A DORSET pre-school that left a toddler locked in and unattended for nearly two hours is closing down.

As reported in the Echo, the three-year-old girl was left behind in the building when children and staff went on an outing to nearby woodland.

No-one noticed she was missing until the group returned one hour and forty minutes later.

Following the incident, Ofsted issued a welfare requirements notice on the pre-school, and later said the requirements had been implemented.

But it carried out an inspection last month and found staff were still breaching compulsory requirements by not completing accurate daily registers.

Inspectors graded Sydling Springs as ‘inadequate’ – the lowest grading for childcare providers – and issued a second welfare requirements notice which covered the same area failed before.

Ofsted’s report listed a catalogue of problems at the pre-school, including the provider’s failure to meet compulsory and voluntary elements of the Childcare Register and failure to meet children’s individual learning needs.

An inspector said the lack of attendance monitoring ‘breaches the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage and the Childcare Register’.

“Staff do not always complete a record of attendance to ensure there is a true account of those children present. On some days staff do not record when parents have collected children,” they said.

“They do not detail headcount information in their record of attendance.

“This means they are unable to refer back to this to ensure that they can account for all children at all times. This significant weakness places children’s well-being at risk.”

They added: “This is the second time the provider has not met this requirement in recent months and has failed to address the welfare requirements notice that was issued by Ofsted.”

But now the pre-school will close due to the withdrawal of funding from Dorset County Council.

A spokesman for the council said: “A recent Ofsted inspection and subsequent report rated the pre-school as inadequate.

“Department for Education guidance states that a local authority should not fund childcare providers rated as inadequate.

“In accordance with this statutory guidance, we have told the pre-school that it will be removed from the directory of providers eligible for Early Education Funding from 19 December.”

No one from the pre-school was available for comment.