Ofsted visit closes First for Childcare York temporarily

First for Childcare - York in Audax Close at Clifton Moor on the outskirts of the city, formerly known as Happy Jays, sent a letter home to parents on Thursday (November 7) informing them of the closure.

They say that there has been a subsequent change of leadership at the York site and they are working with Ofsted.

It says: "Sadly we are having to close next week as we have had a visit from Ofsted.

"Some actions were provided by the local authority some weeks ago, that no one outside the setting knew about and only discovered yesterday.

"Because we have not completed these directives we will have to close to complete them.

"Ofsted have been very supportive as they know that we didn't know anything about this.

"We have already started these and it's things we already know how to do as it's standard practice."

The nursery has offered parents places at one of their other sites in Harrogate with the possibility of using a minibus to transport the children there next week.

The nursery was last inspected in June last year when it was rated as 'good' having previously been rated 'inadequate'.

At that point there were 31 children on roll with a capacity for 57.

Ofsted sat that the nursery employed seven members of childcare staff of these, one held qualified teacher status, one held an appropriate early years qualification at level 6, three members of staff held qualifications at level 3 and two members of staff were unqualified. 

The nursery is open normally from Monday to Friday, all year round with sessions are from 7.30am to 6pm and they provide funded early education for two, three and four-year-old children.

First for Childcare - York, formerly Happy Jays, has closed temporarily (Image: Newsquest)