Thrive Childcare and Education Musselburgh Nature Kindergarten
Recorded Key Question grade range: 3–4 — Adequate View on Care Inspectorate
Key Question scores
Requirements & recommendations
1. By 18th December 2025 the provider must ensure that all children have a personal plan which sets out how their individual needs will be met, as well as their wishes and choices. To do this, the provider and staff must, at a minimum: a) ensure that staff understand the purpose of personal plans and are familiar with Care Inspectorate guidance 'Guide for Providers on Personal Planning, Early Learning and Childcare;' b) ensure that personal plans are written and regularly reviewed with children and families, at least every six months, and when necessary, to ensure that information is up to date to reflect children's current needs, wishes and choices. c) ensure detailed support strategies and next steps are in place, regularly reviewed and used by staff to sensitively and effectively support children. This is to comply with Regulation 5(2)(b)(c) (Personal Plans) of The Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (Requirements for Care Services) Regulations 20
1. To support improved outcomes for children, the service should strengthen monitoring and evaluation approaches. This should ensure identified areas for improvement are systematically implemented and reviewed. The impact on children's care, play and learning should be clearly demonstrated. This should include, but not be limited to, personal planning, planning for children's learning, the quality of children's experiences and environments, leadership roles and professional learning. This is to ensure that care and support is consistent with the Health and Social Care Standards (HSCS) which state that: 'I benefit from a culture of continuous improvement, with the organisation having robust and transparent quality assurance processes' (HSCS 4.19)
1. Leaders and staff should ensure children have consistent access to a wide range of high-quality resources and experiences across playrooms and outdoor spaces to support engagement, play, learning and development. This should include but not limited to: a) Using best practice guidance to support high-quality play experiences. b) Providing stimulating resources and provocations that promote curiosity, exploration and learning. c) Ensuring preschool children have access to core provision resources throughout the environment. d) Further developing outdoor spaces to provide rich and varied play and learning opportunities This is to ensure that care and support is consistent with the Health and Social Care Standards (HSCS), which state: 'I experience high quality care and support based on relevant evidence, guidance and best practice' (HSCS 4.11) and ‘As a child, I can direct my own play and activities in the way that I choose, and freely access a wide range of experiences and reso2. To support children's play, learning and development, staff should develop more consistent, responsive interactions across the setting. This should include making effective use of open-ended questions, sustained shared thinking and responding to children's verbal and non-verbal cues to extend learning and engagement, informed by best practice guidance such as The Voice of the Infant (Scottish Government, 2023) and Realising the Ambition (Education Scotland, 2020). This is to ensure that care and support is consistent with the Health and Social Care Standards (HSCS), which state: ‘I experience high quality care and support based on relevant evidence, guidance and best practice’ (HSCS 4.11) and ‘3.16 People have time to support and care for me and to speak with me’ (HSCS 3.16)
3. To effectively deliver high quality play and learning experiences, leaders should support staff to develop their skills in planning for and observing play. This should include but is not limited to: a) completing meaningful high-quality observations linked to children’s development. b) Implement the use of tracking systems to monitor children’s progress over time and identify next steps that support clear progression in learning and development. c) Strengthen planning for children’s play and learning to ensure it is informed by children’s observations, interests, stages of development and next steps. This is to ensure that care and support is consistent with the Health and Social Care Standards (HSCS), which state: ‘As a child, my social and physical skills, confidence, self-esteem and creativity are developed through a balance of organised and freely chosen extended play, including using open ended and natural materials’ (HSCS 1.31) This is to ensure care and support is consistent with the Health and Social Care standards (HSCS) which state that “Any treatment or intervention that I experience is safe and effective” (HSCS 1.24)