Blossoms Home Based Childcare

Education institution number:
47265
Service type:
Homebased Network
Definition:
Not Applicable
Total roll:
35
Telephone:
Address:

28a Mc Artney Street, Blenheim

View on map

Blossoms Home Based Childcare

ERO’s Akanuku | Assurance Review reports provide information about whether a service meets and maintains regulatory standards. Further information about Akanuku | Assurance Reviews is included at the end of this report.

ERO’s Judgement

Regulatory standards

ERO’s judgement

Curriculum

Meeting

Premises and facilities

Meeting

Health and safety

Meeting

Governance, management and administration

Meeting

Since the onsite visit, the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed non-compliances and is now taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.

Background

Blossoms Homebased Childcare is a privately owned and operated service. Two visiting teachers have oversight of educators’ homes. Educators are located in the wider Marlborough district. A small number of Māori learners and children of Pacific heritages attend the service. This is the second review of this service.

Summary of Review Findings

Children participate in a range of experiences and opportunities in educators’ homes and in the wider community that enhance and extend their learning and development. Educators and coordinators demonstrate an understanding of children’s learning and development. Educators’ homes have equipment and materials that are appropriate for the learning, abilities, and ages of the children attending. Regular opportunities are provided for parents to communicate with educators and coordinators about their children.

An ongoing process of self-review and internal evaluation is in place. Leaders have introduced systems to better monitor health and safety practices in educators’ homes to ensure these meet the requirements of the regulatory standards.

Key Next Steps

Next steps include:

  • increasing the visibility of children’s cultures and languages in their assessment documentation

  • engaging with whānau Māori to define what educational success looks like for their children in this context.

Compliance

During the review, the service provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliance:

  • Ensuring that parents are advised how to access information concerning their child (GMA1).

Since the onsite visit, the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliances:

  • Ensuring the procedure for monitoring children’s sleep is consistently implemented, including recording of the time children sleep and checks for warmth, breathing and general wellbeing at least every 10 to 15 minutes (HS8).

  • Ensuring hazards to the safety of children are eliminated, isolated or minimised (HS11).

  • Having a written procedure for safety checking all children’s workers before employment or engagement of the worker commences that meets the safety checking requirements of the Children's Act 2014 (GMA6A).

Next ERO Review

The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.

Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)

11 July 2023

Information About the Service

Early Childhood Service Name

Blossoms Home Based Childcare

Profile Number

47265

Location

Blenheim

Service type

Home-based service

Number licensed for

80 children, including up to 50 aged under 2

Service roll

42

Review team on site

June 2023

Date of this report

11 July 2023

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review, April 2019

General Information about Assurance Reviews

All services are licensed under the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008. The legal requirements for early childhood services also include the Licensing Criteria for Education and Care Services 2008.

Services must meet the standards in the regulations and the requirements of the licensing criteria to gain and maintain a licence to operate.

ERO undertakes an Akanuku | Assurance Review process in any centre-based service:

  • having its first ERO review – including if it is part of a governing organisation

  • previously identified as ‘not well placed’ or ‘requiring further development’

  • that has moved from a provisional to a full licence

  • that have been re-licenced due to a change of ownership

  • where an Akanuku | Assurance Review process is determined to be appropriate.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

All early childhood services are required to promote children’s health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements. Before the review, the staff and management of a service completed an ERO Centre Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist. In these documents they attested that they have taken all reasonable steps to meet their legal obligations related to:

  • curriculum

  • premises and facilities

  • health and safety practices

  • governance, management and administration.

As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO assesses whether the regulatory standards are being met. In particular, ERO looks at a service’s systems for managing the following areas that have a potentially high impact on children's wellbeing:

  • emotional safety (including positive guidance and child protection)

  • physical safety (including supervision; sleep procedures; accidents; medication; hygiene; excursion policies and procedures)

  • suitable staffing (including qualification levels; safety checking; teacher certification; ratios)

  • relevant evacuation procedures and practices.

As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:

  • discussions with those involved in the service

  • consideration of relevant documentation, including the implementation of health and safety systems

  • observations of the environment/premises, curriculum implementation and teaching practice.

Blossoms Home Based Childcare - 10/04/2019

1 Evaluation of Blossoms Home Based Childcare

How well placed is Blossoms Home Based Childcare to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

Not well placed

Requires further development

Well placed

Very well placed

Blossoms Home Based Childcare is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.

ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.

Background

Blossoms Homebased Childcare was established in July 2017 and is a privately run and owner-operated service. This service is located in Blenheim and covers the greater Marlborough region.

The service operates as a standard home-based network. It offers families personalised caregiving for their children within a small group setting for up to four children, including a maximum of two children under two years of age. Infants, toddlers and young children are cared for either in their own home or in the educator's home. A maximum of four children are cared for in each home.

The service's philosophy is based on safe, secure and trusting relationships and links to Te Whāriki, the NZ Early Childhood Curriculum, and the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

This is the first ERO review for this service.

The Review Findings

Blossoms Home Based Childcare's vision and philosophy are clearly articulated by the owner and are evident in practice and in documentation. The owner is a qualified early childhood teacher who is passionate about homebased childcare.

