In summary:
- What’s changed: Ofsted updated its Early Years Inspection Toolkit in June 2026, with the new standards set to take effect for all nursery inspections starting in September 2026.
- New baseline requirement: A major structural change requires that relevant Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory requirements must be fully met as a baseline before a setting can achieve an “expected standard” grade in any evaluation area.
- Safe sleeping and eating updates: Following Department for Education (DfE) updates, new statutory guidance regarding safe sleeping arrangements, weaning, safer eating, and allergy management has been integrated across multiple sections, including safeguarding and welfare.
- Disadvantaged provision adjustment: Paragraphs detailing how inspectors evaluate settings with no currently enrolled disadvantaged children have been removed, shifting the focus of higher-grade descriptors toward evidenced impact on vulnerable groups.
- Safeguarding and evidence changes: The toolkit expands the criteria inspectors use to evaluate how leaders gather and share safeguarding information, and includes a direct link to Ofsted’s supporting evidence and research base for the first time.
- Curriculum and teaching updates: Clarifications have been added regarding provision-level and individual-level EYFS learning exemptions. Additionally, the updated framework places an explicit focus on English vocabulary and age-appropriate early maths instruction.
Ofsted published a summary list of changes to the Early Years Inspection Toolkit on 12th June 2026, and if you’ve read it, you may have found that it’s raised more questions than it answered.
The updated toolkit comes into force from September 2026, meaning every nursery inspection from that point will be assessed against the new standards.
We’ve compared the original September 2025 toolkit with the latest version line by line to highlight and explain every change and what each one means for your nursery in practice.
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The overarching Early Years Toolkit changes
Before we get into the evaluation area changes breakdown, there are a few changes that run throughout the whole Early Years Inspection Toolkit and are worth unpicking first.
The purpose of the June updates is to provide greater clarity, avoid assumptions on either side of the inspection, and prepare for scenarios that might previously have left inspectors without clear guidance.
We’ve found five of these overarching changes in the new Early Years Inspection Toolkit:
- EYFS requirements phrase added
- Future disadvantaged provision removed
- Evidence-backed and research shared
- Statutory sleep guidance threaded throughout
- Minor punctuation changes
1. The ‘relevant EYFS requirements are met’ addition
Almost every evaluation area (including safeguarding) now includes an additional phrase in the expected standard descriptor.
Using Achievement as an example:
Original version of the toolkit said: ‘Achievement meets the expected standard when all the following apply:’
September 2026 version says: ‘Achievement meets the expected standard when relevant EYFS requirements are met and all the following apply:’
What this means in practice
Under the old wording, a setting could look good against the toolkit descriptors while a statutory breach existed underneath. An inspector working in good faith could have graded a setting at expected standard based on what they observed on the inspection day, without statutory compliance being a formal condition of that grading.
The new wording brings all evaluation areas into line with how Ofsted now inspects safeguarding.
The principle aims to be consistent across the whole framework:
- Statutory compliance, found in the EYFS framework, is the baseline
- The toolkit descriptors assess the quality of provision above that baseline
2. Future impact of disadvantaged provision paragraph removed
The original Early Years Inspection Toolkit included a paragraph in most evaluation areas covering what would happen if a nursery had no disadvantaged* children on roll.
Using Behaviour, Attitudes and Establishing Routines as an example, it previously said:
‘When evaluating behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines in settings where there are no children attending who are disadvantaged* , inspectors consider the potential impact on these children, should they attend in the future. This means that these settings are not limited to the ‘expected standard’.’
In the updates released in June, that paragraph has been removed from every evaluation area where it appeared.
Does that put a ceiling on grading options?
Not explicitly, but the higher-grade descriptors are heavily focused on demonstrated, evidenced impact on vulnerable groups. Without real children present, that case can be difficult to make.
* Disadvantaged children are defined by Ofsted as: children who are disadvantaged, or who have SEND, or who are known (or previously known) to children’s social care, or who may face other barriers to their learning and/or well-being.
3. Evidence-backed research sources shared
The updated toolkit includes a link to the supporting evidence base document for the first time, found in the ‘Gathering evidence’ section at the start. This sets out the statutory and non-statutory guidance, professional standards and research that Ofsted drew on when developing the toolkit.
