BY JACKIE MACKENZIE
A Portree nursery has been told to improve quality assurance, safeguarding and recruitment processes to ensure the safety of children in its care.
Portree Nursery Ltd in Camanachd Square was visited by the Care Inspectorate in October when it evaluated its leadership, children’s play and learning, and how well youngsters were supported.
The Care Inspectorate marked the leadership as “weak” and said while some advances had been made since the previous inspection, key areas for improvement remained unmet.
The inspection report stated: “Quality assurance processes needed further work to support consistently high standards of care and safety for children.
“Accident audits had highlighted an increase in bumps and falls in the baby room since August, and some positive steps had been taken to address this, demonstrating a responsive approach to children’s safety and wellbeing. However, quality assurance processes had not identified gaps in a number of areas, including: safer recruitment practices, child protection procedures and infection prevention and control.
As a result, some children had not consistently experienced the high-quality care needed to support their safety, wellbeing and positive experiences in the setting.”
The inspector found that while the nursery had taken steps to strengthen child protection procedures, they were not implemented consistently to ensure children’s safety.
“A protection concern was not appropriately followed up and required notifications were not made until prompted by the inspector,” said the report.
Children’s play and learning was assessed as being “satisfactory/adequate”.
Play and learning experiences in the baby room would benefit from improvement. Across both playrooms, children had very limited access to outdoor play, despite their clear interest in the natural environment visible through the windows.
he nursery’s support for children was judged as being “good” and children experienced warm, consistent care that supported their wellbeing and helped them feel secure.
The report noted: “Children’s wellbeing was supported through effective personal planning that was tailored to each child’s individual strengths and care needs. Families were actively involved in regular reviews of these plans, helping to ensure consistency in care.”
Some families commented: “All the staff are incredibly nurturing and caring and have really helped my child settle in over the last year,” and “The relationship with the staff is a strength. Our child is always very happy to go to nursery and has clearly formed a strong attachment with a number of staff,”.
All families who responded to a Care Inspectorate survey strongly agreed or agreed with the statement: ‘I am fully involved in my child’s care, including developing and reviewing their personal plan,’.
As a result, said the inspectorate, children received consistent, responsive care that supported their development and sense of security.
The Care Inspectorate has made one requirement for the nursery – by 6th February 2026, to keep children safe, the provider must put effective systems in place to ensure that only staff who are appropriately registered with a professional body carry out work in the service in a post for which registration is required.