A CHILDCARE club where two five-year-old girls were locked in a church basement for two hours is being allowed to keep its Ofsted registration.

Education inspectors have published initial findings into what happened at St Paul’s Out of School Club in Holgate over February half-term.

As The Press reported, two young children were left behind when the rest of the club was taken to the cinema, and the pair spent two hours locked in the church crypt the club uses as a base.

Ofsted were called, and a notice now published by the body shows inspectors think leaving the children behind “left them at considerable risk of harm and is a serious breach of requirements”.

York Press:

The notice, available on Ofsted’s website, explains that because the club contacted Ofsted, staff met their legal responsibilities to inform the authority about any incident that could harm a child.

Inspectors also found staff acted to ensure the children’s safety, and the club carried out its own investigation with the help of the city council.

At the time of their unannounced visit, inspectors found the club was taking disciplinary action against the staff responsible. The club has since confirmed their manager, who was in charge on the day, has resigned.

Now Ofsted have issued a “welfare requirements notice”, and if its demands are not met the club could face prosecution.

The notice says staff have to be made aware of all policies, procedures and risk assessments for outings, to guarantee the children’s safety.

“This relates to the supervision of children so that they are always within sight or hearing of adults at all times,” it adds. However as the Ofsted involvement is not yet complete and inspectors are yet to carry out another inspection before a full report is published, the club has said it cannot comment publicly. In a statement issued last week, a spokesman said: “We take our safeguarding responsibilities very seriously indeed and continue to take the advice of Ofsted with whom we are working during its investigation.” Cllr Mary Cannon, who represents the Holgate area on City of York Council, said: “The situation with the children being left behind is something of great concern to all of us. It’s good Ofsted made an unannounced visit and issued some initial findings, and I think it’s good that St Paul’s Out of School Club have obviously responded positively, looking at policies and procedures to ensure this never happens again. I will be looking forward to the final report from Ofsted, and confirmation that St Paul’s have learnt numerous lessons from this very unhappy situation so it’s not possible for this to happen again.”