AN INVESTIGATION has been conducted after a child left a playgroup unsupervised.

Education watchdog Ofsted made an unannounced visit to Happy Faces Playgroup, based at The Liddell Hall, in Old Reading Road, Sherfield-on-Loddon following the incident last Wednesday.

In a report published on Saturday, Ofsted said it had been notified that a child left the premises unsupervised and discussed with the provider any actions taken since.

It added: “We found that the provider had increased the number of adults present on some sessions and introduced additional head counts of children during the day.

“When the inspector arrived at the setting the measures that had been put in place to make the outside area secure were inadequate in preventing a child leaving the provision.”

The inspector spoke about ways of making the outside space more secure.

However, Ofsted found Happy Faces had “failed to undertake a comprehensive risk assessment following the incident, in order to identify exactly how the child was able to leave the provision unsupervised and then taken steps to prevent such an incident reoccurring in the future.”

Happy Faces also failed to notify Ofsted within 14 days of “changes to persons comprising the registered person.” A warning letter has been issued.

Ofsted found the playgroup was not always recording children’s daily hours of attendance.

Following the investigation, Ofsted issued Happy Faces with a welfare requirement notice with various actions to improve.

Happy Faces, which is a registered charity, offers care and education for pre-school children aged two to five and is managed by an elected committee.

When asked about the incident by The Gazette, Stephanie Pearce, a member of the committee, said: “It’s not something we are prepared to discuss.”

She added: “We have taken all the necessary precautions that we need to and we are dealing with Ofsted.”