Inclusion – what you need to know

Inclusion is a big part of the inspection process. It is evaluated individually and features in all the other inspection areas – safeguarding, curriculum and teaching, achievement, behaviour, attitudes and routines, children’s welfare and wellbeing and leadership and governance, for example:

• Inclusion and safeguarding – Ofsted will seek to ensure that, ‘Practitioners recognise that babies and young children, including those with SEND, may be more vulnerable to abuse and neglect and that they depend on adults to recognise and respond to concerns on their behalf.’


• Inclusion and curriculum and teaching – you must, ‘Have the knowledge and strategies to reduce any barriers and adapt the curriculum appropriately for disadvantaged children.’


• Inclusion and achievement – if you do not care for children with SEND or other disadvantages, Ofsted stat that you must be able to talk about how you would be inclusive in the future. You might draw on experiences relating to children you have cared for previously.


• Inclusion and behaviour, attitudes and routines – you must prioritise positive relationships and have high expectations for every child. You must ‘make reasonable adjustments and adaptations when considering children’s needs, challenges and barriers’ and ‘reflect on children’s changing circumstances and needs.’


• Inclusion and children’s welfare and wellbeing – the inspection focus is on positive relationships, health and care practices, supporting independence and teaching children to, ‘Respect the different protected characteristics as defined by the Equality Act 2010’ so they, ‘Do not tolerate any forms of, bullying, unlawful discrimination, harassment or victimisation.’


• Inclusion and leadership and governance – Ofsted will look at your compliance with legislation (see below).

Note that Ofsted has broadened the scope of inclusion to cover children with special educational needs and / or disabilities (SEND) and ‘Those who are known (or previously known) to children’s social care, and those who may face other barriers to their learning and/or well-being.’

You must be compliant with legislation – for example, you must use the statutory framework in England and other statutory documents. In relation to inclusion, you must ensure compliance with:

• The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework for all early years providers in England.


• The Children and Families Act 2014: Part 3 – focuses on provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), outlining the importance of involving parents and carers in decision-making.


• The Equality Act 2010 – in the early years, the focus is on making ‘reasonable adjustments’ to support the child and ensuring every child is included. The Equality Act also sets out the protected characteristics which you must use and teach children about, as set out in the Ofsted inspection toolkit.


• The SEND code of practice – in the early years, you must use the graduated approach, a continuous cycle of ‘assess, plan, do, review.’


• Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) is the primary statutory guidance document for schools and colleges on safeguarding children and the EYFS states that early years providers, ‘May also find it useful to look at’ the document. KCSIE is integral to ensuring an inclusive, safe environment for all children and pupils.

Throughout the inspection areas, you must demonstrate high expectations for every child with:

• An ambitious curriculum – talk about how you plan for every child including children with SEND.


• Sequenced learning – teaching children the right things in the right order.


• Celebrating achievement – including the small steps a child with SEND might make.


• A strong sense of belonging for every child – starting with the key person approach and developing attachments. Children need to feel valued, safe and secure in your setting.

Part of having high expectations is being able to quickly identify children who are struggling. Think about how well you can show this through:

• Parent starting points – in place before the child starts in the setting.


• Your baseline assessment – how the child is getting on in the setting.


• Identify emerging needs using child development knowledge and, for example, small group / cohort tracking to help you spot if a child is struggling.


• Progress check at 2 documents for every 2–3-year-old in the setting.

Review how well you use ongoing assessment to drive progress. You can use the DfE assessment guidance and Childcare.co.uk quick assessment tools.

If you spot a child has gaps in their learning, you must work quickly to reduce barriers and make changes that will support their ongoing progress. Areas of practice to consider include:

• Review your Attendance Policy – is it inclusive?


• Do you need to adapt / adjust the environment and resources to support the child?


• Review your curriculum including daily routines, approaches to teaching and children’s next steps – do they support progress? The focus of the curriculum should be on the 3 prime areas of learning –


• Communication and language.


• Personal, social and emotional development.


• Physical development.


• Do you need to do any training or professional development to better support a child’s care or learning needs? Council for Disabled Children has published some useful training modules.

• Think about what strategies you need to implement to support the child – what do they need from you? You should work closely with parents, other settings and agencies to make changes – you might want to record these steps.

There is an expectation in the Ofsted early years inspection toolkit that you should be using the graduated approach (set out in the SEND Code of Practice) to support children’s progress. Do you need training? Your local authority might have more information or paperwork expectations. The graduated approach follows this format:

• Assess – what the child can and cannot yet do – see ‘identify children who are struggling.’


• Review the curriculum and plan for learning – see ‘work quickly to reduce barriers.’


• Do – deliver your planning (curriculum) in a way that makes sense to the child, reflecting on what changes you might need to make.


• Review – what has the child learned? What can they now do?

Childcare.co.uk has guidance to help you implement the graduated approach in your setting.

Ofsted are clear in their responses to questions that providers must consult to support the child with or without parental permission. Consultation might be with the local authority SEND team or other agencies and professionals who support the child. The focus should be on:

• Sharing your Local Authority local offer with parents.


• Informing parents about your concerns.


• Working with other settings (if children attend elsewhere).


• Putting a graduated approach in place for the child.


• Accessing multi agency support.

If you receive EYPP for a child you must be aware that Ofsted will inspect how it has been spent, to benefit the child. You should record this as part of an ‘EYPP strategy’ which you should share with the inspector:

• Read the Ofsted How we look at the use of EYPP in our inspections of early years settings blog.


• Put together an Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) strategy. More info here


• Review the impact of how funding has been spent – what different has it made on outcomes for the child? You must focus on the child for whom the money was provided.

You should consider your record keeping – Ofsted don’t want to see lots of records relating to observations, assessments, planning etc but they will want to talk about the graduated approach and how you have recorded information for other agencies and professionals, to support, for example, a diagnosis and multi-agency working. Considerations include, for example:

• Starting points in writing from parents – about what their child can do and has done at home or in other settings they attend.


• Baseline assessment – your assessments of the child’s progress from a professional point of view, considering your knowledge of child development and the typical child.


• The child’s graduated approach and regular reviews of progress which are shared with parents, to support the child’s home learning and any meetings they attend.


• A care plan for the child – if needed. A care plan might be useful if a child needs more support with, for example, their personal care or health needs or if you have multiple staff caring for children who all need to share information. Childcare.co.uk has useful guidance about how to write a care plan.

What next? As with any changes, you must consider what you need to do next. What do you want to implement or improve? What changes do you need to make? For example, after reading the guidance you might need to share a copy of your LA local offer for SEND with parents or start a graduated approach plan for a child. You might find the following guidance useful:

• Audit inclusion in the Ofsted inspection toolkit.


• Share your Attendance Policy with parents.


• Ask your LA for the latest information about their SEND local offer to share with parents.


• Review your policies – are they inclusive?

Think about: what are YOUR strengths and areas for improvement?