Ofsted and the Early Years Statutory Framework

The renewed framework incorporates changes to the inspection process, the introduction of an inspection report card and toolkits to support and guide settings to understand what the inspector will be looking for throughout the inspection.

Under the new inspection framework out of school settings will now be inspected and receive the same grading at early years provisions rather than a met or not met.

From April 2026 Ofsted will inspect all new early years/out of school providers within eighteen months of opening and move towards inspecting all providers at least once every four years, compared to the current six-year cycle.

All out of school settings will be inspected against a five-point grading scale for the following evaluation areas:

• Inclusion
• Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines
• Children’s welfare and wellbeing
• Leadership and management
• Safeguarding

Out of school settings are exempt from delivering the learning and development requirements, they will not be inspected against curriculum, teaching and achievement and will not receive a grade for these.

The toolkit sets out the areas that will be evaluated and graded against the following the five-point grading scale.

• Urgent improvement
• Needs attention
• Expected standard
• Strong standard
• Exceptional

Ofsted have produced a webinar explaining the renewed framework Out of School Ofsted Inspection Framework webinar
and short briefing for the new report card Ofsted report card.

Ofsted has two types of registrations for childcare providers:

• Early Years Register
• Childcare Register, which is in 2 parts: a compulsory part and a voluntary part

Any out of school/wraparound providers who offers childcare for children from reception class (31 August after their 5th birthday) up until eight years and expects to provide after school childcare (including the breakfast club if run under the same registration/provider) and during the holidays, are required to register with Ofsted on the Early Years Register and the Childcare Register (compulsory) unless they are exempt. Ofsted have created an information pack to support potential providers when choosing which registrations, they need to apply for and a breakdown of how this may be achieved.

Ofsted pre-registration briefing 
Applying to register with Ofsted information
Compulsory Childcare Register requirements
Framework for the regulation of provision on the childcare register

The following link to the Ofsted document ‘registration exemptions’ sets out the criteria for childcare settings who may be exempt from registering with Ofsted on either or both registers.
Ofsted Registration exemptions

The Early Years Register is for childcare providers who care for children from birth to the 31 of August after their fifth birthday. out of school/ wraparound providers who wish to take children in reception class or younger must be registered on the early years register unless they are exempt Ofsted Registration exemptions. If providers care for children from the 31 of August after their fifth birthday up to the age of eight, they must also be registered and meet the requirements of the compulsory part of the Childcare Register (and voluntary register requirements if they have chosen to register) unless they are exempt. For out of school providers on the early years register it is mandatory for them to meet the Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework (EYFS) which sets out the standards that early years and childcare providers must meet to ensure that children learn, develop well and are kept healthy and safe. These providers are exempt from delivering the learning and development requirements of the EYFS. However, they do have to meet the safeguarding and welfare requirements in full, which are designed to help providers meet their statutory and legal duties.

In May 2025 the Department for Education revised the Early Years Statutory Framework and the safeguarding and welfare requirements, which came into effect from September 2025. Early Years Statutory Framework for group and school based provision.

The Early Years Quality team have developed the safeguarding and welfare requirement audit to support settings in meeting their statutory duty and create high-quality settings that are welcoming, safe and stimulating, and where children are able to grow in confidence. Link to Safeguarding Welfare Requirement Audit on Kelsi to be added.

There is a supporting document for the revised requirement 3.62. ‘Where children are provided with meals, snacks and drinks, these must be healthy, balanced and nutritious’. EYFS Nutrition Guidance May 2025 This means providers must take this into account and should follow it unless there is good reason not to. Out of school settings can also to refer to the School Food Standards.

The revised early years safeguarding and welfare requirements 3.63 to 3.70, give detailed information regarding the requirements for staff to ensure that they are supporting safer eating habits and routines. Kent Safeguarding Children Multi-Agency Partnership (KSCMP) have developed a comprehensive information document for settings to refer to in line with this requirement. KSCMP safer eating in the early years.