Emma's Elephants Childminding Service Edinburgh

Childminder inspection report

Emma's Elephants ChildmindingServiceEdinburgh

Inspection report for Emma's Elephants Childminding ServiceInspection completed on 27 October 2015

Service provided by: Emma Campbell trading as Emma's ElephantsChildminding Service

Service provider number: SP2009973132

Care service number: CS2009194674

Inspection Type: Unannounced

Care services in Scotland, including childminders, cannot operate unlessthey are registered with the Care Inspectorate. We inspect, award gradesand set out improvements that must be made. We also investigatecomplaints about care services and take action when things aren't goodenough.

Please get in touch with us if you would like more information or haveany concerns about a care service.

Contact UsCare InspectorateCompass House11 Riverside DriveDundeeDD1 4NY

[email protected]

0345 600 9527

www.careinspectorate.com

@careinspect


Inspection report for Emma's Elephants Childminding Servicepage 2 of 14

1 IntroductionThe Care Inspectorate regulates care services in Scotland. Information about allcare services is available on our website at www.careinspectorate.com. The CareInspectorate is committed to improving the health and wellbeing of all childrenreceiving a service to ensure they have the best start in life, are ready tosucceed and live longer healthier lives. The Care Inspectorate has an importantrole to play in supporting this approach in inspecting care services for children.

The Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC) approach is underpinned by theprinciples of prevention and early intervention. It is a consistent way for peopleto work with all children and young people. The approach helps practitionersfocus on what makes a positive difference for children and young people - andhow they can act to deliver these improvements. Getting It Right For Every Childis being threaded through all existing policy, practice, strategy and legislationaffecting children, young people and their families.

In Scotland, the GIRFEC approach puts wellbeing at the very heart of itsapproach. The eight indicators of wellbeing that form the basis of GIRFEC oftenreferred to as SHANARRI.

Requirements and recommendations

If we are concerned about some aspect of a service or think it could do more toimprove its service, we may make a recommendation or a requirement.

- A recommendation is a statement that sets out actions the care serviceprovider should take to improve or develop the quality of the service but wherefailure to do so will not directly result in enforcement.- A requirement is a statement which sets out what is required of a care serviceto comply with the Public Services Reforms (Scotland) Act 2010 and Regulationsor Orders made under the Act, or a condition of registration. Where there arebreeches of he Regulations, Orders or conditions a requirement must be made.Requirements are legally enforceable at the discretion of the inspectorate.

Emma Campbell, Trading as Emma's Elephants childminding service (referred toas the childminder in this report) is registered to provide a care service to amaximum of six children at any one time under the age of 16, of whom no morethan three are not yet attending primary school and of whom no more than one



is under 12 months. Numbers are inclusive of children of the childminder'sfamily.

Any other conditions unique to the service:- Minded children cannot be cared for by persons not named on the certificate.- Minded children cannot have use of the balcony adjacent to the living room.- Minded children must be supervised at all times in the communal back gardenarea.

The service is provided from the childminder's top floor flat within a residentialarea of Edinburgh close to the local school, local shops, schools, parks and otheramenities. The areas used to provide the service were the kitchen/dining area,living room and family bathroom.

What we did during our inspectionWe wrote this report following an unannounced inspection carried outon Tuesday 27 October 2015.

The childminder was caring for one baby and her own child.

During this inspection we gathered evidence from a number of sources,including the following:

We spoke with the childminder and had a discussion with a parent who came tocollect their child during our visit.

We looked at:- Accident and incident records.- Children's records.- Information for parents.- Questionnaires.- Written policies and procedures.

We observed:- The environment, toys and equipment.- The childminder's interactions with the minded child and their parent.

We have taken account of all of the above information when writing this report.



Please note that parents and carers will be referred to as parents throughoutthe report.

Views of people using the serviceParents spoke highly of the childminder. A sample of their comments included:'I am very happy with my childminder. My child adores her and enjoys all theactivities Emma introduces'.

'I feel very lucky with our childminder. She provides a homely and safeenvironment for children ad I know she looks after my child very well. The proofis a smile on my child's face when I drop her off and leave her with Emma. Icould not be happier with Emma's service'.

'Emma is very professional and abides by the standards of care. My daughterloves to go to her even during the school holidays. The childminder plansinteresting visits to museums, parks, play centres etc. for the children. Mostimportantly she takes good care of them'.

Self assessmentEvery year all care services complete a 'self assessment' telling us how theirservice is performing. We check to make sure this is accurate.

The childminder did not compete the requested self assessment form.

What the service did wellThe childminder's friendly, reassuring manner meant that she provided asupportive and caring service to the families she worked with.

Her commitment to training was commendable and was clearly having apositive impact on the running of her service.

