Early-hours nursery safety fears

Well-run nurseries gave children a good start to the day, Ofsted found

Nurseries in England often do not have enough staff at the start of the day to ensure children's safety and well-being, inspectors have found.

In a survey of 45 day nurseries, Ofsted found a fifth of them did not have enough staff to offer good care during the first hour or two.

In three cases, security was said to be "unacceptable" - with people able to enter the premises unchallenged.

A third of those visited lacked sufficient planning and organisation.

'Left to cry'

One of Ofsted's deputy directors, Dorian Bradley, is expected to tell a conference on Tuesday that most of the nurseries (32) gave children good support as they parted from their parents.

But in 13 there were weaknesses to do with the deployment of staff and the ineffective grouping of children.

Sometimes children were left for too long without adult attention while staff prepared breakfast or attended to other children.

Those who were upset when their parents left were sometimes left to cry as the phone had to be answered.

Security overridden

Mr Bradley will note that all the nurseries had good security systems - in theory.

In the best, someone monitored the entrance during busy periods.

"However, several 'overrode' their security systems in busy periods during the first hour.

"Unacceptably, in three cases, inspectors were allowed into the nursery without challenge," he will say.

In one case, staff who had not been vetted for their suitability to work unsupervised with youngsters took children to the toilet.

Ofsted's focus during the visits in September was the start of the day, prompted by evidence that staff ratios were poor at such times.

It says it is also likely that care at the end of an extended day would also be poorer than during normal hours.