Hafan Hael Bettws Statement of Purpose

07974247378

Hafan Hael Bettws is a full day-care, afterschool and holiday provision dedicated to providing high-quality care for children aged 2-11. We are passionate about fostering a nurturing and stimulating environment where children can thrive, learn, and develop holistically.

As a Welsh Medium provision, we provide an environment in which children are introduced to the Welsh language and continue to participate in their activities at the provision through the medium of Welsh.

● To provide an immersive Welsh medium childcare service and promote the Welsh language and identity

● To support Welsh language in the community by creating employment for Welsh speakers and using Welsh language products and services where possible

● To promote Welsh medium education and liaise with local Welsh medium schools

● To promote learning and development through play

● To cater for each child’s individual needs and growth

● To provide a child inspired structured learning program alongside free independent play

● To provide a loving atmosphere where children feel safe and secure

● To provide a homely and happy environment which is both calming and stimulating

● To run an environmentally friendly and sustainable business

● To teach children the importance of caring for the planet and involve them in activities that promote the environment, nature and saving the planet

● To promote exercise and outdoor play

● To promote healthy eating and a love for food

● To promote a growth mindset in children and encourage them to be unique, resilient, connected, and curious

● To provide the children with a highly trained and valued team of staff

● To encourage and provide staff with ongoing training and development to ensure that children are receiving the highest standard of care

● To work in partnership with parents and carers at all times

● To liaise with other professionals in the best interests of the child

● To promote inclusivity and equal opportunities for all individuals regardless of race, religion, gender and ability.

At Hafan Hael Bettws we welcome children and families from all nationalities and regardless of gender, culture, religion or special needs.

The setting is registered to provide care for 30 children aged 2 – 11 years

Termtime:

Holiday periods:

On local school inset days, we will offer our spare day-care spaces as in holiday periods in addition to our day-care provision, provided that staffing and ratio allow.

Spaces will be offered in-line with our policies and procedures, and we will cater for boys and girls in the age ranges described above.

Staff ratios are maintained at all times and all children are allocated a key worker.

Individual Care of Children

We seek to nurture all children to learn and grow through language and play. We recognise that to achieve this objective a tailored approach is needed as each child is unique and has individual needs, abilities and interests.

We tailor our service to the children’s requirements and in order to provide the best possible care that each child requires, an assessment will be completed through pre-visits, settling in sessions and enrolment forms. Each child is allocated a key worker who will work with the child and their parents and carers to provide tailored care.

We require information regarding allergies, dietary requirements, medication, additional needs and any other relevant details at the registration process so that we can cater accordingly.

Equality and Inclusivity

We are an inclusive service and welcome children from all backgrounds and regardless of gender,

culture, religion, or ability. We welcome children with special or additional needs, and if needed, we will seek to train staff to ensure the standard of care required is met.

We also promote equality, diversity, and inclusivity at all times across all aspects of the business.

We apply this philosophy to all staff, children, parents, and carers and third parties who are all to be treated with respect, listened to, consulted and included as appropriate.

Communication with parents and carers

We encourage parents and carers to be included in the process and work in partnership with parents and carers at all times to ensure the best quality care for their child.

We use a childcare app in order to update parents and carers on a daily basis of children’s progress, routines, events and any accidents or incidents. In the case of any serious accidents or incidents we will also call the parents and carers directly. In all cases parents and carers are required to acknowledge the accident/incident report and these are retained within the app for inspection.

Our main language is Welsh. We are hugely passionate about the many benefits of language learning and a key part of our service is providing day care through the medium of Welsh.

All our staff are Welsh speaking, either fluent or a high level of Welsh learner and all activities are carried out in Welsh.

We also promote Welsh in the economy by creating employment for Welsh speakers and supporting other Welsh language businesses by using their products and services where possible.

We value our partnerships with schools and other organisations that share our aim of supporting Welsh language in the community.

As well as celebrating the Welsh language and Welsh identity, we love to learn about different cultures around the world and this is an important part of our learning program.

