In June, we spoke to Lee Walsh at Abergavenny Nursery about his setting’s experience using Ovivio Insights and other Ovivio features. These are his words:
At Abergavenny Nursery, a privately owned nursery led by Kate and Lee Walsh, we place a strong emphasis on quality, consistency, and data-led decision making across our two settings.
As a CIW-registered provider in Wales, our approach is aligned to the National Minimum Standards (NMS), and we use Ovivio Insights to support how we evidence compliance, quality, and continuous improvement across both of our nurseries.
How does Abergavenny Nursery use Ovivio Insights?
We use Ovivio Insights as a key part of our Responsible Individual (RI) oversight and governance framework.
Most recently, I used Insights data directly to support my RI statutory visit reporting, analysing dashboard data across both settings to evidence:
- Occupancy and session trends
- Staffing alignment
- Income and operational performance
- Patterns that inform decision-making
This enables us to move beyond narrative reporting and provide clear, data-led oversight, supporting our responsibilities as an RI to monitor performance and demonstrate how leadership decisions are informed by evidence.
We also use the dashboards in a very practical way:
- Screen-grabbing visuals for internal reporting and communication
- Reviewing data with our PICs in structured meetings and 1:1’s
- Supporting a proactive, risk-based approach, allowing us to identify trends early and make informed adjustments
This aligns closely with CIW expectations around leadership oversight and NMS standards relating to quality assurance and continuous improvement, ensuring that data is actively used rather than simply recorded.
What did you use before Ovivio Insights?
Before Insights, our processes relied on:
- Exporting data from the nursery system
- Building Excel trackers (including finance, income, and staffing analysis)
- Manually cross-referencing multiple datasets
- Paper risk assessments
While effective, this approach was time-consuming and fragmented, particularly when producing RI reports, audits, and inspection evidence.
How much time does Insights save you?
Insights has significantly reduced the time required to produce oversight reports and analyse performance.
For example, when preparing my recent RI statutory report:
- Key data was already available in dashboard format
- I could interrogate trends immediately, rather than build datasets first
- The focus shifted from data collection to analysis and decision-making
This saves several hours per reporting cycle and strengthens both the efficiency and quality of oversight, which is essential when evidencing compliance under CIW and NMS requirements.
Any other favourite features?
- At-a-glance dashboards
- Provide immediate visibility across both settings without manual reporting
- Visual data for communication
- Dashboard screenshots support clear communication with staff, managers, and stakeholders
- Supports governance and inspection readiness
- Enables us to clearly evidence how data informs leadership and operational decisions
- Consistency across settings
- Particularly important as we operate more than one nursery, ensuring aligned oversight
- Accountability for managers (PICs)
- Managers can see and take ownership of their data, strengthening leadership at setting level
How do you support risk management and operational practice?
Ovivio also plays an important role in how we manage risk, safeguarding, and operational consistency across our settings.
We use the system to:
- Create and standardise risk assessment templates, including outings and daily operational risks
- Develop PIC-specific templates, aligned with our internal PIC handbook document
- Ensure all managers are working within a clear, consistent framework
This supports:
- Robust safeguarding practice
- Consistent application of policies across both settings
- A clear and accessible audit trail for inspection and internal review
This aligns with NMS expectations around safety, safeguarding, and environment, ensuring that risk assessments are not just completed, but actively used to inform decision-making and improve outcomes.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Ovivio has become much more than a management system for us – it’s now embedded in how we operate as a privately owned, values-led nursery group.
As a family-run organisation led by myself and Kate, we are hands-on in ensuring that:
- Standards remain consistently high across both settings
- Managers feel supported but are also accountable
- All decisions are made with the best outcomes for children and families in mind
Using Insights alongside risk assessments, templates, and People in Charge (PIC) oversight processes allows us to:
- Evidence leadership impact clearly
- Identify trends early and respond proactively
- Make informed, risk-based adjustments
- Ensure consistency across our provision
- Demonstrate how data links directly to quality of care and safeguarding
This approach also supports our ongoing quality of care review, ensuring that we not only meet the National Minimum Standards, but can clearly evidence how we are progressing beyond them through continuous, data-led improvement.
This is reflected in feedback from our families, for example:
“We love how well the nursery communicates and how organised everything feels—it gives us real confidence in the care our child receives.”
“It’s clear that a lot of thought and planning goes into how the nursery is run, and that really shows in the experience for both children and parents.”
For us, Ovivio supports not just our systems, but our values – ensuring that quality, safety, and continuous improvement remain at the heart of everything we do at Abergavenny Nursery.
Want to see how Ovivio Insights can help your settings? Take a look and see for yourself! Or, take a look at our other customer stories to see what other nurseries say about using Ovivio.
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