A Holme Valley playgroup has failed to meet its legal requirements.

Hepworth Playgroup and Pre School, based in the Village Hall, has been judged to be Inadequate. In 2010 it was rated as Good.

Inspector Nicola Dickinson has ruled that the 31-child playgroup has not met the compulsory part of the Childcare Register, following her concerns about safeguarding.

Her report said: “The provider (Hepworth Playgroup and Pre-School Committee) does not ensure new staff fully understand safeguarding procedures. In particular, some staff are not clear about how to report concerns about another adult in the setting.

“This means children are not fully protected.

“Systems for sharing information between key persons are not effective. As a result, staff are not knowledgeable about children’s individual learning needs and do not offer children good levels of support.

“Children do not enjoy purposeful and challenging learning experiences that are supported by good quality teaching.

A very bad Ofsted report for Hepworth playgroup and pre-school, based at Hepworth village hall.

“Performance management is not sufficient to ensure children’s good progress is promoted through consistently high quality teaching.”

The inspector added that children do build secure relationships which help them to be emotionally prepared for the transition to school.

She ordered the playgroup to: “Train all staff on the written statement of procedures to be followed to safeguard children from abuse or neglect.”

The playgroup has been going for over 34 years and is run by a voluntary committee. It will now be monitored and revisited by Ofsted within the next six months.