Hafan Hael Bettws is open Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm. We are closed at weekends, statutory bank holidays and a one week period over the Christmas Holidays. We close at 1pm on Christmas Eve and return back after the New Year bank holiday.

Late collection procedure. If a child is not collected after 30 minutes has been allowed for lateness our late collection procedure will be followed. Staff ratios must be maintained and, if out of normal operating hours, two staff members must stay behind with the child. A late fee of £15 for every 15 minutes the child remains uncollected will apply to pay for the operational costs of caring for the child outside their normal nursery hours.

Our holiday clubs will be run Monday-Friday during school holidays. On local school inset days, we will offer our spare day-care spaces as in holiday periods in addition to our day-care provision, provided that staffing and ratio allow.

Hafan Hael Bettws implements and adheres to a strict recruitment and suitable person policies and procedures for all new staff it engages. All staff will have Enhanced DBS, we encourage staff to sign up for the update service and will reimburse staff for the annual cost of this, they will also provide two current references.

Our staff are highly valued and considered part of the nursery family. Staff are highly trained and subject to continuing professional development and supported with training and development opportunities.

Qualifications of staff :

● All senior staff are qualified to level 3 CCLD/CCPLD and the PIC will have or will work towards L4/5 CCPLD.

● All nursery practitioners are qualified or working towards level 3 CCPLD

● Staff working in the holiday and afterschool club will be qualified with or working towards their playworker qualifications

● Lunch cover assistants are working towards a minimum of the L2APP (applied playwork practice) and will be encouraged to pursue further relevant qualifications

● We welcome apprenticeships, student placements and training opportunities for Welsh speakers that are keen to pursue a career in childcare or playwork.

● Apprentices will be counted in ratio if they are deemed competent and working towards the L2 core element of the L3 CCPLD

● We intend to offer placements to students undertaking the L2APP Playwork qualification and these students will be not counted in ratio.  They will be DBS enhanced (volunteer) checked.  They may participate in making snack once they have their Food Hygiene certificate.

We may use temporary staff provided they meet the same requirements of all other staff in terms of checking any qualifications, DBS update service, references. We may use a trusted agency as recommended by the Flying Start Area Manager to provide staff in line with the above stipulations.

We may use volunteers on the same basis as temporary staff.

When using volunteers and temporary staff we will only do so if our overall staffing remains in keeping with NMS 13.10

Staff ratios are:

2-3 years : 1 member of staff to 4 children

3-8 years : 1 member of staff to 8 children

8-11 years: 1 member of staff to 10 children

To operate the nursery effectively staff are fully trained to implement our policies and procedures on a regular basis and there is a clear structure in place for staff to communicate.

Regular staff meetings take place to discuss operations as well as any concerns and feedback. This takes place on the second Tuesday of each month and all staff are expected to attend

● The Nursery Leader reports to the Nursery Owner.

● The Deputy Leader reports to the Nursery Leader

● Nursery Practitioners and Students / Volunteers / Apprentices report to the Deputy Leader

If there is a concern raised about the person they are reporting to they can report to the individual above in the reporting lines

A meeting can be requested on a 1:1 basis and a room is available for this purpose.

·         Our fee structure is based on a standard hourly rate of £6 per hour

·         Our day consists of 5 sessions that can be added together to create full daycare or taken in 1 or more end to end sessions.

·         We accept funded hours through Childcare Offer for Wales and through Flying Start

·         Childcare Offer for Wales funded hours are a maximum of 20 hours per week.  All additional hours are billed at £6 per hour.

·         Childcare offer funding will cover 30 hours of childcare in 9 or the 13 weeks school holidays and it is the parent/carer responsibility to ensure that they check their entitlement and allocate accordingly.