What the service could do betterThe childminder should continue with the current very good practice she carriedout in her service.



2 The grades we awardedWe grade the quality of care and support, the quality of the environment andthe quality of management and leadership. If the childminder employs anassistant, we also grade the quality of staffing. In each case, we award a gradeon a scale from 1 to 6, where 1 is unsatisfactory and 6 is excellent.

Quality of care and support 5 - Very GoodQuality of environment 5 - Very Good

Quality of staffingQuality of management and leadership 5 - Very Good

3 Quality of care and supportFindings from the inspectionFamilies wishes were respected as the childminder knew the importance ofwelcoming and encouraging parents to contribute productively to and engage intheir children's care, learning and development. She used a variety of strategiesto achieve this, for example:

- Before families took up a place they were invited into her home and weregiven clear, high quality written information about the service.- Flexible settling in sessions were tailored to meet family's needs.- 'All about me' and registration records were completed to support thechildminder to care for children in line with their routines and their parentswishes. This information then formed the basis of children's personal plans.- With parents and the child, personal plans were reviewed regularly to ensureshe met children's needs and supported them to achieve their full potential. Inour questionnaire, all three parents confirmed that they were involved incompleting their child's individual plan.- Each child's development was tracked by the childminder which increased thelikelihood of children achieving, because she was able to assess the progressthey were making and identify if they required further support. This informationwas shared with parents.- The childminder understood that families had their individual preferencesabout how they exchanged information. To take account of this she had



developed a number of ways to communicate and get families views. Theyincluded daily chats, daily diaries, text and email. All three parents whocompleted our questionnaire, confirmed that they felt well-informed of howtheir child had been and what they had done at the childminder's home.- An open door approach was successful in enabling the childminder to workclosely with parents to make sure she was meeting their child's needs as bestshe could. For example, supporting families during times of change and givinggeneral advice.

Sharing children's achievements and special moments with parents wasimportant to the childminder. With pride, she showed us photographs ofchildren's time with her and their friends. The childminder kept notes ofchildren's special achievements. Children's art work was displayed in the homeand stairwell. All of this showed a true commitment from the childminder toraise children's self-esteem whilst celebrating their successes.

Active, healthy lifestyles were promoted and encouraged well by thechildminder. Examples that lead us to this evaluation were:

- She adhered to policy and procedures in relation to medication, illness, firstaid and infection control which contributed to children's health and wellbeing.- Regular visits to local parks, soft play and woodland meant children were ableto be active and included in the local community.- Any special dietary requirements, details of foods to be avoided and guidancefor the childminder was recorded in children's personal plans. The childminderwas able to tell us the procedures in place to ensure children's allergies andrequirements were sensitively and appropriately respected and met.- Activities such as jewellery making, baking, music and arts and craftsencouraged children to be active and develop hobbies and interests.- Children were able to access drinking water throughout the day which keptthem hydrated.- Children developed an understanding of personal hygiene as they werereminded to wash their hands after going to the toilet and before meals.

The minded child's sense of belonging was enhanced as he was being cared forin a warm, inviting environment. He benefitted from a positive relationship withthe childminder, who interacted with him in a calm and caring manner. Sheclearly knew the child well and told us about his developing interests,personality and needs. This information supported the child to feel included.



This helped to make the children feel safe, nurtured and at home within theservice.

Comments made by parents in our questionnaire and to us on the day of theinspection demonstrated the childminder's success in building relationshipswith parents and families to strengthen the learning, development and overallwell-being of their children.

GradeThe quality of care and support is graded 5 - Very Good

RequirementsNumber of requirements - 0

RecommendationsNumber of recommendations - 0

4 Quality of environmentFindings from the inspectionAt this inspection we could see that children were cared for in a clean,welcoming, well maintained and child centred environment. Mains smokedetectors were in place and the childminder held appropriate safety equipmentincluding kitchen cupboard locks and fire blanket. The front door was keptlocked during childminding hours ensuring no unannounced entry to theproperty. These measures had a positive impact on children's safety. In ourquestionnaire, parents confirmed that they felt the childminder's home wassafe, secure, hygienic, smoke free, pleasant and stimulating environment.

All of the toys and equipment that we saw were in a clean and safe condition.The childminder described how she regularly checked her toys and dealt withany concerns immediately, either by cleaning, repairing or disposing of anythingshe felt was not safe. Parents received information about infection controlprocedures and safety checks as part of their welcome pack.

The childminder used outdoor play in the local area to encourage children to beactive and to develop their physical co-ordination. This helped to promote



children's general health, well-being, confidence and risk taking. Parents toldus their child participated in walks and outings to the safari park, nearby woods,the beach, soft play and local community centre.

