Ofsted savage Fit For Sport holiday camp run at Boundary Oak School in Fareham for putting 'children at risk of harm’

The Fit For Sport holiday club run at Boundary Oak School in Fareham was forced to close in the middle of the day last month after an unannounced Ofsted inspection found a ‘lack of supervision’ on site.

Inspectors said there were concerns about staffing numbers at the time of the visit. Fit for Sport is a national company that only rents space at the school, and is not connected to it in any other way.

Ofsted has since said the camp can reopen.

It was heavily criticised by inspectors.

The Ofsted report, which has just been published, said: ‘Although most children enjoy themselves and have fun, their safety and wellbeing is compromised. At times, there are insufficient staff to supervise children adequately.

‘This includes times when children eat and during higher risk activities, such as active games in the woods. In addition, staff are often not consistently deployed among the children to meet their needs and keep them safe.

‘Sometimes, children were observed not being directly supervised by staff for short periods of time. This puts children at potential risk of harm.

‘On occasion, children's emotional wellbeing is inconsistently supported. This is partly because there are not enough staff to support young children's needs. Some staff recognise children's needs, such as when they play alone.

‘They encourage children to join in with others of a similar age. This helps to promote friendships between children. However, at other times, not all staff are quick to recognise when children start to become upset, to offer them timely support.’

The report went on to say how ‘children spent long periods of time in free play’ and ‘staff interactions with children were limited’.

It added: ‘As a result, children were mainly left to entertain themselves. During structured activities, children receive positive encouragement and praise from staff.

‘However, some children do not maintain their interest in free-play and structured activities well. This led to some children's behaviour deteriorating.’

The inspection in August came after reports of three separate medical incidents across the year in which one child damaged a tooth, another endured a fractured wrist and a third incident where a child went to A&E with a fracture.

Inspectors had said there were concerns about staffing numbers, with only two teachers and three activity leaders looking after 52 children.

The camp offers Monday-to-Friday day sessions in school holidays for children aged four to 12.

A welfare requirement notice was handed to the provider with a number of actions to take to address shortcomings. These included implementing effective risk assessments to identify potential hazards, and appropriate behaviour management strategies that enable children to understand the rules.

A spokesperson for Ofsted said last Friday: ‘I can confirm this setting’s registration is active again and it can open.’

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Speaking to The News last month Craig Jones, Fit for Sport’s chief operating officer, said: ‘Unfortunately, Ofsted found our level of supervision at the camp wasn't sufficient at all times.

‘They felt we were putting the children at risk so they wanted us to temporarily close to make sure we put in place improved measures regarding staffing levels.

‘It was our level of management and deployment of staff on the day which was poor. We had to call the parents to collect [the children].’