When we read Ofsted inspection reports, they give us an insight into what is happening during early years inspections. While they should not be considered without context, reports tell us the main areas of practice which are impacting on grades for colleagues, so we can learn from them and maybe make changes to our own provision and ways of working.

The Early Years Foundation Stage is the statutory framework. The EYFS includes the minimum expectations for early years compliance and inspection is much closer than ever before to the EYFS requirements.

Ofsted use their suite of inspection guidance documents including the early years inspection toolkit, operating guide and further guidance when planning and implementing inspection. The documents set out the 7 inspection areas and the possible outcomes across 5 grades.

You can read reports on the Ofsted inspection reports page. If you want to read latest childminder reports, for example, you can go to the page and filter by 'childminder' and 'latest' to see the most recently published report cards.

In part 1 of this series of inspection outcome blogs, we will cover some of the recently published report comments relating to 'safeguarding', 'inclusion', 'curriculum and teaching' and 'achievement'. We will look at other report outcomes in part 2.

Safeguarding inspection outcomes:

Lack of understanding of the safeguarding requirements.

Ofsted will check that your safeguarding knowledge is secure and inspectors will ask questions about safeguarding. You need to know – or be able to signpost – the answers. Inspectors recognise you might be nervous during inspection and Ofsted has stated that inspection is not a memory test and you can refer to your notes.

Having a good quality Safeguarding Policy will help you to find the answer if you are unsure. Childcare.co.uk has recently presented a Safeguarding Refresher – writing your policy webinar.

Childcare.co.uk also has resources to support your safeguarding knowledge including previously recorded webinars to cover the EYFS Annex C statutory training requirements and a useful safeguarding Q & A.

No paediatric first aid certificate.

This is also reflected in the leadership grade – you are failing to comply with the statutory EYFS if your paediatric first aid certificate is out of date. You should check your certificate date and book your first aid well enough in advance to cover unexpected cancellations.

Childcare.co.uk has a Tigerlily discount code for gold members.

Poorly written / no safeguarding policy.

It is not enough to have a one-page or short Safeguarding Policy. Your policy must reflect the breadth of safeguarding and be well written and robust, guiding you through what to do if you have a concern about a child, whistleblowing and attendance requirements, Prevent duty and more.

Childcare.co.uk has a sample Safeguarding Policy for gold members.

Undeclared partnership working.

In this instance, 2 childminders were found to be working together a lot during the week but were not registered to work together with Ofsted. This is a breach of the requirements – if you are working in what Ofsted consider to be partnership with another childminder, you must register with Ofsted to operate from each other's houses. If you are unsure about whether this applies to you, you will need to email Ofsted.

Ofsted notification.

A number of reports note that a childminder has not notified Ofsted of a significant incident. This might be a change in health or medication, a new member of the household (who would need a home-based Matrix DBS and completion of the Ofsted report new people in the setting form) or, for example, a change of circumstances, serious accident or incident.

Ofsted has guidance on what they need to be informed about which you should always check if you are unsure whether a notification is serious or not. Ofsted expect childminders to use their serious notification form.

You will also find more detail in a recently published Safeguarding concerns for childminders blog.

Inclusion inspection outcomes:

Lack of reasonable adjustments.

This relates to a scenario where the provider needs to make adjustments (statutory under the Equality Act 2010) to support a child, but they have not been put in place. Ofsted note that the child will not be making the best progress from their starting points if adjustments are not provided.

You can read more information about reasonable adjustments in the Equality Act (section 20).

Now that inclusion weaves through all inspection areas, this outcome is likely to impact on other areas as well – for example, lack of reasonable adjustments to support a child's learning might impact outcomes for 'curriculum and teaching' or 'leadership and governance'.

Childcare.co.uk has introduced the DfE intended changes to SEND provision in their March 2026 newsletter, including the expected impact on early years providers.

Progress is not monitored closely enough to identify gaps in learning.

There is no requirement to record children's learning, development and progress and DfE has stated that assessment 'should not require excessive paperwork.' (EYFS 2.2)

However, the Ofsted early years inspection toolkit states that providers are expected to use the graduated approach (required in the SEND Code of Practice) to assess, plan, do, review. The graduated approach ensures children's progress is monitored regularly and any concerns are immediately reported to the Local Authority SENCO to request support for the child.

Childcare.co.uk has provided guidance on how to complete the graduated approach.

Poor partnership working with parents and / or other professionals.

Partnership working must be in place for every child – this is a requirement of the EYFS. Some children, for example, those with emerging needs require providers to work in closer partnership with parents and other professionals, to ensure help is available for the child.

When partnership working is not in place and there are delays to accessing support when it is needed, providers will not receive the 'expected standard' grade during inspection.

Childcare.co.uk has a useful Expected Standard Audit for members.

Curriculum and teaching inspection outcomes:

Activities are not enough.

In one report, the inspector noted that the provider said she was 'doing stickers' with the children – but when asked, she could not explain why. You must know the 'why?' behind the activities you are providing. The provider could have said, for example, that children enjoy stickers (linking to her knowledge of their current interests) and they are developing their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination which is a 'next step' for one or more of the children. Or the provider could have linked the activity to how she was developing children's imaginations and planned storytelling based on the stickers the children were using.

Childcare.co.uk has a recorded Activities are not enough webinar for gold members to watch again.

Lack of targeted learning goals.

In a similar outcome to 'activities are not enough', an inspector notes that the practitioner is not clear about what children are learning and why. For example, there is playdough set out but the practitioner has not decided what they want children to learn and be able to do during the session. Targeted learning goals mean clear next steps from observations and assessments – often to close gaps in learning or to teach something new.

