Tops Day Nurseries - Portsmouth

Tops Day Nurseries - Portsmouth
Unique reference number (URN): EY281231
Address: Queen Alexandra Hospital, Southwick Hill Road, Cosham, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO6 3LY
Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises
Registered with Ofsted: 12/02/2004
Registers: EYR, CCR, VCR
Registered person: Tops Day Nursery Limited
Inspection report: 21 May 2026
Exceptional
Strong standard
Expected standard
Needs attention
Urgent improvement
Safeguarding standards met
The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for
governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open
culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively
identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, children are made safer and feel safe.
How we evaluate safeguarding
When we inspect settings for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:
Met: The setting has an open and positive culture of safeguarding.
Not met: The setting has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all
legal requirements are met.

Needs attention
Achievement Needs attention
Children make some progress from their starting points. However, older children, including
children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those that face other
barriers to learning and/or wellbeing, do not consistently secure new learning over time.
While some children participate and appear settled, others wander and do not engage in
activities. Children with SEND do not always receive enough support from staff to help them
communicate their needs and wants swiftly. They can become frustrated at this and
disengage from learning. As a result, not all children achieve as well as they could. This
does not consistently support children to progress to their next stage of learning.
Babies are settled and confident to move around their environment. They explore resources
and enjoy activities, demonstrating developing independence. Babies and children develop
their physical skills effectively. They move their bodies in different ways with growing
coordination and control. For example, babies use equipment to pull themselves up to
standing, and children navigate and learn how to go up and down steps. Babies and
children are generally happy and display secure attachments with the staff who care for
them. This supports children's personal, social and emotional development.
Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Needs attention
Leaders' and staff's expectations for children's behaviour and key routines are not
consistently implemented across all areas of the setting. For example, during routine
activities, such as tooth brushing, older children, including those with special educational
needs and/or disabilities and those that face other barriers to learning and/or wellbeing, are
not supported well enough to listen to instructions or understand how to behave.
Furthermore, during transitions such as mealtimes, staff do not always notice or respond to
children who need help to focus or follow instructions. At times, this impacts children's ability
to self-regulate their emotions and understand how to behave appropriately towards others.
Staff provide babies with clear and consistent routines. They support babies to feel settled
and secure, meeting their care needs while also establishing positive attitudes to learning.
For example, staff provide a calm experience for babies at mealtimes, where babies are
developing listening skills and an understanding of good manners. Leaders promote the
importance of attendance and follow up on absences, so children benefit from regular
experiences. However, some staff show a limited understanding about children whose
behaviour is being monitored. This means some patterns of behaviour are not identified as
quickly and effectively as they could be and therefore impacts the support children receive.
Generally, children are supported to feel settled and secure and form positive relationships
with staff. They enjoy taking part in play-based activities with their friends, where they are
supported to share. For example, children have fun playing in the outdoor environments,
where, generally, staff discuss with them what they are doing as they dig in the sand, build
with large blocks and take turns to ride bicycles.

Urgent improvement
Curriculum and teaching Needs attention
Leaders have designed a curriculum that they have a clear understanding of and know what
it is they want children to learn. However, they have not consistently supported staff to fully
understand the curriculum. Staff interactions are friendly and welcoming, and they support
children in their play. However, some staff, including those that are a key person, are unsure
of what children's next steps in learning are. Furthermore, staff do not sufficiently tailor their
teaching to children's different stages of development. Therefore, teaching does not always
build on what children already know and can do. This means that, at times, children,
including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those that face other
barriers to learning and/or wellbeing, are not consistently supported to make progress in
their learning and development.
Generally, staff support babies' and children's communication and language development.
For example, they ask children clear questions, pausing to give them time to respond, and
extend children's learning by introducing new words to their vocabulary. Staff support
children's basic early counting skills and encourage some mathematical language, such as
talking about shapes and sorting sizes during activities. Babies and children enjoy looking at
books. They develop a love of stories and sing familiar nursery rhymes.
Children's welfare and wellbeing Urgent improvement
Leaders do not ensure that staff maintain safe, consistent and responsive supervision of
children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those that
face other barriers to learning and/or wellbeing, resulting in significant weaknesses in
children's welfare and wellbeing.
Poor staff deployment and staff often being absorbed in tasks mean they do not consistently
respond when risks emerge, leaving children without the supervision they need. For
example, staff do not supervise children effectively when they are taking part in high-risk
play, including jumping from heights and using climbing equipment. They leave out
equipment, such as brooms, which fall near children and create trip hazards, exposing
children to harm. In addition, children enter confined spaces, such as role-play cupboards,
and struggle to get out due to their friends shutting them in. Staff do not identify this
promptly, causing children to become distressed, further highlighting gaps in staff vigilance
and awareness. Although staff sit with children at mealtimes, they fail to notice when
children jump up and down with fruit in their mouths. Staff do not recognise the potential
risks or respond appropriately, demonstrating weak risk awareness and inconsistent support
for children's safety. As a result, children are exposed to avoidable harm.
Staff do not promote safe and hygienic care routines. Handwashing is not consistently
supported. For example, children are asked to put their hands under running water, without
soap or drying them after. During snack time, some children put their hands in their cups
and play with their drinking water, then drink it out of their hands. Staff do not intervene
when children dispose used tissues back into the tissue box. Furthermore, staff do not

