Kiddie Capers, Fishersgate

Kiddie Capers, Fishersgate
Unique reference number (URN): 2830951
Address: Stepping Stones Children & Family Centre, Gardner Road, Portslade, Brighton, BN41 1PN
Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises
Registered with Ofsted: 24/02/2025
Registers: EYR
Registered person: Kiddie Capers Childcare Ltd
Inspection report: 31 July 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.

Strong standard
Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard
Children learn in a wonderfully warm, friendly environment. Space and resources are
organised well to provide inviting areas to support different types of play and learning.
Children confidently navigate between each activity area with ease, knowing where to find
the items that they are looking for. Staff support children to collaborate, take turns and get
along with others. Children are supported to interact with others who have shared interests.
For example, activities are set up to encourage peer interaction and role play, such as the
well-resourced grocery shop with real food cartons and a till area.
Children demonstrate positive attitudes to learning, showing focus and engagement when
exploring the outdoor area or immersing themselves in creative tasks, such as drawing. Staff
very successfully promote children's positive behaviour and attitudes to play. Leaders have
provided targeted behaviour training, such as local authority inclusion mentoring, to help
staff teach children practical self-regulation techniques. Daily routines are securely
embedded. All children understand and follow these well, providing them a sense of security
and confidence.
Leaders place a focus on working with parents and carers to promote children's attendance.
They recognise the importance of encouraging children to benefit from the full breadth of the
curriculum. Staff follow up with parents when children do not attend or do not arrive on time
for their scheduled sessions. They work with parents to reduce and remove any barriers to
attendance. For example, leaders offer flexibility regarding days, hours and regularity of
attendance when appropriate. As a result, attendance has improved and is generally regular
and consistent.
Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard
Leaders and staff establish extremely secure partnerships with families. They ensure every
child's individual background and changing situation is understood. They successfully
support families to navigate significant life transitions. This includes moving home, shifting
schedules or changes in family structures. Leaders prioritise all children's welfare and
wellbeing consistently. They recognise children's individual care needs and meet these
extremely well. Leaders and staff are also highly committed to meeting children's emotional
needs and put this at the centre of day-to-day practice.
To embed long-lasting healthy habits, staff follow the setting's healthy eating and food
policies. They collaborate with parents and carers to ensure children have nutritious
lunches. Staff use daily mealtime routines to support families and teach children what
healthy eating means in practice. Highly positive relationships are built between staff and
children. Children are very comfortable with all staff and approach their trusted key worker
for support and reassurance. Staff deployment arrangements are very effective.
Leaders have effective arrangements to ensure that they remain up to date with current
guidance and legislation. They are skilled at adapting polices and working practices to

reflect any changes. They take care to ensure that any new practices reflect the needs of all
children and their families and are fully understood by staff.
Inclusion Strong standard
Leaders and staff accurately identify children who may require further support to meet their
individual needs. Leaders work very effectively with external professionals to support these
children. Leaders work with social workers and other professionals to support children and
families known to social services, including attending meetings and having input into plans.
Leaders and staff meticulously monitor the progress of all children, including those with
special educational needs and/or disabilities. This supports them to plan appropriately for
children's ongoing learning in a carefully sequenced way.
Leaders go out of their way to support families, from all parts of the community, to be able to
attend. This includes altering attendance patterns and times and having high regard for
children's wellbeing and that of their families. Leaders have a secure understanding of the
needs of the community, for example, recognising that some children lack outdoor play
spaces at home. Consequently, they have designed intentional, homely learning
environments that encourage exploration, featuring a large, well-planned outdoor area.
Leaders work well with parents to gain their trust and to reduce barriers to learning. Staff
ensure that they get to know each child and their needs quickly and effectively regardless of
how long they have been at the setting or how regularly they attend. Leaders work with
other local organisations to support families and share resources and information.
Leadership and governance Strong standard
Leaders have a clear and ambitious understanding of what they want children to learn and
are highly effective at supporting the community. For example, there is an effective
commitment to promoting children's attendance. Leaders consistently take decisive action to
remove barriers to attendance, offering flexible scheduling to help families maintain regular
routines. Decisions are made consistently in the best interests of vulnerable groups.
Leaders use targeted assessments and funding to support the education of disadvantaged
children, those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and children known or
previously known to social care.
Highly effective self-evaluation supports leaders to identify strengths and areas where
improvement may be needed. They are swift to take action to address these findings and
make improvements. For example, leaders have identified where there are slight gaps in
staff's knowledge and practice and are working to address these. This targeted support aims
to raise practice to a consistently high level. Leaders precisely match high-quality
professional learning to staff's individual needs. During quiet periods, such as holidays,
leaders strategically allocate staff to training or deploy them to sister sites to broaden their
expertise. Leaders are highly responsive to staff's changing circumstances. To maintain high
standards, they thoughtfully support staff's wellbeing and manage their workloads effectively.
Leaders have embedded a culture of high expectations and professionalism across the
team through clear workplace guidelines, guidance, training and supervision. Regular
supervision is securely structured, ensuring staff feel fully supported and find clear benefit
from the feedback they receive. Consequently, staff make a consistently positive contribution

