POSITIVE change has been introduced at a West Linton children’s day centre where previously inspectors had found a “culture of mistrust” at management level.

Newlands Kids, based at the Newlands Centre at Romanno Bridge, is registered to provide a learning and child care service to a maximum of 52 children from two years to the end of primary school.

Representatives of the Care Inspectorate paid an unannounced visit to the facility on October 3 last year, returning on October 5.

A number of required improvements were identified with the service rated ‘weak’ in three areas – care, play and learning, its leadership and its staff team. It received a rating of ‘adequate’ for its setting.

The service was required to ensure that interactions between staff and children are “warm, caring and nurturing”, that the manager and staff develop their child protection knowledge to keep children safe, develop systems to ensure families feel valued and that children’s play and learning opportunities are enhanced.

The inspection did recognise that the service was passionate about growing its own produce, ensuring that food choices were nutritious.

However, the report raised concern that child protection procedures had not been correctly followed, increasing the risk to children’s safety and well-being.

Two inspectors from the Care Inspectorate paid a follow-up unannounced visit to the facility on February 5.

They found that the service had brought about positive change and improvement that were “having a positive impact on outcome for children and families”.

Children’s play spaces had been developed with resources that reflected their current interests and created new play and learning opportunities.

The service has now been rated ‘adequate’ in the three areas previously deemed ‘weak’.

The report adds: “Children experienced kind, caring, warm interactions from staff who knew them well. The staff had worked hard to bring about positive changes and make improvements across the service.”