Rainbow Castle Childcare near Moray Leisure Centre in Elgin to address ‘significant concerns’ of Care Inspectorate inspectors after leadership labelled ‘weak’
A childcare centre in Elgin says it has put plans in place to ease the “significant concerns” of inspectors who have labelled the service’s leadership as “weak”.
Rainbow Castle Childcare operates from a building on the grounds of Moray Leisure Centre and is registered to accommodate a maximum of 85 children.
In February this year it was the subject of an unannounced Care Inspectorate inspection which found the setting’s leadership to be “weak”.
Inspectors noted that its manager was due to leave her post at the time of the inspection.
Consequently, management oversight was due to become the responsibility of the leisure centre manager which had been the case for a “significant period in the last year”, according to a recently-published inspection report.
The report said that while the leisure centre manager could offer support in terms of child protection and building maintenance, they did not have any childcare qualifications or the necessary experience to run the busy childcare centre.
Inspectors added: “We expressed significant concerns about the capacity of the service to maintain a quality service for children and support the wellbeing of staff, as well as move forward with identified improvements.
“We made a requirement for the provider to have a robust plan in place to support the service until such time as a new manager is recruited and has had time to gain a firm oversight of priorities for the service.”
Rainbow Castle Childcare says it has acted swiftly to address the concerns of the inspectors.
The leisure centre manager will no longer take responsibility for management oversight of the service and steps to recruit a new permanent manager are already in place.
A spokesperson for Rainbow Castle Childcare told The Northern Scot: “Since the inspection report, the plan for the management responsibility has changed.
“This will not be by the leisure centre manager. Our two senior practitioners are going to act in the manager position until we recruit a permanent manager.
“They both have significant childcare experience and one of the senior practitioners has the required management qualification (childhood practice degree).
“They will be the named manager operating the setting and will be supported by Alexandrea Macleod, operations and finance manager, who will continue to recruit a permanent manager for Rainbow Castle Childcare.
“We expect to operate this way until we recruit a manager, and the vacancy is open for applications.
“The Moray Council Early Learning and Childcare central team are currently providing enhanced support.”
The Care Inspectorate has asked the childcare centre to make the necessary improvements by September 1 later this year.
Of the other areas inspected, Rainbow Castle Childcare’s staff received a grade of “good” for their “kindness and care”.
The setting itself was graded as “adequate” while its quality of care, play and learning received the same grade.
