If you would like to see the original please get in touch!

Description of the childminding

The childminder was registered in 2008. She lives with her partner and their daughter aged one year in a mid-terraced property in Sheffield. Local shops, schools and parks are within walking distance. Children have access to all downstairs rooms, including dining/kitchen and lounge, with upstairs access to the bathroom and one designated bedroom. There is a secure outdoor area at the rear of the property for outdoor play. The family has a cat. The childminder is registered to care for a maximum of five children under eight years at any one time, of whom no more than two may be in the early years age range. She is currently minding two children in this age group. She also offers care to children aged over five years to 11 years. This provision is registered by Ofsted on the compulsory and voluntary parts of the Childcare Register. Care is provided between 07.30 and 18.00, Monday to Friday throughout the year. The childminder is available to collect children from the local school and attends several childminder groups on a regular basis. She is a member of the National Childminding Association.

Overall effectiveness of the early years provision

The quality of the provision is good. Children's care and learning is a priority to the childminder who works hard to meet their individual needs. She has recently implemented a system to observe and assess what the children know and can do, and she is beginning to use this information to plan the next steps in their learning. A range of resources and fun activities are provided for all children, which helps them to make good progress in their learning given their starting points. There is a wealth of information for parents to share in and links have been successfully forged with other care settings to ensure children's care is consistent. The childminder has used the Ofsted self-evaluation form to reflect on practice and consider her provision, through this process she has clearly identified areas for improvement.

The leadership and management of the early years provision

The childminder has a secure knowledge of the Early Years Foundation Stage and uses this well to ensure that all of the policies and procedures she has in place meet requirements. This means that the children's welfare is successfully supported through the consistent implementation of the clear health and safety policies. The risk assessments are comprehensive because the childminder has a good understanding of how to assess risks to children and take action to minimise hazards. The childminder's dedication to continuing to improve the provision for children is demonstrated through her ability to highlight areas for development and take action. She has made good use of the Ofsted self-evaluation form and through these processes the childminder has identified the need to provide the children with further resources to promote inclusion. She develops her practice through attending training to obtain a level 3 childcare qualification and workshops, such as 'every disabled child matters' and 'helping children to cope with change'. As a result, she has a growing awareness of ways of working with different children. The childminder uses a system to observe what the children do each time they are in her care; this includes general observations and more focused monitoring of specific planned activities, all of which contribute to the assessment folders. Through this process the childminder is beginning to develop an understanding of each child's individual stage of development. She recognises that this particular assessment system is new to her and has identified the need to review and monitor the impact on the children. She effectively uses information gathered from parents when the children first enter the setting to become familiar with their starting points. Activity planning is linked to celebrations and the seasons and provides children with a varied range of hands on play experiences, which contributes to their good progress. Parents share in their children's learning because information is displayed for them, the assessment records are shared and they add comments to the folders about their satisfaction with the progress their children are making. The childminder has established good links with the other care settings that the children attend.

The quality and standards of the early years provision

The children are happy and well settled in the care of the childminder. She is well organised and provides a child-centred environment where they can choose resources freely from the low level storage. Pictures and labels help the children to identify what is inside each box, which supports their growing independence. The childminder uses her time well to ensure that all of the children are able to engage in the planned activities and have chance to play freely with resources most suited to their age and stage of development. The childminder successfully helps the children to develop their awareness of the safety of themselves and others through clear reminders about not throwing toys or climbing on the furniture. Praise and encouragement are given freely, which helps to raise the children's self esteem and helps to make them feel proud of their creations. Thee children's communication skills are developing, they are encouraged to try new words and the childminder talks to them as they play together. She is adept at recognising their facial expressions and the noises they make to communicate their feelings. Simple signs are used to accompany some instructions, which aids the children's understanding. They learn about the world around them through going on outings in the local area and through resources, such as books about different people and a map of the world. However, there is a limited variety of resources that promote positive images of diversity and disability. The children practice and refine their creative skills when they engage in painting and craft activities, they use hand prints to make wrapping paper for their Mother's day gifts. The childminder helps to extend children's enjoyment of books through using jungle animal puppets and props to match the characters in the story. In addition, the childminder uses suitable children's television programmes to expand their learning, for example they watch part of a jungle based show. The children learn about healthy eating from the childminder who provides them with a snack of fresh fruits, such as raspberries and melon and they enjoy being sociable as they eat. There are many opportunities for the children to enjoy fresh air and exercise through carefully planned outings and there are resources for planting seeds and potatoes when they play in the garden. The children demonstrate an understanding of good hygiene; when asked they eagerly clean their faces and hands after snack time. All of which contributes to them enjoying positive outcomes in their health and welfare. The children are learning about safety through routines for fire evacuation and because the childminder talks to them about keeping safe. The childminder has placed innovative emergency bags around the home, to ensure she has some supplies to hand should she and the children need to leave the home in a hurry.