BOSSES have spoken of their upset after a Padiham nursery was downgraded to 'inadequate' by an education watchdog.

Safeguarding arrangements were branded 'ineffective' at the Adventure Tots Children's Nursery based in Chapel House, Victoria Road.

The nursery, which has been in the town for 17 years, dropped from 'good' to 'inadequate' after an Ofsted inspection.

The management and staff were blasted for not identifying potential risks to children while teaching was described as 'variable' and particularly weak for those under 30 months.

Inspector Joanne Parrington said: "The provider and manager have not implemented effective procedures to ensure children are safe when left unsupervised during sleep time.

"Staff use viewing windows to check on the children as they sleep. However, when children wake up early staff fail to notice this and children are able to explore the room freely."

In comments disputed by the nursery, she said youngsters access cupboard drawers and play with the 'contents of a

drawstring bag' which places children at 'significant risk of

potential harm, including from choking'.

She said staff are not supporting children's personal development, behaviour and welfare to a good standard, however praised the learning environment for older children and the healthy meals.

Maureen Leaver, one of the partners at the nursery which has 68 children on its role, said they were very upset.

She said: "We have been under the same management for 17 years and have always been rated as good.

"We have made a formal complaint to Ofsted about the conduct of the inspection. Some of it is factually inaccurate but we do accept there are things we need to improve.

"We have already dealt with the safety concerns and we had already recognised we needed to work on improving the learning and standards for younger children.

"The parents have been magnificent. They have been very supportive and have spoken to us about how much they disagree with the report."

She said some of the issues may stem from when they extended their provision to include older children.