supervise tooth brushing effectively as children play with their and other children's
toothbrushes while waiting. This creates hygiene risks, increases the risk of cross-
contamination and limits opportunities to develop healthy habits. This does not help children
to know how to keep themselves safe and healthy.
Inclusion Urgent improvement
Children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those that face
other barriers to learning and/or wellbeing are not provided with focused support to enable
them to engage or develop skills. Leaders do not ensure that strategies put in place to
support children to engage in learning are understood and consistently used by staff. For
example, when children transition between rooms, strategies and resources are not shared.
Furthermore, staff do not support children who face barriers to learning to regulate their
emotions. For instance, they do not respond to children's cues or help them manage peer
interactions, leaving them, at times, to navigate social situations alone. This impacts the
progress children make and does not support children to develop essential social and
emotional skills.
Although leaders have training to support them in helping children with SEND and those that
face other barriers to learning and/or wellbeing, support for staff is ineffective. For example,
leaders share that they develop behaviour plans from written staff observations of children's
behaviour to identify additional support that children may need. However, they fail to identify
that these are ineffective as staff have a lack of understanding about their purpose. This
means that these procedures are not consistently embedded in practice and highlight gaps
in monitoring and awareness. As a result, children's needs are not always recognised or
responded to effectively.
Support for children who speak English as an additional language is ineffective, as leaders
fail to identify these children. Although staff are aware, they are unclear of what languages
children speak at home. Staff are not supported by leaders to create plans to begin to
narrow the gaps for these children. This lack of action towards meeting children's learning
needs, particularly communication and language, impacts the progress some children make.
Leadership and governance Urgent improvement
Leadership and governance are not effective. Leaders lack sufficient oversight of the setting,
which means they are unclear about the areas that need improvement. There are multiple
breaches of the statutory safeguarding and welfare requirements that impact children's
safety and progress, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities
(SEND) and those that face other barriers to learning and/or wellbeing. These breaches
highlight concerns around leaders' ability to make decisions based on ensuring children's full
safety and being able to sustain any improvements, as there are repeated failures in
meeting some of the statutory framework for the early years foundation stage requirements.
Leaders do not have effective systems in place for monitoring, coaching and supporting staff
to ensure that they are sufficiently supported to understand their roles and responsibilities.
They do not make sure that staff understand how to identify potential risks to children to
promote children's safety. Furthermore, leaders do not consistently ensure that the
supervision of children is effective. They pay insufficient regard to supporting staff to develop

their knowledge of targeted teaching to improve the quality of education and to help all
children, including those with SEND and those who face other barriers to learning and/or
wellbeing, to receive the quality interactions and targeted support they need to achieve.
Staff attend supervision meetings with leaders and discuss their wellbeing and workloads.
Leaders have built positive working relationships with children's families. Communication
between leaders and parents is regular, and leaders ensure that staff share information with
parents about the activities for children.
Compulsory Childcare Register requirements
This setting has not met the requirements of the compulsory part of the Childcare Register.
How we check if a provider meets the requirements of the Compulsory Childcare
Register
When we check if settings meet the Compulsory Childcare Register requirements, they can
have the following outcomes:
Met
Not met
Voluntary Childcare Register requirements
This setting has not met the requirements of the voluntary part of Childcare Register.
How we check if a provider meets the requirements of the Voluntary Childcare
Register
When we check if settings meet the Voluntary Childcare Register requirements, they can
have the following outcomes:
Met
Not met

