NURSERY school children’s safety was put at risk by ‘inadequate’ working practices including not checking whether new staff had criminal records, a damning report said.

Education inspectorate Ofsted visited Dar Ul Madinah nursery in Granville Road, Blackburn, last month and found staff at the facility did not do enough to ensure the safety of children.

Inspector Denise Farrington said the provider, which is privately run, does not conduct its own Disclosure and Barring Service checks when employing new staff.

This means people with criminal convictions making them unsuitable to work with children could have been employed by the school, although there was no suggestion that was the case.

Ms Farrington added: “Procedures for risk assessment are not robust.

"Staff do not fully understand or fulfil their responsibility to risk-assess all areas that children use.

“They do not identify all possible risks or take appropriate steps to ensure children remain safe.

“Weakness and instability in the leadership and management of the pre-school have resulted in breaches of the statutory requirements which impact on the safety of children.

“The arrangements for safeguarding are not effective. Staff do not check all areas that children use for possible risks and fail to take appropriate steps to ensure children’s safety.

“Although the provider obtains DBS checks from staff’s previous employers, they do not conduct their own checks to robustly asses staff suitability.”

The nursery and governors were approached for a comment but did not reply.

The pre-school opened in 2015 and employs five members of staff and provides funded early years education for three and four-year-old children.

The facility has space for 50 children and there are currently 30 registered.

A number of key steps required for the pre-school to meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage and the Childcare Register have been laid out.

By tomorrow, steps must be taken to seek new DBS checks for all staff and take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of children in all areas of the building they are able to access.

Staff must be more closely monitored so that support and coaching are focused on improving their knowledge and skills to raise the quality of the practice.

Staff must be given the necessary knowledge and skills to manage children’s behaviour effectively.

During her visit, Ms Farrington observed the quality of teaching, assessed the impact on children’s learning and She completed a joint observation with the deputy manager and spoke with staff and children during the inspection.

A meeting was held with the head of the school and Ms Farrington looked at relevant documentation and evidence of the suitability of staff.

She also spoke with some parents and considered their views as part of the inspection.

The facility was last inspected in October 2016, when it was judged to require improvement.