and work well to support staff
## **How can we improve things ?**
- Sort out internet connection so staff can update the portal easily
- increase staff meetings per term if financially viable.
- The immediate problems are mainly due to costs of living /covid recovery/ high costs of fuel/ utilities and other living expenses/ increase wage costs/ parents not paying their bills - high level of debtors
- get the debt down.
- look to long term financial stability despite fluctuations in child birth years and in the light of the recent pandemic.
## Overton Playcentre CIO Quality of Care report Sept 2022- Sept 2023
Page 25
- Continue to deliver high quality childcare
- Deliver the New curriculum,
- sort out the digital portal for the CCO
- Continue to work with and grow an incredible staff team
- Look for new streams of funding to ensure financial stability and make existing streams of funding more efficient
- create a clear long term strategic plan for future development of the Playcentre that all future decisions will be made with that in view.
- ● build networks
- market ourselves efficiently including creating a marketing strategy.
- begin to create a forward vision that is owned by all stakeholders
- create a vision for financial stability and ensure the longevity of the charity for the next 50years!
- Create a budget that we can work on monthly
- Ensure practitioners are continuing to receive training
- keep up to date records of staff training on Parenta
- set up files for new staff entering the settings more quickly than we do so
- continue to Work closely with the school to ensure consistency on a number of issues
- ensure that all the policies and procedures are in place and create a schedule for them to be reviewed
- From our appraisals one of the things coming out of them is need to put things away not just between sessions but within sessions - involving the children as well - for everything to have it’s place and then be put back in its place! so next year we are working as a team to put things away. This should also enable cleaning to be carried out easier as staff will not be tidying up as well - need to keep tops clear etc
- keep office tidy!!
- sort out an archiving regime
- before the pandemic we had many files which have not been used since then - pandemic but also parenta - so need to streamline what is kept in paper form and what is no longer needed.
- delegation and use of other staff to get more achieved in working day.
Overton Playcentre CIO Quality of Care report Sept 2022- Sept 2023
Page 26
- ACTION TO ensure that we fufil the new NMS by November 2024 for FIrst Aid and for safeguarding
Overton Playcentre CIO Quality of Care report Sept 2022- Sept 2023
Page 27
Overton Playcentre CIO Quality of Care report Sept 2022- Sept 2023 Page 28
## **Overton Playgroup**
## **Funds for the year ended 31st August 2023**
||August|2022|August|2023|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||£|£|£|£|
|Income|||||
|Fees & Early Entitlement|134,875||151,703||
|Furlough|775||0||
|Fund Raising|1,749||2,753||
|Donations Received|605||205||
|Insurance Payout|2,319||0||
|Milk Refunds|403||621||
|Grants Received|23,772||9,436||
|Miscellaneous|2||98||
|||164,500||164,816|
|Expenditure|||||
|Wages|124,063||129,506||
|Utilities|5,318||12,447||
|Building Maintenance & Play Equipment|2,848||4,332||
|Site Improvements (One off works)|2,710||0||
|Insurance|3,481||4,528||
|Miscellaneous|11,415||16,355||
|||149,835||167,168|
||||||
|Net Income/(Expenditure)||14,665||-2,352|
|Other recognised gains/(losses)|||||
|Gains/(losses) on revaluation of fixed assets|0||0||
|||0||0|
|Net movement in funds||14,665||-2,352|
||August|2022|August|2023|
||£|£|£|£|
|Fixed Assets|||||
|Property|70000||70000||
|Furniture & Fittings|0||0||
|Total Fixed Assets||70,000||70,000|
|Current Assets|||||
|Debtors||1,485||2,021|
|Barclays Current A/C|20,278||8,376||
|Barclays Deposit A/C|16,067||24,166||
|Cash|20||20||
|Cash at bank and in hand||36,366||32,561|
|Total Current Assets||37,851||34,582|
|Current Liabilities|||||
|Creditors||917||0|
|Net Current Assets||36,934||34,582|
|Net Assets/(liabilities)||106,934||104,582|
|Capital|||||
|Opening Balance||92,269||106,934|
|Revaluation Reserve||0||0|
|Profit/(Loss) for Year||14,665||-2,352|
|Total Charity Funds||106,934||104,582|
|Prepared By:|||||
Dale..