4. New statutory safe sleeping guidance threaded through
On 20th April 2026, the DfE published new guidance covering safe sleeping arrangements, weaning and safer eating for all early years settings.
The DfE has updated the EYFS statutory framework to mirror the new requirements, which come into effect from September 2026.
Ofsted has supported these changes by adding more detail on these practices throughout the inspection toolkit.
The requirements are now woven throughout the Early Years Inspection Toolkit’s safeguarding, children’s welfare and wellbeing, and leadership and governance sections.
5. Minor punctuation and vocabulary changes
The newest version removes hyphens from “whistle-blowing” and “well-being” throughout, so both now appear as single, unhyphenated terms.
It won’t change the way your setting works, but if you like to align your own documentation with DfE and Ofsted phrasing, it’s worth knowing.
The changes to the Ofsted evaluation areas for September 2026
We know exact wording matters, so we’ve pulled the relevant text directly from both documents so you and your team can see precisely what’s changing.
Each change is displayed in one of two easy-to-read formats:
- A direct comparison of the original September 2025 wording alongside the updated version
- The original wording in black with the new additions highlighted in bold
Changes to Safeguarding
The factors for effective safeguarding list
Wording changes from the factors list section:
Having appropriate safeguarding and child protection arrangements, which ensure that leaders and staff:
- Identify children who are at risk of harm or who have been harmed; this can include, but is not limited to, neglect; abuse, including emotional, physical and sexual abuse (including from their peers); grooming; exploitation; and online harm.
Gathering evidence about safeguarding information for all to know and act on
What used to be two bullet points has now expanded to five, something to be aware of when preparing your practitioners for an inspection.
Inspectors evaluate the extent to which leaders:
- Ensure that practitioners and other staff have received the training they need for them to know, understand and uphold their safeguarding responsibilities
- Ensure that the setting has policies and procedures for reporting safeguarding concerns about adults, poor safeguarding practices and whistleblowing
- Have an accurate understanding of children’s needs, particularly children with SEND, who often rely on adults to be able to identify safeguarding concerns
- Know the range of support available for families
- ‘Know that young children may not be able to understand when something happening to them is abuse
Expansion of the ‘Not met’ descriptor
Serious and/or widespread failures in safeguarding practice lead to children, or particular groups of children, being unsafe. Breaches of the statutory requirements for safeguarding have a significant impact on children’s safety, including where the quality of care is such that children have been harmed or are at risk of harm.
Changes to Inclusion
There have been a few tweaks to the wording of the descriptors that impact how Ofsted inspects inclusion in nurseries. As the SEND reform is due to be released in the autumn of 2026, we’d expect to see more changes for the inclusion evaluation area then.
Supporting children known to children’s social care
- Leaders and practitioners ensure that they identify and meet the individual needs of looked-after children through tailored, high-quality support that promotes their learning and development; leaders and practitioners have regard to personal education plans if any are in place.
Strong standard judgment
Original version of the toolkit said: ‘Leaders and practitioners consistently make a demonstrable difference to the opportunities and experiences of disadvantaged children’.
September 2026 toolkit update says: ‘Leaders and practitioners establish strategies that consistently enhance the opportunities and experiences of disadvantaged children’.
Changes to Curriculum and Teaching
Exemptions to learning and development clarity
One of the most notable changes seen in the evaluation area of Curriculum and Teaching is the clarity around exemptions from the learning and development requirements of the EYFS.
‘When evaluating curriculum and teaching in settings that are exempt from the learning and development requirements of the EYFS, inspectors will consider the exemptions and evaluate the curriculum and teaching against the remaining elements of the EYFS statutory framework. If any individual exemptions are in place for a child or children, providers must be able to demonstrate that they can meet the full requirements of the EYFS, regardless of these exemptions.’
The two types of exemptions
To be exempt from the learning and development areas attached to the EYFS requirements, the Secretary of State must grant an exemption.
Exemptions are granted for two main reasons:
- Provision-level exemption: As the setting’s curriculum philosophy doesn’t fit into the seven areas of learning and development.
