Early Years Updates and Briefings

Ofsted has updated its Early Years Inspection Toolkit, Operating Guide, and inspection information. The revised materials will be used for inspections of registered early years settings from 1 September 2026.

The changes reflect corresponding developments in statutory and non-statutory guidance and provide greater clarity about what inspectors will consider when evaluating the quality of early years provision.

For providers, the message is not to create additional paperwork or prepare specifically for inspection. Ofsted continues to emphasise that inspection should focus on the quality and impact of everyday practice and leadership decisions on children.

There are, however, several important changes that leaders and practitioners need to understand.

1. Safeguarding: Greater Attention to the Quality of Care

The updated toolkit provides additional information about practitioners’ responsibilities to protect children from harm.

Ofsted has also strengthened the wording used when considering whether safeguarding is met or not met. Inspectors may judge safeguarding not met where the quality of care is such that children have been harmed or are at risk of harm.

This is an important distinction.

Safeguarding is not demonstrated simply by having the correct policies, procedures, and training in place. Inspectors will consider how effectively safeguarding is understood and implemented through children’s everyday experiences.

This includes the quality and safety of routine care.

What this means for providers

Leaders should be confident that:

• safeguarding procedures are understood, not simply documented

• practitioners recognise their individual responsibility to protect children

• unsafe or inappropriate care practices are identified and addressed

• safeguarding training translates into consistent everyday practice

• leaders actively monitor the quality and safety of children’s care.

2. Safer Sleep, Weaning and Safer Eating

This is one of the most significant changes for settings caring for babies and younger children.

Inspectors must now check that statutory guidance relating to:

safer sleeping arrangements | weaning | safer eating is well understood and implemented effectively.

An additional standard covering these areas has also been introduced within the Children’s Welfare and Wellbeing evaluation area.

These checks form part of inspectors’ initial inspection activities and may also be explored through observations, discussions with practitioners and case sampling.

What this means for providers

It is not enough for safer sleep, weaning and eating guidance to appear within policies.

Practitioners need to understand why safe practices matter and what they look like in practice.

Leaders should review:

• sleeping arrangements and supervision

• individual sleep routines and care plans

• weaning practice

• preparation and presentation of food

• safer eating arrangements

• practitioners’ knowledge and training

• how practice is monitored

• communication with parents.

Where unsafe care practice places children at risk of harm, this may have implications for safeguarding.

3. DBS, Safer Recruitment and Paediatric First Aid

Inspectors are now specifically instructed to review DBS records as a priority and discuss arrangements for:

• safer recruitment

• appropriate checks and vetting

• paediatric first aid.

Settings must ensure inspectors can access the required information, either electronically or in printed form.

Providers should also ensure that appropriate DBS information is available in relation to volunteers undertaking regulated activity, where applicable.

What this means for providers

Leaders should undertake a simple pre-September audit of recruitment and suitability records.

Do not wait until inspection to discover an administrative gap.

Records should be accurate, accessible, and consistent with statutory requirements.

4. Inclusion Becomes Increasingly Visible

Leadership, inclusion, and an open and positive safeguarding culture remain key areas of inspection focus.

Inspectors will speak with the person acting as the SENCo and may speak with other leaders who have responsibilities for inclusion.

There is also additional guidance concerning children with Personal Education Plans and inspectors may, where relevant, engage with Virtual School Heads or their delegates.

Case sampling will help inspectors understand the experiences of particular children, especially those who:

• are disadvantaged

• have SEND

• are known, or were previously known, to children’s social care

• experience other barriers to their learning or wellbeing.

What this means for providers

Inclusion needs to be visible through children’s actual experiences.

Leaders and SENCos should be able to explain:

What barriers have we identified?

What are we doing about them?

What difference is our action making for this child?

Inspectors are interested in impact rather than simply whether support plans or documentation exist.

5. The Expected Standard Means the Toolkit AND the EYFS

Ofsted has clarified that achieving the Expected Standard requires providers to meet both:

the relevant inspection toolkit standards

and

the associated requirements of the EYFS.

This is an important reminder that the inspection toolkit does not replace the EYFS.

What this means for providers

Leaders should not approach the toolkit as an inspection checklist.

