Assurances of improvements at two Perth nurseries following bad inspections

Perth and Kinross Council headquarters on 2 High Street, Perth
-Credit: (Image: Richard Wilkins)


Councillors have been assured improvements are being made following recent poor inspections at two Perth nurseries.

While both nurseries are privately owned they work in partnership with Perth and Kinross Council to provide 1140 funded hours of early learning and childcare to eligible pre-school children.

On Monday, September 16 Perth and Kinross Council's (PKC) Executive Sub-Committee of the Learning and Families Committee was updated on the key findings and actions being taken since the inspections.

Corner House Nursery Perth - formerly Paint Pots Nursery - on Perth's Strathview Terrace had an unannounced inspection by the Care Inspectorate in June 2024. It was graded with two "adequate" ratings and two "weak" ratings.

In June 2024 ABC on Rose Terrace was graded "adequate" - on an unannounced inspection by the Care Inspectorate - for its staff, leadership, setting and its care, play and learning. This was an improvement from its previous inspection in February 2024 where both the setting and care, play and learning were graded "weak" and ABC Nursery's leadership and staff team graded "unsatisfactory".

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As councillors met on Monday, Liberal Democrat councillor Liz Barrett asked if there "was more we could do to be proactive in supporting places we think might be weak rather than waiting for a damning Care Inspectorate report".

She was assured by education officers this was not the case and that the council was pro-actively involved with each of its schools and centres on an ongoing basis.

PKC's strategic lead for Education and Learning Sheena Devlin said: "We know as an education authority the position in relation to our schools and centres and actually we are not waiting and only find out when there's an external visit made."

"HMI was clear that we know our centres and our schools very well and appropriate or targeted support is provided. It's not that we are sitting about doing nothing. We do and we are proactive."

PKC's Early Years and Childcare service manager Bernadette Martin-Scott assured councillors the "ongoing support was there and will continue to remain there".

Referring to Corner House Nursery, she said: "Since the publication of that inspection we have had quite a lot of activity around about the setting and have met with the regional manager of the Thrive group - who own that setting - to provide clarity on our expected standards and the required pace of necessary improvement.

"The new Thrive regional manager was able to provide us with reassurance as they had recently conducted their own look at how they thought their setting was doing and had already written an action plan."

Ms Martin-Scott said they were assured "they would be making some changes to the environment, their processes and committed to sorting out particular staffing difficulties".

She added: "We will be closely monitoring that setting over the next few months with a particularly keen look at reviewing how they're doing around December."

Conservative councillor Chris Ahern questioned the high turnover of staff.

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Ms Martin-Scott said: "Each time they make the progress at the pace they want then there are staffing changes and sometimes you have to start again."

She said this was "problematic" but assured councillors "it was something the regional manager had committed to improving".

Regarding ABC, the Early Years and Childcare service manager said: "They are making good progress that provides us with confidence in their ability to make improvements and make further progress. The Care Inspectorate returned on June 12 and graded all of the areas as 'adequate'.

"The new management was acknowledged as creating the correct conditions for this improvement. She had been appointed just seven days prior to the inspection but had been supporting on a consultancy basis prior to that and brings a wealth of knowledge, skills and expertise."

She added: "We are aspirational for all our settings and will continue to support them until they are visited again within the year where we are confident they will gain grades of 'good' or better.

ABC Nursery, Rose Terrace, Perth
ABC Nursery, Perth -Credit:Richard Wilkins

Convener SNP councillor John Rebbeck praised the support being given by council officers.

He said: "Although they are commercial enterprises because they're working in partnership with us under 1140 hours it does mean we have a moral responsibility and also a statutory one I suspect to make sure they are up to scratch."