- Individual-level exemption: This is requested by the parents if they feel the curriculum strongly conflicts with their philosophical or religious beliefs. An exemption can be requested for individual children when it’s felt that their stage of development or needs make it genuinely inappropriate.
Clarity on English vocabulary
Under the communication and language curriculum descriptor, it now says: ‘places a strong focus on English vocabulary, oral language and language comprehension’.
EYFS early Maths
The latest version of the toolkit adds that ‘the Maths curriculum is taught in age- and stage-appropriate ways, through direct instructions, everyday routines and play‘
Practitioner’s high-quality teaching
September 2026 updated version says: ‘practitioners check for differences in knowledge and understanding and plan further teaching to ensure that children’s early learning is secure’.
Toolkit changes to Achievement
As with the other evaluation areas, Ofsted’s area of EYFS Achievement sees the removal of the future impact on potentially disadvantaged children, the exemption clarity information seen in the Curriculum and Teaching area, and the requirement to use EYFS statutory requirements as a baseline.
Changes to Behaviour, Attitudes and Routines
Playing collaboratively clarity
You’ll see a slight expansion of the expectations on how children play together: ‘Children play games and activities collaboratively and get along well with others in a way that is appropriate for their age and/or stage of development.‘
Removal of warm, positive relationships
When you’re analysing how effective your Behaviour, Attitudes and Establishing Routines provision is, one of the first things to look at is how your practitioners help children to build secure attachments.
And, although this is a vital part of the evaluation area of Behaviour, it’s a phrase repeated in the Welfare and Wellbeing area, too.
This latest update to the toolkit has amended this phrase, but it is kept only in the Welfare and Wellbeing section.
Changes to Welfare and Wellbeing
Trusting key worker relationships
As mentioned above, the phrase found in the factors that impact effective welfare and wellbeing provision for children has been removed from the Behaviour, Attitudes and Establishing Routines toolkit descriptors and is only kept in the inspector’s guidance for effective EYFS Welfare and Wellbeing.
There’s also been a slight tweak to the wording: ‘establishing warm, positive and trusting relationships between key persons and babies and children’
Sleep arrangements, weaning and safer eating
As expected, the new statutory guidance on early years sleeping arrangements, weaning and safer eating is clearly linked to the descriptors in this evaluation area.
This is mentioned in the factors that demonstrate effective Welfare and Wellbeing provision section of the toolkit and again in the leadership evidence-gathering section.
Food preparation
There’s a new line added under the leadership evidence gathering section: ‘ensure that children’s food is prepared and provided in line with their individual needs, developmental stage and any agreed care or allergy plans’
New practitioner guidance for supporting welfare and wellbeing
In the original toolkit, under the section of ‘Developing and supporting children’s welfare and wellbeing’, there are 6 bullet points that explain what inspectors consider evidence of.
The latest update adds 3 new bullet points (you can find the existing 6 bullet points on page 42 of the toolkit).
- Practitioners ensure that children, particularly babies and those under 2 years old, are placed down to sleep safely; they consistently put into practice safe sleeping arrangements, including making sure that children are in a safe position for sleeping, that the sleep space, bedding, and temperature are appropriate, and that children are supervised
- Children are supervised appropriately while eating, including being within sight and hearing of staff, and supported to eat safely
- Staff understand and consistently apply arrangements for managing allergies, food intolerances, dietary requirements and choking risks
Welfare exceptional standard
There’s a change to how families are supported within Welfare and Wellbeing in the latest version.
September 2026 version says: ‘Exceptionally high standards of children’s welfare and wellbeing have been sustained. Children and families feel well supported,*make a strong, positive contribution to the setting’s inclusive culture and are exceptionally well prepared for their next steps’
*The phrase “develop consistently detailed knowledge and skills” has been removed.
Leadership and Governance changes
The changes found in the evaluation area of Leadership and Governance focus on ensuring that the new statutory requirements for sleeping arrangements, weaning, and safer eating are correctly implemented and monitored.
Along with ensuring that professional learning and expertise are amended in line with these recent safer sleeping changes. The EYFS requirements for leadership in the EYFS statutory framework are met as a minimum.
Keeping up with Ofsted updates is just one part of running a nursery well
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