Resources were stored with low-level storage boxes in the living room, whichchildren could independently access. This helped children feel included as theywere able to make choices from a wide range of resources available to them.The childminder confirmed that children were able to influence the activitiesand outings.

The childminder talked us through the daily visual risk assessment checks shedid before children came into her home. We were satisfied that this wassufficient to identify any major hazards. In addition a written risk assessmentwas in place, this was checked and updated monthly.

The childminder had Health Protection Scotland information on exclusionperiods for infectious diseases. This understanding, together with regularcleaning routines and hand washing helped ensure that the spread of infectionwas minimised.

Sleeping children were checked on regularly. Parents were informed of anyaccidents or incidents their child had been involved in. The childminder kept anote of these and parents were asked to sign to confirm they had beeninformed and were happy with how she had dealt with it.

Keeping children safe, healthy and protected from abuse was important to thechildminder. She had up to date training in First aid, Child Protection and FoodHygiene. This was beneficial as it helped keep her practice and knowledge up todate whilst increasing her knowledge of new and current best practice.

GradeThe quality of environment is graded 5 - Very Good





5 Quality of staffingWe only assess this where the childminder employs an assistant.

6 Quality of management and leadershipFindings from the inspectionThere was a clear committment from the childminder to continually assess herservice and consider how she could make it even better. She tried hard toinvolve children and parents in the development of her service. She made verygood use of emails, questionnaires, text messaging and daily chats toencourage parents and children to give their feedback.

Throughout the inspection the childminder demonstrated a very goodknowledge of childcare and child development. She kept up to date with bestpractice in child care through a wide variety of ways such as reading the CareInspectorate Care News and obtaining information sent through the ScottishChildminding Association (SCMA). We told her about the Care Inspectorate 'Hub'which gave examples of excellent and innovative practice as well as links tolegislation, best practice documents and research. This can be found atwww.careinspectorate.com

The childminder gave parents the Care Inspectorate contact details and made itclear to them that they could contact us without her knowledge should theywish to do so. In our questionnaire, parents confirmed they had confidence thatthe childminder would deal effectively with any concern or complaint they mayhave.

The childminder showed a commitment to and an understanding of the benefitsof training courses. As a result she had attended many training courses onsubjects such as pre birth to three, keeping children safe and healthy andGetting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC). She had recently begun studying a



Bachelor of Arts in Childhood studies. With confidence and pride she told ushow beneficial this studying had had on her practice. She was currently readinga new national practice guidance on early learning and childcare called Buildingthe Ambition.

The childminder had built up professional relationships with other childminder'sin the area. She told us how this was particularly useful as they shared hints,tips and gave one another advice on a range of topics. She had also carried outresearch on a variety of subjects such as childhood illnesses and conditions. Allof this showed a dedication to her own learning and meeting the needs of thechildren.

At this inspection it was clear that the childminder's approach to herwork continued to be underpinned by the principles of the National CareStandards. As a result she was well aware that each child had the right todignity, privacy, choice, safety, to realise their potential with quality and diversity.Her understanding of implementation of the eight 'indicators' of safe, healthy,achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible and included (SHANARRI)helped us conclude that the childminder was achieving high standards.

GradeThe quality of management and leadership is graded 5 - Very Good





7 What the service has done to meet anyrecommendations or requirements we madeat our last inspection

Previous requirements

There are no outstanding requirements.

Previous recommendations

1. The childminder should consider formalising her participation strategyby putting it in writing and sharing it with parents. National CareStandards for Early Education and Childcare up to the age of 16.Standards 13 - Improving the service.

This recommendation was made on 28 July 2011

The parents were fully informed of how they could get involved in her serviceand give feedback. This recommendation has been met.

8 ComplaintsThere have been no complaints upheld since the last inspection. Details of anyolder upheld complaints are published at www.careinspectorate.com.

9 EnforcementsNo enforcement action has been taken against this care service since the lastinspection



10 Other issuesNo other information.

11 Inspection and grading historyDate Type Gradings

28 Jul 2011 Announced (Short

Notice)

Care and support 5 - Very GoodEnvironment 5 - Very GoodStaffing Not AssessedManagement and Leadership Not Assessed

10 May 2010 Announced (Short

Notice)

Care and support 5 - Very GoodEnvironment 5 - Very GoodStaffing 5 - Very GoodManagement and Leadership Not Assessed



To find out moreThis inspection report is published by the Care Inspectorate. You can downloadthis report and others from our website.

You can also read more about our work online.

Contact UsCare InspectorateCompass House11 Riverside DriveDundeeDD1 4NY

[email protected]

0345 600 9527

www.careinspectorate.com

@careinspect

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 c?nain eile manithear iarrtas.



Documents

Emma's Elephants Childminding Service Edinburgh