·         Flying Start funded hours are a maximum of 12.5 hours per week, no more than 5 hours can be used in a one day and these must align with our standard session times (2.5 hours AM session plus 1 hour lunch paid session plus 2.5 hours PM session as an example)

·         Flying Start provides funding for 42 weeks per year *term time plus 1 week at Easter and 2 weeks in Summer holidays), families are welcome to pay for any session that is not funded through Flying Start

·         Afterschool sessions (where care has not been provided during the day) are available for a minimum 2 hour booking at £12

·         Transport from Ysgol Nant Gwenlli for afterschool club is an additional £3

·         Our fees are inclusive of breakfast, snacks, evening meal, nappies and wipes and other other consumables/resources

Termtime:

Holiday periods:

We are registered as a provider of the childcare element of the 30 hours Childcare Offer and offer 12.5 hours of Flying Start provision over 42 weeks a year subject to availability.

Our morning Flying Start sessions run slightly later than our standard morning session in order to prevent overlap with the extended breakfast session that we offer to the school nursery next door.  Flying Start AM is 9.15-11.45, PM is the same as a standard PM session

We will provide nursery wraparound from Ysgol Ifor Hael nursery and Millbrook nursery.

We will provide afterschool wraparound services to Ysgol Nant Gwenlli (by appropriately staffed mini bus transport) and to Ysgol Ifor Hael (on foot – shared site).

Transport from Ysgol Nant Gwenlli is an additional £3 per day.

Breakfast (8-9am) and healthy snacks are provided (10.30am, 2pm). Children attending beyond 4pm are provided with an evening meal and dessert.

Children attending over the lunch period are required to bring a healthy packed lunch

Water is always available to children.  Milk is served at breakfast (or milk alternative)

An example of a daily routine is as follows :

 The nursery is purpose built to the highest standards and is leased from Newport City Council.

The building is physically attached to the school nursery for Ysgol Gymraeg Ifor Hael.  It has its own access route that ensures a safe route across shared land to the secure gate for entry to the grounds of Hafan Hael Bettws. We will work in partnership with the school and their nursery for the safe transfer of children between care.

Outdoor Areas

The grounds of the property are entered via a video-controlled entry system at the top of the front play area (play area 1).  This is controlled from within the building.

Entering the grounds, you are in play area 1.

High, secure fencing surrounds the grounds, this has been fitted with mesh panels for privacy from the nursey next door/contractors on the adjacent old school site.

Play area 1 has some high quality heavy-duty fixed play equipment that includes a seating area, Perspex painting board, play table and musical chime station.  It also has an area laid to lawn and a tarmacked area suitable for wheeled items. As you approach the building there is a sheltered area to the right where play can continue to take place whilst being sheltered from the elements.

The main door into to the building is on the right at the end of play area 1, a gate, that can be unlocked to connect to play are 2 is just beyond the main door.

There is additional shelter running on the side of the building giving shelter to those waiting to enter during busy periods.

The building entrance has a 2 door entry system.  Between the two doors on the right-hand side is a sliding hatch window to the office.  Below the office hatch are some of the children’s pegs.  On the opposite side there are further children’s pegs and on the wall above is a notice board with our insurance details, membership certificates and accreditations.  We display our staff information and snack menu in the glass panel to the front door.

The interior contains a large open plan room that is bright, airy and modern.  The space can be divided into zones that are appropriate to the children being cared for.

There is a larger than standard width door providing level access to the free flow play are to the rear of the property (play area 2).  This area has sand and water play on a paved area and it leads onto the gently sloping grass area.  At present this area is open plan and laid to turf.  We have plans to develop this area in the future.

There are two outdoor areas that can be opened up or remain separated dependent on the ages/stages of the children at the setting at any time.  As the main entrance to the setting is through play area 1, this area will not be used during periods where we expect parents/carers/visitors to need access.  During these periods Play Area 2 will be utilised and the gate between areas 1 & 2 will be locked with a coded padlock.

Indoor area

The indoor area is light and airy with lots of natural light

There are three large windows to the front that have roller blinds to shield from bright sunlight when required.  A further window from the office faces play area 1 to the front.

The setting is heated by an air source heat pump.

The lighting is on automatic sensors.

