Published: Thursday, 29th July, 2010 9:25am

Report upbeat on progress at Butterflies

by Alex Lawrie

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A MUSSELBURGH nursery has "made satisfactory progress towards addressing the areas for improvement" after receiving a scathing report from a watchdog last year.

Butterflies Day Nursery, on Stoneybank Terrace, was slammed by the Care Commission last November after it rated every aspect of the children's facility "unsatisfactory" - the lowest possible score.

But in a new report released on Wednesday, the Care Commission stated there had been significant "improvements to learning environments to support children's learning", improvement in "children's engagement in their learning" and strong "leadership of the acting manager in creating a culture of improvement".

Since the initial report a new management structure has been put in place at the nursery and "all requirements made at the last Care Commission inspection have [now] been met".

The commission noted that the current manager was in an acting capacity and the future management of the nursery is not yet established, which will result in the commission continuing to "monitor improvements to ensure that progress already made is maintained".

Julie Campbell, Butterflies' regional operations manager, said: "We are delighted with the HMIe report. The staff team have all worked hard in ensuring that previous comments were taken on board and all areas of recommendation have been met.

"We have been overwhelmed by the parents support and would like to thank them for this, as it's been a tough few months, but very rewarding."

Following the initial Commission report East Lothian Council decided to withhold £40,000 annual funded to the nursery, but the local authority has now said operators can reapply for future funding following the improved report.

Butterflies has about 130 youngsters, aged between one and five, and is part of the larger Happitots Day Nursery Ltd organisation.