The owner undertakes regular visits to educators' homes. She provides specific detailed support and guidance to promote children's wellbeing and learning. Educators receive regular feedback during visits to guide them in their planning and assessment and to foster positive outcomes for children. The owner has employed a coordinator, who will commence in February, to assist her with the visits to educators' homes.

There are good levels of communication between educators and whānau and evidence of strong relationships. Whānau are actively involved in different aspects of the programme. There are a number of opportunities for parents/whānau to contribute to their children's learning. There is a strong focus on increasing parent contributions to their child's learning.

Children benefit from a wide range of interesting and engaging learning experiences. They have many opportunities to engage in social interactions with other children, both in the homes of educators and in the larger social group events that are organised through Blossoms Home Based Childcare.

The owner and educators notice and effectively respond to children's interests. They personalise learning to meet the individualised needs of each child. The owner and educators make good use of Te Whāriki in their planning and assessment. Records of children's learning show their development and progression over time.

Key Next Steps

The key priorities for Blossoms Home Based Childcare are to strengthen and streamline governance and management systems. This includes:

  • further developing internal evaluation to include depth and the use of current research to improve learning outcomes for children

  • strengthening partnerships with whānau

  • extending strategic planning and annual goals to clearly identify priorities.

The licensee has identified, and ERO confirms, that there is a need to continue to extend recognition of Māori language, culture and identity within the service.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Blossoms Home Based Childcare completed an ERO Home-based Education and Care Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist. In these documents they attested that they have taken all reasonable steps to meet their legal obligations related to:

  • curriculum
  • premises and facilities
  • health and safety practices
  • governance, management and administration.

During the review, ERO looked at the service’s systems for managing the following areas that have a potentially high impact on children's wellbeing:

  • emotional safety (including positive guidance and child protection)

  • physical safety (including supervision; sleep procedures; accidents; medication; hygiene; excursion policies and procedures)

  • suitable staffing (including qualification levels; police vetting; teacher registration; ratios)

  • evacuation procedures and practices for fire and earthquake.

All early childhood services are required to promote children's health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements.

The owner must ensure that the ratio for excursions, as stated in the service policy, is maintained [Licensing Criteria for Home-Based Education and Care Services HS14].

During the onsite stage of the review, ERO found that the service's appraisal process did not meet the expectations of the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand. Since that time, the owner has provided extra evidence to ERO that shows the service's appraisal process is now compliant. The service should embed the new appraisal process into its programmes and practices.

Alan Wynyard

Director Review and Improvement Services

Southern Region

10 April 2019

The Purpose of ERO Reports

The Education Review Office (ERO) is the government department that, as part of its work, reviews early childhood services throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. ERO’s reports provide information for parents and communities about each service’s strengths and next steps for development. ERO’s bicultural evaluation framework Ngā Pou Here is described in SECTION 3 of this report. Early childhood services are partners in the review process and are expected to make use of the review findings to enhance children's wellbeing and learning.

2 Information about the Home-based Education and Care Service

Location

Blenheim

Ministry of Education profile number

47265

Institution type

Homebased Network

Licensed under

Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008

Number licensed for

80 children, including up to 80 aged under 2

Service roll

41

Standard or Quality Funded

Standard

Gender composition

Boys 18 ; Girls 23

Ethnic composition

Māori
Pākehā
Other ethnicities

6
32
3

Number of qualified coordinators in the network

1

Required ratios of staff educators to children

Under 2

1:2

Over 2

1:4

Review team on site

January 2019

Date of this report

10 April 2019

Most recent ERO report(s)

No previous ERO reports

3 General Information about Early Childhood Reviews

ERO’s Evaluation Framework

ERO’s overarching question for an early childhood education review is ‘How well placed is this service to promote positive learning outcomes for children?’ ERO focuses on the following factors as described in the bicultural framework Ngā Pou Here:

Pou Whakahaere – how the service determines its vision, philosophy and direction to ensure positive outcomes for children

Pou Ārahi – how leadership is enacted to enhance positive outcomes for children

Mātauranga – whose knowledge is valued and how the curriculum is designed to achieve positive outcomes for children

Tikanga whakaako – how approaches to teaching and learning respond to diversity and support positive outcomes for children.

Within these areas ERO considers the effectiveness of arotake – self review and of whanaungatanga – partnerships with parents and whānau.

ERO evaluates how well placed a service is to sustain good practice and make ongoing improvements for the benefit of all children at the service.

A focus for the government is that all children, especially priority learners, have an opportunity to benefit from quality early childhood education. ERO will report on how well each service promotes positive outcomes for all children, with a focus on children who are Māori, Pacific, have diverse needs, and are up to the age of two.

For more information about the framework and Ngā Pou Here refer to the draft methodology for ERO reviews in Home-based Education and Care Services: July 2014

ERO’s Overall Judgement

The overall judgement that ERO makes will depend on how well the service promotes positive learning outcomes for children. The categories are:

  • Very well placed

  • Well placed

  • Requires further development

  • Not well placed

ERO has developed criteria for each category. These are available on ERO’s website.

Review Coverage

ERO reviews are tailored to each service’s context and performance, within the overarching review framework. The aim is to provide information on aspects that are central to positive outcomes for children and useful to the service.