THE founder of a group of nurseries has blamed staffing concerns after being told by Ofsted its Redditch site needs to improve.

Bright Kids, which has six sites in Worcestershire and West Midlands, has received a ‘requires improvement' rating from Ofsted for its Crabbs Cross nursery.

The education watchdog visited the nursery on Evesham Road last month after a complaint was made in December and a welfare requirement notice was served.

The notice required the nursery to make sure all children are adequately supervised and do not leave the premises unsupervised; all staff have an understanding of their roles and there is a manager who holds an approved level three qualification in post.

Inspectors found that leaders, managers, and staff have identified ‘weaknesses in practice’ and are very keen ‘to make ongoing improvements and raise the quality of provision’.

The report states: “Staffing arrangements have been changed and they are now meeting the requirements of the 'Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage'.

“Leaders, managers and staff are working closely together; morale has improved, and they have an increasing understanding of their roles and responsibilities.

“Despite weaknesses, children are happy and well cared for.”

It goes on to say: “There have been significant changes to the staff team over recent weeks with a new manager and some new staff in post and existing staff being re-deployed into different roles.”

Founder of Bright Kids, Tricia Wellings, said there were ‘staffing concerns prior to the inspection’ and a manager left but ‘naturally they are disappointed with the judgement’.

She said: “We were in the process of rejigging staff.

“We have got a new manager in, and she has been working for us for three years and got our Evesham nursery up to ‘Outstanding’, but she only started five days before the inspection.

“We have a senior strategic team which goes into the nursery weekly and we have done a lot of training with staff.”