Expected standard
to the provision. For example, they suggest new learning resources and plan targeted
activities that support children's progress.
Achievement Expected standard
Overall, children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND)
and other barriers to learning, make steady progress across the curriculum. All children
progress particularly well with their communication and language. They develop secure,
age-appropriate verbal skills to express their needs confidently. For example, children with
SEND gain the skills and confidence to communicate and build trusting relationships.
Typically, children are prepared to move on to the next stage of their education. They
become motivated learners and develop skills to support their independence. Children enjoy
spending time with their friends, taking part in role-play activities or making use of the
outdoor facilities. For example, over time, children persevere to master the skills of
operating and steering scooters, taking great pride in this achievement. Children develop
mathematical skills through experiences such as using money in the pretend grocery shop.
They confidently use number and positional language in their everyday play. For example,
they ask for the item 'behind', and count out a specific number of banknotes.
Curriculum and teaching Expected standard
The curriculum is well thought through to reflect each child's learning needs, including those
with special educational needs and/or disabilities and other barriers to learning. Staff's
interactions with children are typically effective. They get to know children well and use their
knowledge to create activities and resources to support the curriculum. Leaders are aware
of some slight inconsistencies with the quality of teaching and are actively implementing
targeted support for staff where needed. For example, leaders are focused on supporting all
staff in delivering consistent, high-quality interactions that fully extend children's learning
during play. Staff use precise ongoing assessment to identify children's starting points and
generally tailor teaching to their individual developmental stages.
Staff typically support communication and language skills well. They use interactions well to
promote children's language, including vocabulary specific to the activity taking place.
Children who may need additional help receive personalised, direct support to
communicate, including being able to express their needs confidently. Children's physical
development and personal, social and emotional development are introduced early and
prioritised for the younger children, and this continues to be taught at an age-appropriate
level for all ages. Overall, teaching is adapted so that all children enjoy their learning
experiences. Leaders have effective arrangements, for instance to promote regular
attendance, to support children who face barriers to their learning.

What it's like to be a child at this setting
Children's welfare and opportunities to learn and grow form the basis of daily life in the
setting. Children experience a highly inclusive community where their unique backgrounds,
challenging starting points and changing emotional states are understood well. Their
personal interests and developmental goals shape daily activities and learning experiences.
To ensure maximum stability, children and their families receive excellent, personalised
support during life transitions, such as moving home, shifting attendance schedules or
experiencing changes in family circumstances. For example, staff are extremely supportive
of families during times of need, including adapting children's attendance patterns. Children
benefit from the focus on providing continuity to support their emotional wellbeing.
In this nurturing and secure atmosphere, children flourish, grow rapidly in confidence and
form deep, trusting relationships with the entire team. Effective staff deployment helps to
ensure children remain safe, while being gently encouraged to expand their social circles
and build secure friendships. Children display highly positive behaviour and attitudes,
learning to express their ideas freely and develop impressive communication skills. They
confidently make independent choices about their play, which creates a genuine sense of
belonging and happiness throughout the nursery.
Overall, learning experiences are rich, intentional and responsive to children's needs.
Children thoroughly enjoy playing in the stimulating outdoor area that invites meaningful
exploration and physical challenge. For instance, children safely navigate a wide variety of
equipment and use the space available to channel their physical energy. Children receive
targeted support that swiftly addresses gaps in their knowledge, accelerating progress from
their individual starting points. For example, they engage in tailored communication games
and storytelling sessions to boost their vocabulary, which successfully removes barriers to
learning. Typically, children achieve well, are very well cared for and nurtured and remain
safe, healthy and happy.
Next steps
Leaders should sustain the work taking place to identify and address gaps in the skills
and knowledge of individual members of staff.

Inspector:
Rich LeRoy
About this setting
Unique reference number (URN): 2830951
Address:
Stepping Stones Children & Family Centre
Gardner Road, Portslade
Brighton
BN41 1PN
Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises
Registration date: 24/02/2025
Registered person: Kiddie Capers Childcare Ltd
Register(s): EYR
Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 07:30 - 18:00
Local authority: West Sussex
Facts and figures used on inspection
This data was available to the inspector at the time of the inspection.
This data is from 31 July 2026
Children numbers
About this inspection
The inspector spoke with leaders, staff, children and parents and carers during the
inspection.
We carried out this inspection under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 on the
quality and standards provision that is registered on the Early Years Register. The registered
person must ensure that the provision complies with the statutory framework for children's
learning, development, and care, known as the early years foundation stage.

Age range of children at the time of inspection
0 to 4
Total number of places
60
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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