A BLACKBURN nursery has vowed to tighten up checks on staff before they work with children, after a visit from education watchdogs.

OFSTED inspectors visited Smiles on Faces, in St Peter Street, for the first time and recommended the policy of ensuring staff are suitable to work with children be improved.

Overall, the April inspection found care for the children on roll to be satisfactory with well-planned activities, well-behaved children and a safe environment -- and gave the go-ahead for the nursery to cater for more children.

But director Ann Wainwright, registered in October, said she was told she needed to "dot the i's and cross the t's" concerning staff references and police checks.

All the staff have recognised childcare qualifications, ranging from ROSPA and NVQs in childcare. But, according to Ann, her staff's Criminal Records Bureau checks needed to be updated.

She said: "When we started I had verbal references for the people who were working for me and they were long-standing friends who we trusted implicitly.

"They had valid CRB checks from their previous nursery posts which have had to be sent away and updated. We were really pleased with the help and advice from OFSTED. The inspector was pleased with the way we were working, but helped with what needed to be in black and white as proof.

"The children come first and everyone knows that you just can't be too careful when it comes to safety."

Inspector Ann Bamford concluded the private nursery, which runs alongside a public play zone in the town centre, should increase from 16 to 29 places.

She also recommended that more work should be done to ensure staff are more aware of their role in the protection of children and the policy for safely administering drugs.

The nursery management team has now drawn up an action plan detailing policy on recruitment and selection of staff, which includes how interviews and checks will be carried out.