THE nursery and crèche at the Butlins holiday resort in Minehead has been condemned in a damning report by a Government Ofsted inspector for failing to meet some of the most basic standards of child care. Staff were criticised for shouting at children for no reason, exposing babies to the risk of choking by giving them ice-cubes to play with and for allowing unchecked members of staff to change nappies unsupervised. Inspector Sara Bailey also found there was inadequate knowledge of first aid or food hygiene - cold baby food was heated by pouring hot gravy on to it - while doors were left unlocked, nappies were changed at set times not when they were dirty, and parents' wishes were ignored. No attendance register was kept, so staff had no way of knowing if all children and babies were accounted for in the event of an emergency, and children were deemed to be bored and unstimulated. Last month the Free Press revealed the facility - Billy's Young Stars Nursery and Team Crèche - had been closed in the light of the report, which has only been made public this week. At the time, a spokesman for Butlins stressed the closure had been voluntary and temporary as the centre manager had taken the decision to close for "a couple of weeks" to address "small technical matters". Then the spokesman said: "£150,000 was spent on the day care centre in the winter months before Ofsted came back but there were some design features they didn't like." But it now seems the criticism was far more wide- reaching with Ofsted taking enforcement action to ensure standards were raised. Although the nursery was closed voluntarily and Butlins co-operated fully with Ofsted, the company was served a compliance notice by the inspector and issued with more than a dozen recommendations. The problems came to light when Ofsted carried out a spot-check on the facility, which caters for the children of both staff and holidaymakers, following a complaint in February this year. The complainant alleged that staff were not suitably qualified, children were inadequately cared for, the setting was not suitable for children, parents' concerns were not respected and Ofsted had not been notified of a change of location. The spot-check backed up the complainant, with the inspector ruling the nursery offered inadequate quality and standards of care, while the registered person did not meet national standards for under eights care and childminding. The inspector's report said: "Babies and children's health is compromised as staff have insufficient knowledge and understanding of how to implement appropriate food hygiene. "Out of date food is stored in the refrigerator and kitchen bins are not emptied regularly or covered with a lid. "Babies and children are cared for in rooms which are not adequately ventilated. "Dirty nappies are changed at specific times within the daily routine rather than at times to meet each baby's individual needs." She continued: "Babies and children are at risk as only one member of staff holds a valid first aid certificate. There are occasions when she is not present. "Children are at risk as staff are not vigilant about safety. "Staff deployment is poor, which further compromises their safety. For example, babies and children are at risk of choking as they are not adequately supervised. "A sleeping baby is woken several times by other children putting a bottle in his mouth, babies are given ice-cubes to play with and immediately put them in their mouths to explore, small toys are accessible to babies lying on the floor. "Pre-school children play in a room which contains stacked furniture which is hazardous to children and very few resources are available to them." Although the inspector found that the babies and children benefited from regular physical development, having large spacious rooms to play in and babies had a good range of toys to play with, she said toys for pre-school youngsters were very limited. As a result, children were bored and under stimulated, leading to bad behaviour. She said: "Children wander around aimlessly, often resulting in older children waking babies by pushing them in swings they have been put into for a sleep, or trying to feed them their bottles." One of the most serious criticisms was that staff failed adequately to safeguard children's welfare as workers who had not been security checked were left unsupervised with youngsters, including at nappy change time - a clear breach of legal registration requirements. The report concluded: "The setting does not meet the needs of the range of children for whom it provides. Documentation does not meet regulations. "At the last care inspection, two actions were raised. Neither have been fully completed. "Ofsted is taking enforcement action to safeguard the welfare of children." Since the inspection was carried out at the beginning of May, the nursery has received two further visits from inspectors and was reopened "once it was established the provider had acted appropriately to meet the standards". However, the crèche remains closed and this week a spokesman for Butlins confirmed the manager of both the nursery and crèche and been suspended pending disciplinary proceedings but had since resigned. He said a team of "experienced childcare experts" was currently being recruited for the crèche. Senior management at the Minehead camp had also called in Somerset County Council's Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership to assist them in addressing the issues highlighted in the Ofsted report. Resort director Darren Hollis said the report had come as "a real shock", especially as Butlins had just completed a £150,000 refurbishment of the facilities. But he conceded perhaps too much focus had been put on improving guests' facilities at the expense of the camp's own staff. He said: "We probably concentrated so much of our time and resources on the nursery for the guests' children, that we rather let matters slide in the staff crèche used by our staff. "We are very grateful for the support and advice offered by the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership. "We have been meeting regularly and are well down the road with our recruitment and training programme. "We will only open the facilities again when we are completely satisfied with the level and expertise of the entire team. That, hopefully, should be sometime next month." Mr Hollis added: "We are now well on the way to providing high quality childcare facilities for both guests and staff."