A GROUP which runs a Bridgwater holiday scheme for children has blamed its “inadequate” Ofsted rating on a technicality.

Ofsted has this week released its report on the Active Kidz after-school and holiday scheme at Chilton Trinity Sports Centre, following an inspection in February.

Although the Oftsed report noted the scheme's strengths, including its friendly, well-trained staff and the variety of sporting activities on offer to children, it rated ten of the 17 individual areas it assessed as “inadequate”, with the rest deemed “satisfactory”.

Ofsted said Active Kidz had failed to meet several of the requirements of its “early years” registration, stating that: “There are no effective systems in place to fully safeguard children and meet their welfare needs.”

Although the report acknowledged that staff have first aid training, have received Criminal Record Bureau checks and make daily checks of the rooms children use, it said staff do not take records of which adults have parental responsibility for which children, and that young children are allowed to walk through public areas of the sports centre to use the toilet without adult supervision.

Ofsted told the centre it must address these issues by this Friday.

However, Somerset Leisure, which runs the scheme, said the early years criteria it had been assessed against was “inappropriate for the nature of the activities and the community setting of a public sports and leisure centre”, adding that it would be re-registering on the Compulsory and Voluntary Childcare Register instead.

A Somerset Leisure spokesman added that staff had already rectified the areas addressed in the Ofsted report and that at no stage had children's safety been at risk.