Internal spaces

There is an office, entrance hall and store cupboard along the left side of the building. The office provides an area where private conversations can take place with parents, carers and other relevant parties.  The storage unit provides amble space to keep resources that are in rotation or seasonal.

The kitchen features a large window and overlooks play area 2.  It features basic cooking equipment (a halogen hob and an oven style airfryer) plus toaster, kettle and microwave.

There are a range of base and wall units providing ample storage for all of the required equipment.

The kitchen features a sink for dishes and a separate sink for hand washing.

There is a washing machine and dishwasher, fridge and freezer.

The Kitchen features a lockable mid-hight door and a mid height wall.  Children are not permitted to access the kitchen unless supervised as part of a cookery activity.

To the rear there is a 1.5 width door that leads onto play area 2.  Where possible we allow free flow play between indoors and out.

Further rooms include:

Cleaners cupboard – kept locked at all times, no access to children

Disabled/staff toilet

Nappy changing room including a hand wash sink and hand dryer

Childrens toilets (x3) and a trough style sink with 3 taps.  Hand dryer.

Staff room (store 1) for staff breaks

Electrical room – to be kept locked at all times.  No access to children

Childcare room

The central area is approximately 71m2

It features a child height sink and units containing painting equipment.

Part of the floor is commercial grade vinyl flooring, and the other part is commercial carpet tiles.

The room is adaptable and can be zoned according to the ages/stages of the children attending.  Additional equipment for older children will be stored in the storage cupboard and brought out as required.

The room contains a wide range of resources and has tables and chairs suitable for the age range of the children being cared for.

The area nearest the office is a dedicated reading and circle time corner and is comfortably furnished with child height access to books, a large comfortable armchair and floor cushions.

This area has a wipe clean cushioned floor mat and lends itself to doubling as the nap area due to the placement of the surrounding furniture that provides screening from children undertaking other activities.

We aim to work with parents and carers in partnership where possible (see our Parents and Carers as Partners Policy). We set out our agreement with parents and carers in our Terms and Conditions document. This includes details of payment terms and fees, our obligations and expectations, illness, safeguarding, admissions, settling-in and collection arrangements.

Parents and carers are provided with information via Famly app on registering their child in the nursery which includes where to access our policies and procedures, important information and the Safeguarding Policy,  Terms and Conditions, Child Registration Forms and other relevant permission forms are all acknowledged in the app

Communication is made about daily routines, incidents and events through our parent app and on occasions as and when appropriate via other means such as telephone, email or in person.

Hafan Hael Bettws has a comprehensive complaints procedure that refers to informal, formal and concurrent complaints. This is made available to view by parents and carers in their welcome documentation on registration and by staff in their induction book.

We welcome all feedback both good or bad and request feedback regularly from both parents and carers and staff.

It is important to us that any concerns or issues are communicated immediately. This can be reported to any member staff that will log the information and report to the person in charge.

This will then be investigated, and appropriate action will be taken. All parties will be kept inform of action taken and the end outcome.

CIW will be informed of any serious complaint and will be informed of the outcome. CIW can be contacted directly by service users to express views and inform them about a complaint

Contact details for the CIW:

To raise a concern:

● Phone : 0300 7900 126

● Email : CIW@gov.wales

● Write to CIW:

Care Inspectorate Wales

Welsh Government

Sarn Mynach

Llandudno Junction

LL31 9RZ

Upon discovering a fire or other emergency that would cause us to leave the building immediately, the person who discovered it must calmly raise the alarm by pressing the nearest Manual Call Point.

They then must immediately evacuate the building under guidance of the Nursery Manager and following the evacuation procedures. Our emergency evacuation procedures are clearly displayed in the premises and explained to new members of staff, visitors, volunteers and parents. Please ask to see our Fire Safety and Emergency Evacuation Procedure for more information.

This Statement of Purpose will be reviewed annually, or sooner when new legislation comes into force or new circumstances apply that could lead to a change in our service.

We will inform the CIW of any changes to our service wherever practicable at least 28 days before