A Poole pre-school is failing to keep children safe, despite a warning to improve months ago.

A damning Ofsted report has branded St Clements pre-school inadequate, saying children are exposed to the risk of serious harm and are not protected at a Poole pre-school.

A welfare requirements notice has been issued, forcing the provider to take action over safeguarding, improve risk assessments and supervision processes and to ensure managers and the committee raise standards.

It follows a previous inspection in March this year, which raised the same serious concerns.

The pre-school, which meets at St Clements Church Hall in Kinson Avenue, was given the lowest possible grade of ‘Inadequate’ following the inspection which took place last month.

In the latest report, inspectors said: "Children are not kept safe.

"Staff fail to share relevent information with other services when there are indications a child is at risk of harm."

And it stated: "Leaders and managers have failed to make essential improvements to the pre-school since the last inspection.

"The quality of opportunities for children to learn and develop has deteriorated since the last inspection.

"Too many children are left to their own devices to occupy themselves and they do not do as well as they could as a result.

"Children are not well prepared for school or for the next stage of their education."

It also said staff supervision meetings are not frequent enough and the leadership and management were described as "ineffective" and "poorly managed" with staff having low expectations of what children should do.

"Some children spend almost the entire session chatting with friends on the climbing frame, including those who will be starting school in a few months time", the report added.

The pre-school has 34 places but has just 12 children on roll. In March it had 22 children on roll.

The strength of the centre was that children are kind to one another, the report said.

In April, members of the St Clements committee said the Inadequate grade was the result of failing to accurately document records and said the “error was corrected.”

They offered to meet parents to discuss concerns and said they will welcome a return visit from Ofsted before the end of the summer term.

“We would like to reassure you that your children attend a safe and exciting environment that they greatly enjoy and receive a strong education, as confirmed in the Ofsted report” they added. “We are all in belief we must ensure the children are our priority and we have agreed for an intensive intervention process to be implemented immediately.”