2710612024
## **Overton Playcentre**
School Lane, Overton on Dee, Wrexham, LL13 0SE
Tel: 01978 710688
Email: overtonplaygroup@yahoo.co.uk Registered Charity Number 1182019
## **Annual General Meeting – 27th June 2024**
## **Treasurer’s report for financial year 1st September 2022 to 31st August 2023**
The year-end accounts this year have been completed and presented to the committee by Andy Saunders, the Playcentre Treasurer.
## **Operating Loss**
The financial statement for this year shows an operating loss of £2,352 which was expected due to grant money received in the previous accounting period, spent within this period.
The committee, trustees and staff have worked hard this year to reduce the impact of rapidly rising costs both in terms of utilities and in the general cost of food and supplies for the setting.
We will need to review our utilities provision in the coming year to try and reduce the impact on the setting of a cost that has more than doubled within this period.
Debtors has risen slightly this year, however this is more a reflection of increased charges than an increase in the amount of late payments.
## **Income**
Income has risen and child numbers are holding at a steady level. A review of fees will be undertaken by the trustees and management group to ensure that we cover the ever rising costs of the setting while ensuring that we maintain our position of providing affordable childcare within our local community.
The management team has, again, worked tirelessly to secure as much grant funding as possible and while our grant income has dropped considerably this year, this is due to increased competition for grant allocations and not a reflection on the effort and commitment of the team.
## **Expenditure**
Expenditure for the year was £167,168 – an increase of over £17,000. Table 2 shows the expenditure for this year. As can be seen wages form the majority of the spend figure. Utilities have more than doubled from the previous year and there was an increase in miscellaneous costs which reflects grant money spent on projects within the playcentre and the increased costs of food and supplies.
## **Fixed Assets**
We continue to show the land and building on which the Playcentre is sited within our assets at a valuation of £70k.
## **Cash Reserves**
At 31st August 2023, the current account stood at £8,376. In addition, there was a further £24,166 held in the deposit account. Finally, the cash at hand (not yet banked) was £20 – petty cash held in the Playcentre.
## **Treasurers Comment**
In my opinion the Playcentre is currently in a satisfactory financial position and is looking more than capable of managing ever increasing costs.
I would firstly like to thank the staff team at the Playcentre, without whom there would be no Playcentre, for their dedication and effort. They are a fantastic asset of which the Playcentre and they can be proud.
I would finally like to thank the rest of the volunteer committee for their effort and the time they devote to the Playcentre. It is a pleasure to work with them and the future of the setting, the welfare of the children attending and the staff at the centre is their highest priority.
I look forward to what the next year will bring and feel confident that the staff, volunteer committee and parents will remain committed to fundraising and ensuring that we remain a focal point for the local area.
The building and grounds continue to require upkeep to ensure that we do not incur any unnecessary expenditure. Parent assistance with this in the coming year will be very much appreciated.
I believe the attached accounts to be a true and fair statement of Overton Playcentre’s financial position.
Andy Saunders Treasurer
## Table 1
|**INCOME**|**AUGUST 2022**|**AUGUST 2023**|
|---|---|---|
|**Fees (including EE and**
**Childcare Offer)**|£134,875|£151,703|
|**Furlough Scheme**|£775|£0|
|**Fundraising**|£1,749|£2,753|
|**Donations Received**|£605|£205|
|**Insurance**|£2,319|£0|
|**Milk Refunds**|£403|£621|
|**Grants Received**|£23,772|£9,436|
|**Miscellaneous**|£2|£98|
|**Total**
**£164,500**
**£164,816**|||
## Table 2
|**EXPENDITURE**|**AUGUST 2022**|**AUGUST 2023**|
|---|---|---|
|**Wages**|£124,063|£129,506|
|**Utilities (rates, water,**
**gas, electricity,**
**telephone and**
**broadband)**|£5,318|£12,447|
|**Building**|£2,848|£4,332|
|**Site Improvements (One**
**off works)**|£2,710|£0|
|**Insurance**|£3,481|£4,528|
|**Miscellaneous (inc. UW**
**Card, Petty Cash,**
**Internet, NNS Cheques)**|£11,415|£16,355|
|**Total**
**£149,835**
**£167,168**|||