Leaping Lambs Nursery Ltd nurseries shut down in Bristol following Ofsted concerns

A number of nurseries across the Bristol area have shut following an Ofsted investigation over safeguarding concerns.

Leaping Lambs Nursery Ltd notified Ofsted last Friday (September 2) that it would be resigning its registration before investigations concluded.

The group’s registration was suspended on August 12 after Ofsted revealed children ‘may be at risk of harm’.

All five nurseries run by the organisation have now had their registered childcare provider status removed and will remain closed.

These include Caterpillars Day Nursery in Bath, Broadland Bears and Leaping Lambs in Keynsham, Leaping Lambs Forest School in Willsbridge and Leaping Lambs nursery on Bath Road, Swineford.

In a statement Leaping Lambs Nursery Ltd said: "I can confirm that this provider has resigned their registration with Ofsted."

An anonymous parent said: "This has come as a massive shock to all of us. We are all now left struggling to find a new provider with other nurseries in the area having long waiting lists.

"Our three-year-old has lots of friends he is unable to say goodbye to and the whole thing feels fairly insensitive to the needs of our children.

"Our son was thriving at Leaping Lambs so this is very disappointing news indeed. Particularly as we have only been told it's a safeguarding issue and given no further details."

In a letter Ofsted revealed that the organisation resigned its registration before investigations were complete.

It said: “Concerns that the provider was not meeting legal requirements were identified in a visit on August 10.

"We also suspended the provider's registration on August 12 because we believe children may be at risk of harm. Suspension allows time for the provider to take steps to reduce or eliminate the risk of harm to children.

"The provider has a right to appeal against a suspension. The provider may not provide childcare for which registration is required while the suspension is in place and may commit an offence if they do so.

"On August 31 we carried out a regulatory visit. The purpose of the visit was to check whether the provider had met the safeguarding and welfare actions raised.

"We found that although they demonstrated that they had met some of the actions, we needed to gather further information from the provider. Before we were able to gather this additional information, the provider notified us on September 2 of their wish to resign their registration.

"Consequently, we lifted the suspension to allow us to resign their registration. They are no longer a registered childcare provider."

Parents from the nurseries have said that the issue has caused a great deal of stress.