As a nursery owner and operator it is vital that you keep your nursery up to date, not only to avoid breaching the relevant regulations but also to ensure that you provide the children attending with the best possible experience, explains Helen Wong MBE, partner and Isabella Eacott trainee solicitor at Charles Russell Speechlys LLP.

A few simple changes and checks can help make sure that you remain up to date and continually improve the service you provide.

Policies and procedures

It is vital that all policies and procedures are regularly reviewed to ensure they are not out of date.

They need to be considered both in the context of current regulations and legislation and in light of any changes or developments being made to the nursery itself. If you have increased your occupation numbers, expanded into new premises, added an outdoor play area or invested in new learning equipment the policies and procedures should be reviewed and added to as necessary.

One way of making this continual and ongoing review easier is to make sure that your policies are very clear to begin with and that no clarity is lost as and when they are updated or amended.

Another is making sure that everyone is involved in their review, including the whole governing body and all staff, not just senior management. This helps to ensure that policies cover all issues and changes identified, not just those brought to the attention of the relevant staff member tasked with making any updates, and that all employees are actively engaged with those policies.

Health and Safety

Ensuring the health and safety of all children attending the nursery (and staff) is essential and requires constant and ongoing consideration and review.

You need to make sure that the premises are safe and remain so. Any exisiting furniture and equipment should be well maintained and only kept for as long as it can conform to safety standards. Existing risk assessments should be reviewed and updated on a regular basis to make sure that all risks are identified and reasonable precautions taken. Similar risk assessments should be carried out for any new equipment to ensure that any potential hazards or risks to health and safety are identified and mitigated.

Staff should be encouraged to constantly critically consider the health and safety of the children in their care and any potential risks or improvements identified should be reported and dealt with. You need to foster a culture where all staff feel part of the process of keeping children safe and are encouraged to report any issues. This will help you to remain up to date from a health and safety perspective.

Staff

Staff involvement is key in ensuring that your nursery remains up to date and it is vital that they are encouraged to actively participate in policy reviews and risk assessment.

Additionally, staff are the most valuable asset of a nursery and it is important that they are invested in to ensure that your nursery continues to improve and provide an excellent service. Ongoing staff training should be provided in the key areas of compliance such as safeguarding, health and safety and child protection to ensure continuing competence and that they are up to date with any new developments. It is also worth considering whether any further training might be beneficial, to improve and develop their skills and techniques or keep them aware of relevant changes or developments in early years care.

Encouraging self-evaluation amongst staff can be another way to promote continual and ongoing progress. This process should be accurate and rigorous, with staff encouraged to think critically about what they and the nursery as a whole can do to improve both the children’s learning experience and to ensure ongoing compliance with regulations and requirements.

From a compliance point of view, it is vital that all staff are DBS checked as required. New starters are only permitted to start before their DBS check is complete in very exceptional circumstances (where waiting might disrupt the care of children) and even in this case the check must have been applied for. No unchecked individuals are to be left unsupervised with children. Having robust and effective hiring policies in place should make compliance easier – but any missteps could result children being at risk and your nursery facing serious consequences.

Involvement of parents

A focus on communicating with parents and encouraging them to be involved can be another easy way to make sure that your nursery remains up to date.

Liaising with parents can help mitigate any associated risks associated with them being on the premises (by ensuring they close doors and gates for example) as well as provide another set of eyes and a new perspective for the identification of any potential hazards.

Keeping parents informed about the nursery’s policies and procedures – in particular what happens if their child becomes ill – can help to prevent any dissatisfaction and complaints at a later stage.