A CHILDREN’s charity praised for its exceptional work has been labelled inadequate by Ofsted because its bosses didn’t know about new anti-radicalisation rules, its founder has claimed. 

Carol Nice, who founded Stepping Stones Play and Learn Group 25 years ago, said inspectors were forced to rate the charity 'inadequate' because not all of the 16 member committee had been checked as part of an education sector-wide policy to prevent radicalisation.

Mrs Nice said as a result of the oversight, the group's leadership and management has been graded as “inadequate and ineffective”.

Now, the overall rating for the Wilson Marriage Centre group - which provides care for children of all abilities aged between birth and 18 - is inadequate.

Mrs Nice said the checks have now been completed and Ofsted inspectors are due to return to the group early next year.

Ofsted has denied the rating has anything to do with radicalisation checks.

Mrs Nice said the rating had been “heartbreaking” for staff. She added: “We rely on our community and from funding organisations for our fundraising - it is absolutely essential to what we do.

“It’s been heartbreaking for all of us. We are conscious we need to be here for the families and we’re conscious we need people to fund us and the impact this grading could have is huge.

“There are funding organisations which have a vast area to cover and they may rely on cursory checks to ratings and if they see we are ‘inadequate’, we might not pass the first test.”

Mrs Nice, who was awarded an MBE for her work in the charity sector, added: “It’s been a bit of a learning curve and there were times when I thought to myself ‘I can’t believe this is happening.’ I think it’s fair say we are disappointed.”

The rules changed last year but Mrs Nice said the news did not filter down to smaller charities. She believes Stepping Stones is not the only group to fall foul.

The report states: “Children make excellent progress from their starting points.

“Staff are highly skilled in both teaching, and meeting the specific complex needs of children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.

“The staff know all children well and they develop exceptionally strong and positive relationships with them.

“Children are supported exceptionally well prior to starting at the setting and are already motivated and eager to join in when they begin.”

An Ofsted spokesman said: “Ofsted has not been correctly notified of changes of the nominated person or of committee members.

"Consequently the required suitability checks have not been completed for these individuals. This is a legal requirement and was raised at the last inspection."

A separate statement from the watchdog added: "This nursery did not notify Ofsted of changes within its organising committee’s membership, and as a consequence the necessary suitability checks have not been completed for some individuals.

"These routine safeguarding checks cover a range of information about a person’s suitability to work with children, and are a legal requirement for all nursery settings.

“Concerns about the incomplete safeguarding checks were raised at the nursery’s previous inspection but the management team failed to address them, which automatically led to it being judged inadequate this time.

"To be clear, this judgement had nothing to do with ensuring the nursery’s committee members were checked to prevent radicalisation.”