A Littleport pre school playgroup, which slumped from ‘good’ to ‘inadequate’ in less than 18 months has been warned that safety and welfare has not been good enough at the setting and teaching has been weak.

Busy Bees is taking steps to raise it back up to the ‘good’ rating it was given by Ofsted in November 2015.

Inspector Elke Rockey visited the Grange Lane setting at the end of March and found that the nursery was “not effectively managed.”

She said: “Not all adults who have access to children have been fully vetted.

“Children’s safety and welfare is compromised because procedures for checking and vetting committee and staff to ensure their suitability are not robust.

“Additionally information about children is not handled appropriately.

“The management committee does not ensure that the managers and staff are ill equipped to fulfil their roles and responsibilities of working with children effectively.

“This has a negative impact on the children’s learning and care needs.”

The only positive from the entire report was that children spend time outside in the fresh air daily to explore a range of games like a mud pit and tunnels at the setting, which has been firmly established in the village since 1992.

Ms Rockey said: “Staff do not always have good knowledge of children’s abilities.

“Teaching is not well matched to their needs to help them to make progress relevant to their individual abilities.

“Staff are not deployed effectively throughout play sessions to engage children in meaningful activities that progress their learning.”

She added: “Staff do not implement strategies that are in place to help children gain an understanding of acceptable behaviour.”

The report asked for proof that it was meeting all of the required standards by the end of last month.

A spokesman for Busy Bees said: “There have been a number of challenging issues over the last academic year which the setting management team have been addressing.

“We are working with the local authority and have already urgently actioned some of the improvements recommended by OFSTED.

“The safety and wellbeing of the children is of the upmost importance to us and our priority will be to improve all areas which have been highlighted to ensure that these are addressed appropriately.”

• In October 2016 the playgroup closed and parents were told to collect their children as it would be shut until half term. At the time a spokesman said it was nothing to be concerned about and was just a case of meeting statutory requirements.