RECENT inspections of preschools across the district have raised concerns about how children are safeguarded.

But Bradford Council says procedures are in place to help nurseries improve.

Dradishaw House in Silsden is the latest early years provider to be rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted inspectors, with issues relating to safeguarding a major sticking point. The private nursery was visited in August and the rating published last week.

It said staff had “very limited knowledge and understanding of the signs and symptoms of abuse, and have not had appropriate safeguard training”.

Manager, Claire Halliday, said almost immediately after the inspection, staff corrected any mistakes highlighted, and she is confident the nursery would not be found ‘inadequate’ now.

She added: “Things were fixed in a matter of days.

“Things went wrong on the day of the inspection, and it can sometimes depend on the inspector and what they focus on. It is hard to know what they want – a lot of the time it is guesswork until you get a report like this.”

Bradford Council’s director of children’s services, Michael Jameson, said: “Our early childhood services have a quality support team that works with childcare settings across the district that Ofsted deems ‘inadequate’ or requires improvement.”