Children's drinking water 'out of reach' at pre-school

Children at a pre-school do not all have access to drinking water and staff fail to wash their hands after wiping pupils' noses, inspectors found.

Little Stars pre-school in Rochdale has been told to make urgent improvements after Ofsted inspectors visited at the end of January and found water was kept out of reach of some children, who did not have their own drinking cups.

Concerns were also raised over welfare, hygiene and leadership at the pre-school based at the Fieldhouse Industrial Estate.

Managers at Little Stars said an improvement plan was now in place, but they had formally challenged parts of the report as it "does not fully reflect the day-to-day reality of our setting".

The Ofsted inspection found Little Stars, which has 34 places available, to be failing across the board, with a raft of improvements ordered.

A lack of positive culture around safeguarding left "children at significant risk of harm", the inspector found.

They said: "Children do not have their own water cups and instead pour water into universal cups which others then use.

"Water is kept up on a ledge where some children cannot reach.

"Therefore, those children who do not speak are unable to request a drink.

"Leaders do not make certain that staff follow good hygiene procedures."

In response, Little Stars has insisted that all children do have access to drinking water, which a spokesperson said was "provided on trays at an appropriate height within reach".

Staff also encouraged children to regularly drink, including those who are quieter or non-verbal, they added.

The pre-school also pointed out they had been closed to children for the first few weeks of January due to disruption caused by burst pipes and flooding.

Inspectors highlighted that staff "do not consistently intervene to wipe children's extremely runny noses", and when they do, they do not always wash their own or the children's hands after.

"This does not help to teach children about their own health and wellbeing and puts them at risk of illness."

The Little Stars spokesperson said the pre-school was working to achieve "sustained and measurable improvement".

"We remain fully committed to ongoing improvement and would welcome the opportunity to demonstrate the progress made."

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