What it's like to be a child at this setting
Weaknesses in leadership and governance affect the overall quality of care and learning
babies and children receive. Leaders have insufficient oversight of the quality of the
provision to tackle weaknesses. Deployment of staff and supervision of children continues to
be ineffective. There have been occasions when children do not experience adequate
supervision, and this compromises their welfare and wellbeing. Furthermore, leaders and
staff do not fully understand what constitutes a potential risk and, therefore, do not always
identify or remove hazards. Babies and children, including those with special educational
needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those that face other barriers to learning and/or
wellbeing, safety and welfare, are not fully assured at this setting.
Babies and children appear happy as staff warmly greet them as they arrive, helping them to
separate confidently from their parents. Leaders and staff monitor children's attendance and
communicate with families. However, the key-person approach is not effective in practice to
ensure that all children's individual needs, including children with SEND and those that face
other barriers to learning and/or wellbeing, are understood and met. Leaders and staff are
not clear on the strategies in place to support children with SEND and those that face other
barriers to learning. Therefore, these children do not consistently receive the support and
adaptations they need to enable them to make effective progress. This means they are not
well prepared for moving on to the next stage in their learning journey.
The curriculum does not give babies and children, including those with SEND and those
who face other barriers to learning and/or wellbeing, the best start in life. Leaders do not
always identify weaknesses in teaching effectively, such as staff having a lack of
understanding about children's next steps in learning. Therefore, children do not always
benefit from planned and purposeful teaching that helps them to build on what they know
and can do.
Babies and children receive praise and reassurance from staff who support them in a kind,
caring way. Most of the time, staff help babies and children to learn how to share and take
turns. However, children who struggle with behaviour expectations are not supported as well
as they could be. Inconsistencies in how staff support children's behaviour and routines
mean that children do not always receive clear, consistent guidance. This limits their
understanding of expectations and does not consistently support their attitudes to learning.
Next steps
The provider is not meeting the requirements of the Early years foundation stage and
Childcare Register and Ofsted intends to take enforcement action.
We will issue a Welfare Requirements Notice requiring the provider to have taken the
following actions by the assigned date:
Action Completion Date
ensure that risk assessments are robust, regularly
reviewed and implemented effectively to ensure that
05/06/2026

Action Completion Date
leaders and staff identify potential hazards and take
action to remove or minimise them
ensure that staffing arrangements consistently meet the
needs of all children, and staff are deployed effectively,
so that children are appropriately supervised at all times
to keep them safe
05/06/2026
ensure that all leaders demonstrate a clear knowledge
and understanding of their roles and responsibilities and
have sufficient oversight across the setting
05/06/2026
ensure that all staff receive effective supervision,
coaching and mentoring to identify training needs and
help them to fulfil their roles and responsibilities
05/06/2026
ensure that staff effectively support all children to
promote their safety and consistently develop good
hygiene practices
05/06/2026
strengthen the key-person system to ensure that staff
understand and support all children's individual needs
and next steps in learning
05/06/2026
ensure that effective arrangements are in place to
support children with special educational needs and/or
disabilities and those that face other barriers to
learning, including supporting staff to use agreed
strategies to ensure that children's individual needs are
met and their development is well supported
05/06/2026
To meet the requirements of the Early years foundation stage and Childcare Register the
provider must take the following action by the assigned date:
Action Completion Date
ensure that leaders and staff are consistent in their
approach to supporting children's behaviour and
establishing routines so that children understand
expectations and are consistently supported to manage
their emotions
05/06/2026

Inspectors:
Nicole Atkinson
Kelli Wiseman
About this setting
Unique reference number (URN): EY281231
Address:
Queen Alexandra Hospital
Southwick Hill Road
Cosham
Portsmouth
Hampshire
PO6 3LY
Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises
Registration date: 12/02/2004
Registered person: Tops Day Nursery Limited
Register(s): EYR, CCR, VCR
Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 06:00 - 20:00
Local authority: Portsmouth
Facts and figures used on inspection
About this inspection
The inspectors spoke with leaders, practitioners, parents and children during the inspection.
We carried out this inspection under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 on the
quality and standards of provision that is registered on the Early Years Register. The
registered person must ensure that this provision complies with the statutory framework for
children's learning, development and care, known as the early years foundation stage.
We carried out this inspection as a result of a risk assessment, following information we
received about the provider. The provider will be able to give parents further information
about this.

This data was available to the inspector at the time of the inspection.
This data is from 21 May 2026
Children numbers
Age range of children at the time of inspection
0 to 4
Total number of places
115
Our grades explained
Exceptional
Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other settings can learn from it.
Strong standard
The setting reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of
them.
Expected standard
The setting is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are
following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional
standards expected of them.
Needs attention
The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary
improvements.
Urgent improvement
The setting needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of
education and/or care.
The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) inspects
services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects
and regulates services that care for children and young people.

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