Poor curriculum sequencing

An example in a report states that a practitioner was attempting to teach phonics to children who cannot talk in sentences. We know that Ofsted has said there is no expectation to teach 'formal phonics' in the early years – and we also know that curriculum sequencing is an inspection focus.

Childcare.co.uk has provided additional curriculum guidance to support providers.

Too much adult direction.

An inspector notes that a practitioner set out the activity and told the children what to do rather than allowing them to be creative. This might be a contentious observation outcome given some activities might be adult-led to teach children new skills or to share knowledge that children can then use independently at another time or in a different context. Osted has also stated in their inspection toolkit that providers must 'explicitly teach' some curriculum areas.

I think if this is an inspector concern, the provider should better explain the context of the activity to help them understand why an adult has led the learning. Ofsted has said that inspection is more collaborative and inspectors will listen to practitioner feedback.

Assessment is weak.

When assessment is not strong enough, children's next steps are not identified. This can lead to gaps in learning going unobserved and children not getting the support they need. This links closely to the 'achievement', 'inclusion' and 'leadership and governance' inspection outcomes as well as 'curriculum and teaching'.

Childcare.co.uk has sample assessment guidance based on child development knowledge.

Teaching is weak.

Inspectors are looking for 'explicit teaching' in mathematics, fundamental movement skills and executive function skills. There are other focus teaching areas taken from all 7 areas of learning, set out in the Ofsted inspection toolkit, that you should also be aware of and focus on in your curriculum. If you are unsure about any of these focus areas Childcare.co.uk has guidance available.

In this inspection report, the inspector carried out observations and decided that there was not enough teaching focus on communication and language. You will note that the curriculum expectations set out in the Ofsted early years inspection toolkit are closely linked to the Ofsted Best start in life research reviews.

Lack of training on teaching.

This comes up a lot in reports and is often linked to what the inspector felt was weak teaching, which would be improved with training. If you don't feel confident to teach early years children, you might want to access some training. There are Childcare.co.uk webinars that focus on how to teach using a variety of different strategies including, for example, developing children's interests, outside pedagogy, using next steps to support learning, scaffolding learning during play etc.

Teaching is incidental not purposeful.

When Ofsted states that 'teaching is incidental, not purposeful' they mean that learning is occurring by chance or as a side effect of activity, rather than being intentionally planned, structured, and implemented to achieve specific knowledge or skills.

When you are planning what you want children to learn and be able to do (your curriculum), you also need to plan how you are going to deliver that curriculum, so children are making progress from their starting points.

Information shared to support home learning is not age appropriate.

In one inspection report, the inspector noted that parents were provided with 'worksheets for letter formation'. This is not age-appropriate – information sharing for early years children should be focused on playful interactions. Maybe encouraging reading at home by sharing a book or some words to a new song children are learning, sending home a recipe or ideas for somewhere parents might visit at the weekend linked to a child's current interest in the setting. If the practitioner felt that children needed support with fine motor skills, they might suggest activities to do at home linked to this – not writing before children's motor skills are developed.

Childcare.co.uk has a series of Child development guides to support professional development.

Achievement inspection outcomes:

Assessment is not consistent.

This might be a comment where, for example, the inspector does not feel that the provider is assessing all children well – or the inspector spots gaps in learning which the provider has not noted and is not working on as part of the child's next steps.

DfE has provided some useful SEND assessment guidance.

Lack of progress from starting points.

Inspection report cards note that, in some settings, children are not making the best progress and are not ready for school. Inspectors will very likely read the Kindred² School Readiness Report which links to children who are starting school not toilet trained, not speaking clearly, not knowing their names and not prepared for school etc. The early years is where they learn these skills and inspectors will be looking for clear evidence of teaching throughout the day.

Learning is not consistent.

We know that Ofsted are focusing on consistency when grading providers 'expected standard.' They cannot make 'best fit' judgements anymore – during inspection, they have to see something happening every time to award the grade. When they say 'learning is not consistent' they mean that they have spotted missed opportunities for children to learn something new.

Missed opportunities are often linked to mathematics which the inspection handbook states must be explicitly taught. Childcare.co.uk has upcoming webinars about maths and explicit teaching in March 2026 which will be recorded for gold members to watch again.

Next steps / learning intentions are not precise enough.

You ask parents for their child's home starting points – you observe and assess what children can and cannot yet do – you have next steps for each child - you work on them in the setting and with parents. Sometimes next steps are short-term gaps that you spot during your activities and that you can scaffold during play and other times they might be longer-term goals. For example, a longer-term next step might be to support a 3-year-old with toileting or other school readiness skills. You must know each child's next steps, be able to explain them clearly to your inspector and discuss how you share them with parents to support home learning.

Children do not sit to listen to stories – they wander off.

This is a tricky inspection comment because there are times when you might feel that children – especially little ones in a mixed age environment – shouldn't have to sit and listen to stories and you will set activities out for them to engage while you finish reading. Your intention is probably to come back to them and read one-to-one later. However, Ofsted will look at how the younger children's inattention affects the whole group – they might, for example, distract the older children.

In one inspection, the provider explained to me later that she had tried to regain the little one's attention and the other children had become restless and moved away.

In another inspection, the inspector notes that the children were distracted by puppets and instead of listening to the story, they were throwing the puppets around and getting up to chase them. This type of behaviour often happens when providers make changes to their normal routines for inspection. A key inspection tip is to do what you normally do during your daily routines – don't change anything for inspection – so the children are not confused.

Childcare.co.uk has a recorded webinar about inspection challenges from February 2026.

You will also find useful Ofsted inspection guidance on the website.