Wee Acorns
Day Care of Children
Perth Road
Dunblane
FK15 0BU
Telephone: 01786 826982
Type of inspection: Unannounced
Inspection completed on: 22 August 2016
Service provided by:
Susan Deeming trading as Wee Acorns
Care service number:
CS2006141112
Service provider number:
SP2006008774
Inspection report
About the service
Wee Acorns is a privately owned daycare of children service in Dunblane.
The service was previously registered with the Care Commission and transferred its registration to the Care
Inspectorate on 1 April 2011.
There are places for up to 24 children aged from birth to 5 years and no more than 9 children under 2 years
should attend at any given time.
Most of the nursery building is given over to a large playroom which children of all ages share. The playroom
opens out onto the nursery garden, which helps children move easily between indoors and outdoors.
The provider states the aims of the nursery as follows:
"Create an atmosphere which is welcoming, understanding, and informal, where people are treated with respect
and where diversity is celebrated.
Provide children with opportunities and experiences which promote learning through play and real life scenarios.
We work within the guidelines of Scottish Government, Stirling Council, other governing bodies and our own
policies; we value and encourage individuality and creativity in thought and learning.
Recognise that parents and families are the main carers and educators of young children. We work in
partnership with families to develop a greater understanding of the needs of children at Wee Acorns.
Be committed to continual staff training and development.
Encourage responsible citizens, who take responsibility for their actions and reactions, in nursery and the wider
community."
At this inspection we focussed on two aspects of the Care and Support Quality Theme. These were
Responsiveness to Children's Needs and Parents as Partners. We also looked at two aspects of the Environment
Quality Theme. These were Challenge and Risk in Outdoor Play and Community Links.
What people told us
We met only a small number of children as many were on holiday with their families. They had a varied day
spending some time indoors playing, having meals and naps in the cool of the playroom. The rest of the time
they were out in the nursery garden enjoying the sunshine.
The children were happy and relaxed and they kept busy choosing their own games and playmates.
It was particularly noticeable outdoors that they were curious to explore the different areas of the garden and
the toys and nature resources they found there. They were also very adventurous in their attempts to climb and
crawl up and down the grassy mound and the fun they had in doing so was clear to see.
Nine parents gave us feedback through our questionnaires and we spoke with five parents during the inspection.
They were all happy with the care and support their child received. They considered that staff knew their children
as individuals and that their children were happy at nursery. They said that staff communicated well with them
about their child and they felt involved.
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Inspection report
Here are some of the comments they made showing their satisfaction with the nursery and its staff.
"Very happy with the care my child receives. Staff are very helpful, approachable, caring and friendly at all
times."
"I am particularly impressed with the level of care and support my (child) receives from all staff, particularly their
keyworker."
"...what a fantastic setting Wee Acorns is. The environment is warm, welcoming and homely. The staff are
excellent, their knowledge and skills are second to none and they know my child so well. (Child ) has learned so
much during their time there, whilst receiving the highest standard of care."
"They have been instrumental in developing my children's confidence. They have formed great bonds with all the
staff. I couldn't be happier with their care."
Self assessment
We received a completed self assessment document from the provider before this inspection. This was detailed
with relevant information for each quality theme that we inspect. They provided information about the areas of
work they consider they do well, what they have improved and work they plan to further develop. They also told
us how they involve parents, children and staff to help them make improvements.
They should continue to develop use of the self assessment to show what they provide and how this benefits
children.
From this inspection we graded this service as:
Quality of care and support
Quality of environment
Quality of staffing
Quality of management and leadership
5 - Very Good
5 - Very Good
not assessed
not assessed
What the service does well
The nursery team was very good at recognising and responding to each child having individual needs. They
gathered detailed information about each child and used that to plan personalised care and support. They
allocated a member of staff to the child (keyworker) based on observing whether they had a positive relationship
or because the skills and experience of the member of staff were a good match for the child, thereby helping the
child be happy and properly supported.
They brought children together in learning groups because of their common learning needs. Staff were then able
to provide focussed experiences which helped children in the groups develop what they most needed to.
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The nursery team were further developing their approaches to supporting children with additional needs,
including building links with professionals. This was helping towards children getting appropriate individual
assistance from an early stage.
Parents as Partners was central to the nursery ethos and a wide range of ways to participate gave them personal
choice and flexibility in how they contributed to their child's care and support and to wider service improvement.
