Ofsted confirmed to Nursery World that Leaping Lambs, which operated five nurseries within Bristol and Somerset, has resigned its registration.
The nursery group decided to resign its registration before Ofsted’s investigations concluded.
Local reports suggest that the nursery group’s owners have liquidated the business as they could not afford to keep the settings afloat while Ofsted continued its investigation into safeguarding concerns. However, the business is currently still listed as ‘active’ on Companies House.
Leaping Lambs registration was suspended on 12 August after Ofsted found that children ‘may be at risk of harm’.
It followed a regulatory visit the day before (11 August) when the inspectorate found that the provider was ‘not meeting some of the requirements.’ It served the provider a ‘welfare requirements notice’, setting out actions that the provider must take by 9 September, including:
- Ensure children are adequately supervised.
- Ensure all staff have up-to-date knowledge of safeguarding issues.
- Ensure signs of possible abuse and neglect are responded to in a timely and appropriate way.
- Develop staff knowledge of what constitutes physical intervention and its appropriate use.
On 31 August, Ofsted carried out a regulatory visit to check the provider had met the safeguarding and welfare actions raised. The inspectorate found that although the provider had met some of the actions, they needed to gather further information.
Before Ofsted was able to gather this additional information, the provider notified the inspectorate on 2 September 2022, of their wish to resign its registration. Consequently, the inspectorate lifted the suspension to allow it to resign its registration. Leaping Lambs is no longer a registered childcare provider.