Instead, they need a secure understanding of the statutory requirements underpinning their provision and confidence that these requirements are reflected consistently in practice.

6. Mathematics: Greater Clarity About Explicit Teaching

Ofsted has added an evidence-gathering prompt relating to the explicit teaching of mathematics.

This should not be interpreted as a move towards formal, school-style teaching for young children.

High-quality mathematical teaching in early years can happen through play, routines, continuous provision, conversations and carefully chosen adult interactions.

Leaders should consider

Can practitioners recognise the mathematics within children’s play?

Do they deliberately introduce and develop mathematical ideas?

Do they use mathematical language effectively?

Do they know when to intervene, model, question or extend children’s thinking?

The important issue is intentional teaching, not formalisation.

7. Vocabulary Means English Vocabulary

Ofsted has clarified that references to vocabulary within the toolkit refer specifically to English vocabulary.

This should be understood alongside inclusive practice and appropriate support for children who are multilingual or learning English as an additional language.

Settings should continue to recognise and value children’s home languages while supporting the development of the English vocabulary children need to communicate, participate and learn effectively.

8. Case Sampling: Following the Child’s Experience

Ofsted has provided further clarification about case sampling.

Rather than looking at isolated pieces of paperwork, inspectors may follow the experiences of selected children across different aspects of provision.

This can include exploring:

• what the key person knows about the child

• what the child already knows and can do

• what practitioners intend them to learn next

• how their individual care needs are met

• the support they receive

• how effectively barriers are identified and addressed

• the progress they are making from their starting points.

For babies and younger children, this may specifically include their experiences of sleep, weaning, eating and other care routines.

The question for leaders is therefore not simply:

“Do we have the correct documentation?”

but:

“What is it actually like to be this child in our setting?”

9. Equality and Reasonable Adjustments

The operating guide now places greater emphasis on the responsibilities of both inspectors and providers under the Equality Act 2010.

Inspectors will also consider whether reasonable adjustments or adaptations are required during the inspection process.

This reflects the wider emphasis on respectful, inclusive, and proportionate inspection.

10. Inspection Should Not Generate Additional Paperwork

This point is particularly important.

Ofsted states that settings are not required to undertake additional work or prepare activities specifically for inspection.

Providers do not need to:

• produce written evidence against every toolkit standard

• complete a formal self-evaluation using the toolkit

• prepare a presentation for the inspector

• create additional documentation solely for inspection

• produce photographic evidence of children’s learning.

The toolkit is not a checklist.

Inspectors are expected to gather first-hand evidence and engage in professional discussion with leaders and practitioners.

Good inspection preparation is therefore not about creating an inspection folder.

It is about ensuring that good practice is understood, implemented, and embedded every day.

Five Key Actions for Leaders Before September 2026

1 | Review care practice

Audit safer sleep, weaning and safer eating arrangements and ensure practitioners understand the guidance underpinning their practice.

2 | Strengthen safeguarding assurance

Check that safeguarding knowledge translates into consistently safe care and that leaders can identify and challenge practice that could place children at risk.

3 | Audit suitability and recruitment

Review DBS information, volunteer arrangements, safer recruitment records and paediatric first-aid arrangements.

4 | Look at provision through the lens of inclusion

Consider individual children’s experiences, particularly children with SEND, disadvantaged children, children known to social care and those experiencing other barriers.

5 | Strengthen professional confidence

Ensure leaders and practitioners can explain their curriculum, teaching decisions, mathematical teaching, safeguarding responsibilities and the impact of their work on children.

A Final Reflection for Leaders

The September changes reinforce an important direction within early years inspection.

Inspection is increasingly concerned with the connection between:

what leaders intend

what practitioners understand

what happens in everyday practice

and what children actually experience.

Policies matter. Records matter. Statutory compliance matters.

But ultimately, inspectors will look to understand whether children achieve, belong and thrive because of the quality of education, care, inclusion, safeguarding, and leadership they experience.

Perhaps the most useful question for leaders to take back to their teams is:

If an inspector followed the experience of one child through our setting today, what would they learn about the quality of our practice?

That is a much more powerful starting point for improvement than preparing for inspection.