Consultation processes about their own child or about nursery improvement were genuinely designed to achieve
their full involvement in decisions. There were examples of both where action did not advance until a series of
discussions took place and agreement was reached.
The manager had led a review of the nursery garden. Staff said the improvements made had led to children
being more adventurous outdoors and we saw children having very good opportunity for challenging and risky
experiences.
The natural grassy mound provided a range of climbing challenges. Children of all ages were repeatedly
attempting to reach the top and get back down again.
We saw children as young as one year old play on their own in the mud kitchen and work out for themselves
how to gather sand in a pot and find a suitable stick as an implement to stir their mixture.
Older children turned a box into a boat and fished from it using twigs. The children found these loose materials
in the garden and were able to decide for themselves what to use them for.
The nursery had a very good range of established links with the local community and the manager was planning
to broaden the organisations and facilities they had contact with. The existing links enabled children to take part
in local events, have visitors in nursery to offer activities and information about their work and go out of nursery
to make use of amenities such as shops and the library.
Through this and the regular walks and park visits which took place, children were building a sense of the
community they live in and the place they have in it.
What the service could do better
We had discussion with the nursery owner and manager about a few areas of work they should consider
developing further.
They should continue their development of personal plans for children with the aim of clearly evidencing the
children's needs, support plans and, where applicable, personal risk assessments to meet their needs and, at
least six monthly reviews of this with parents' involvement.
The manager had been consulting with the local authority GIRFEC (Getting It Right For Every Child) team
regarding their guidance for setting up chronologies. These are records of significant events in a child's life in
date order which help with planning support to meet their needs.
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They should continue this work, provide staff training and guidance to promote consistent recording of
chronology information and develop evidence of management monitoring of chronologies to promote them
yielding relevant, accurate information which will support and safeguard children.
To enrich children's learning experiences further we encourage the nursery in the following:
- continue their plan to help staff develop effective consultation and questioning with
a view to provoking children's greater curiosity and investigation.
- continue to enrich staff confidence and practices by visiting other settings, by accessing good practice
resources including the Care Inspectorate's 'My World Outdoors" (http://hub.careinspectorate.com/media/
279348/my-world-outdoors-sharing-good-practice-in-how-early-years-services-can-provide-play-andlearning-wholly-or-partially-outdoors.pdf)
and through contact with organisations promoting outdoor experiences such as "Grounds for Learning".
- consider moving to a risk/benefit model when assessing safety and involve children more directly in risk/
benefit assessment. This approach allows staff to continue to put in place essential safeguards while also giving
children more challenging and riskier experiences and the opportunity to learn about managing safety
increasingly for themselves.
They should further develop links with other early years settings and primary schools in the community to
support children with shared nursery places and when moving on to school.
We spoke about ways of making the Improvement Plan and evaluation of its progress more visible, live and
everyone's responsibility in the setting. This will promote further everyone's sense of ownership in the plan and
their investment in ensuring it is implemented.
Requirements
Number of requirements: 0
Recommendations
Number of recommendations: 0
Complaints
There have been no complaints upheld since the last inspection. Details of any older upheld complaints are
published at www.careinspectorate.com.
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Inspection report
Inspection and grading history
Date
Type
Gradings
25 Aug 2014
Unannounced
Care and support
Environment
Staffing
Management and leadership
5 - Very good
5 - Very good
5 - Very good
5 - Very good
15 Oct 2010
Unannounced
Care and support
Environment
Staffing
Management and leadership
5 - Very good
Not assessed
Not assessed
Not assessed
23 Nov 2009
Unannounced
Care and support
Environment
Staffing
Management and leadership
5 - Very good
Not assessed
5 - Very good
Not assessed
11 Feb 2009
Unannounced
Care and support
Environment
Staffing
Management and leadership
5 - Very good
4 - Good
4 - Good
4 - Good
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To find out more
This inspection report is published by the Care Inspectorate. You can download this report and others from our
website.
Care services in Scotland cannot operate unless they are registered with the Care Inspectorate. We inspect, award
grades and help services to improve. We also investigate complaints about care services and can take action
when things aren't good enough.
Please get in touch with us if you would like more information or have any concerns about a care service.
You can also read more about our work online at www.careinspectorate.com
Contact us
Care Inspectorate
Compass House
11 Riverside Drive
Dundee
DD1 4NY
[email protected]
0345 600 9527
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Other languages and formats
This report is available in other languages and formats on request.
Tha am foillseachadh seo ri fhaighinn ann an cruthannan is cànain eile ma nithear iarrtas.
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