We are very proud of our Ofsted reports and are always striving to be an Outstanding setting. We are currently rated ‘Good’ and are working tirelessly every day in our goal to be an ‘Outstanding’ setting.
We believe that quality is a result of constant evaluation and improvement in working practices at all times. Quality as Standard is a quality assurance system that was used by the City Council to help settings evaluate and discuss the practices used and where possible improve upon them.
Stepping Stones was proud to be the first setting to achieve this accreditation in the city and feel that the whole setting benefitted from the teamwork involved in working together and discussing practices and looking for ways to work through action plans and improve the outcomes for everyone involved.
We are proud to have been awarded a 5 out of 5 for Food Hygiene. The scheme is run by local authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in partnership with the Food Standards Agency. Each business is given a ‘hygiene rating’ when it is inspected by a food safety officer from the business’s local authority. The hygiene rating shows how closely the business is meeting the requirements of food hygiene law.
In 2017 Stepping Stones became the Harley Jae Trusts first ever charity business supporter. Stepping Stones makes a monthly donation to the trust and we also hold 3+ fundraising events for them across our nursery academic year.
NDNA The National Day Nursery Association is a body who represent the childcare settings on a national basis and work to lobby the government to make sure all settings concerns are represented. We have been members of this association since opening and attend many meetings and seminars to keep up to date with relevant issues and give our views on subjects that may affect our ability to provide services and how it could effect children’s care the parents and the nursery.
FSB The Federation of Small Business is an organisation which helps to support independent business and lobby government on issues that can affect employers and employees rights. We are proud to be a member of this organisation and have been since we opened in 2000. We have grown from 3 employees and 6 children to 29 staff and over 100 children since then and have used the services of the FSB many times and found them to be very helpful in keeping us informed of any new rules and regulations that have come into place that could affect our business and the services we provide.
