A childminder in Chatteris has been judged as inadequate by a watchdog because she does not understand the learning needs of the children in her care, according to a report.

The childminder, who uses the downstairs of her home for her childminding business, was said to leave children “unnecessarily upset” by not making sure youngsters were engaged before moving away from them to carry out another task.

The layout of the environment means not all resources are freely available to children to self-select, which the report says “impacts on the quality of the learning environment.”

The report also said: “The childminder does not regularly pick up on children’s own cues and interests meaning that many opportunities to extend children’s enjoyment for learning and their next stages in development are missed.

“Furthermore, this lack of engagement means that activities only last for short periods of time and children flit between their play.”

Positives highlighted by the report were settling-in sessions for children and discussion with parents about their routines.

Children also learn about the importance of a healthy lifestyle and physical activity.

A parent of two girls cared for by the childminder says the report is unfair as she scored low marks because she is poor at paperwork.

The parent said: “She is an old-school, very loving family childminder who happens to not be good at the paperwork side of things.

“It is a red tape paperwork issue, not an issue with how good she is as a childminder. I wouldn’t trust anyone else to have my girls, she is fantastic and yet this report has almost ruined her business.”