Tusla creche inspection reports: how to find and read them

Every creche, preschool and Montessori school in Ireland has to be registered with Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, and Tusla publishes its inspection reports for anyone to read. They are one of the best ways to check a service before you book a visit. Here is where to find them and how to make sense of what they say.

Who inspects creches in Ireland?

Tusla’s Early Years Inspectorate is the independent statutory regulator of early years services. It inspects playgroups, day nurseries, creches, day care and similar services for children aged 0 to 6 that are on the Early Years Services National Register. Inspections check services against the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) Regulations 2016 (Tusla inspection guide).

The aim is to find out whether a service is well governed, supports each child’s health, welfare and development, keeps children safe, and has premises that are safe and suitable.

How to find a creche’s inspection report

1. Go to Tusla’s Early Years Inspection Reports page.
2. Search by county and service type, or use the advanced search for the service’s Tusla number, name or Eircode. Names on the register can differ slightly from the name on the door, so try the Eircode if a name search finds nothing.
3. Open the service. You’ll see its name and address, the registered provider and person in charge, its published inspection reports (as downloads), its registration details, including any conditions attached to its registration, and recent inspection dates.

You can also ask the creche for a copy of its latest report (Tusla). Tusla says every registered pre-school and childminding service is inspected as part of registration and ongoing monitoring, so each should have at least one published report.

On CrecheFinder, each profile has a “Registration and inspections” section that links to the register, with the service’s Eircode area where we have it.

How inspections work

• Most inspections are unannounced.
• Planned inspections happen at least once in each three-year registration cycle. Services seen as higher risk, for example because of their history of non-compliance, are inspected more often.
• Unplanned inspections can follow concerns, including feedback from parents, notifications of incidents, or a request to take more children.
• Fit-for-purpose inspections happen before a new service opens, and when a service asks to change its registration, for example from sessional to full day care, the number or ages of children, or its address.

On the day, the inspector reviews records, policies and staff rosters, observes care, play and how staff interact with children, talks to management and staff, and walks the premises. The inspection ends with a feedback meeting with the provider (Tusla inspection guide).

How to read the report

Tusla publishes its own Guide to Reading an Early Years Inspection Report, updated in 2026 for its new report template. These are the parts that matter most to parents:

• Cover page. The service’s details from the register, the type of service, the date of the inspection and any conditions on its registration.
• Regulations inspected. Inspectors check a set of regulations chosen for that service and visit, not necessarily every regulation every time. Each one inspected is recorded as compliant (met) or non-compliant (not met), with comments.
• Statutory notices. If an inspector finds a risk serious enough, they can serve an Improvement Notice or an Immediate Action Notice. The report shows the notice and its status.
• CAPA. For every non-compliance, the provider must send a Corrective Action and Preventive Action plan within 10 working days, saying what they fixed and how they’ll stop it happening again. The report is finalised and published once Tusla accepts that the non-compliances have been addressed.

Before publication, providers can ask for factual errors to be corrected and can request a review of findings they disagree with. Where problems aren’t resolved, Tusla can attach conditions to a service’s registration or escalate it to its National Registration and Enforcement Panel (Tusla inspection guide).

What to look for as a parent

• The date. How recent is the latest report, and are there others you can compare?
• The service type. Does it match what you need (full day, part-time or sessional) and your child’s age?
• Which regulations were not met. A paperwork gap reads differently from a problem with supervision, staff vetting or the premises.
• What was done about it. Read the CAPA. Was the fix specific, and was it already completed?
• Patterns. The same issue in report after report is worth asking about.
• Conditions or notices. Check the registration details for conditions, and the report for statutory notices.

Staffing levels (Regulation 11) are one of the regulations inspectors check. Our guide to creche ratios in Ireland sets out the minimum adult-to-child ratios for each age and type of service.

Questions to ask the creche after reading it

• What changed after your last inspection, and can I see how the actions were completed?
• Has anything changed since, such as the manager, the rooms or the number of children?
• How do you share inspection findings with parents?

A good service will be glad you asked.

If you have a concern about a service

Parents can send feedback about a service to the Early Years Inspectorate’s Feedback and Concerns Team using Tusla’s parent feedback form. Tusla says the information is made available to the inspector to inform decisions about the next inspection (Tusla inspection guide). If you think a child is at risk, contact Tusla directly.

Other inspections

The Department of Education also inspects early years services. Its inspections look at the quality of children’s early learning experiences rather than regulatory compliance, and its reports are published on gov.ie.

Questions parents ask

Where do I find a creche’s Tusla inspection report?

On Tusla’s Early Years Inspection Reports page. Search by county and service type, or use the advanced search for the Tusla number, service name or Eircode. Each service’s page lists its published reports as downloads (tusla.ie). You can also ask the creche for a copy.

Does every creche have an inspection report?

Tusla says every registered pre-school and childminding service is inspected as part of registration and ongoing monitoring, so each should have at least one published report. School-age services are not routinely inspected (tusla.ie).

Are inspections announced?

Mostly not. Tusla says the majority of inspections are unannounced. A planned inspection happens at least once in each three-year registration cycle, and higher-risk services are inspected more often (Tusla inspection guide).

Does “non-compliant” mean a creche is unsafe?

Not on its own. It means the inspector found that a specific regulation was not met on the day. Read what the issue was, whether it related to children’s safety, and the provider’s corrective and preventive actions (CAPA) in the report. Serious or unresolved issues can lead to statutory notices or conditions on registration, which are also shown (Tusla inspection guide).

How recent are the reports?

Each service’s page on tusla.ie shows its recent inspection dates. A report is published after the provider has had the chance to check the draft for factual errors and, where needed, respond with corrective actions (Tusla inspection guide).

Who else inspects preschools?

The Department of Education carries out early years education inspections, which look at the quality of children’s early learning experiences. Those reports are published separately on gov.ie.

Sources

Last checked: October 2026. Every rate, date and rule on this page comes from the official pages below. Rules change, usually from September each year, so confirm anything important at the source before you rely on it. CrecheFinder is independent and is not part of the Government, Pobal or Tusla.

• Tusla: Early Years Inspection Reports (search the register)
• Tusla: Inspection reports, information for parents
• Tusla: A Guide to Inspection in Early Years Services (V4.0, February 2026, PDF)
• Tusla: A Guide to Reading an Early Years Inspection Report (PDF)
• gov.ie: Early years education inspections (Department of Education)