Ofsted Inspection Reports Outcomes (part 2)

Ofsted introduced their new inspection framework from 10th November 2025. It is clear from reading the framework documents that Ofsted inspection has changed.

When we look closely at some of the outcomes of inspections, by reading through inspection report cards, we can see the main changes that are impacting early years providers.

It should be recognised that the new inspection framework is much closer to the statutory requirements in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). However, there are still nuances in the inspection process which make inspection report cards interesting reading.

In part 1 of this series of inspection outcome blogs, we discussed some of the Ofsted report comments relating to 'safeguarding', 'inclusion', 'curriculum and teaching' and 'achievement'. In part 2 of this blog series, our focus will be on the inspection outcomes for 'behaviour, attitudes and routines', 'children's welfare and wellbeing' and 'leadership and governance.'

Behaviour, attitudes and routines inspection outcomes:

Unclear behaviour expectations when there is conflict between children.

Everyone in the setting needs to agree on how to 'support, understand and manage' children's behaviour, to ensure compliance with the EYFS. This means, for example, that when a child's behaviour does not meet age-appropriate expectations, providers need to agree with parents how to support them and they must be consistent in their approach across the setting. The Ofsted early years inspection toolkit does not allow for inconsistent practice.

Children are waiting around for too long between activities and become distracted.

This concern has been raised in multiple inspections. It usually relates to transition times where children are expected to stand or sit and wait for something to happen. For example, everyone lines up for hand washing and the practitioner supports each child while some children start messing around and disrupting others. Resolutions might include taking smaller groups of children to wash hands and engaging others with songs and rhymes.

Television on in the background 'hinders children's ability to focus'.

Inspectors will often comment on the negative impact of auditory or visual clutter on children's ability to focus and concentrate on their learning. For example, a constant sound in the background will impede children's listening and attention and mean they don't hear what you are saying to them as well as they might – this will impact outcomes for communication and language and across the curriculum.

Lack of attendance policy.

In this case, the inspector felt that the provider was unclear about the EYFS 2025 'attendance' requirements (this outcome also affects safeguarding). The new requirements are to have an Attendance Policy which is shared with parents and to be aware of when to raise concerns about a child's lack of attendance.

Childcare.co.uk has a sample Attendance Policy.

Children's welfare and wellbeing inspection outcomes:

Risk assessments in place but not implemented.

You must keep children safe and you do that with risk assessment. While written risk assessments are not a requirement of the EYFS, you must do them throughout the day and the EYFS states that you might want to write them, 'in relation to specific issues, to inform their practice, and to demonstrate how they are managing risks if asked by parents and/or carers or inspectors.'

However, a piece of paper is yet to keep children safe. The onus is on the provider to use risk assessment as a starting point and make changes to support children's health, safety and wellbeing. When this is not in place, you will not meet the minimum standards of the 'expected standard' grade.

Accident monitoring not in place.

An inspector noted that the provider does not monitor accidents to make changes to risk assessments. This means, for example, that if a child is hurt you will write an accident form, share it with parents and ask them to sign. You should then use the accident outcome to inform your future risk assessments, making every attempt to ensure that what happened does not happen again.

Lack of focus on independence.

This comes through in a lot of reports and is often linked to school readiness skills including toileting, self-feeding, putting on their own coats and shoes etc. Early years providers must support children's independence – the Ofsted mantra is, 'Don't do something for a child that they can reasonably be expected to do for themselves.'

On some occasions you might need to advocate for the child – explain, for example, that they are new or that this is an area they struggle with and discuss how you are working with parents to support them.

Lack of privacy when toileting.

The EYFS was updated in Sept 2025 and states that privacy must be in place when children are going to the toilet. This means, for example, that other children should not be watching when a child is on the toilet. It also means ensuring babies and toddlers have privacy when you are changing nappies. The EYFS states that you must balance this with ensuring you are supervising other children fully.

Unhealthy food in lunch bags / provided in the setting.

The EYFS update in Sept 2025 included information about healthy eating linked to the DfE nutrition statutory guidance.

This means that Ofsted will comment if they do not see healthy food offered by the setting or that providers have not done enough to encourage parents to provide healthy food in lunch bags for their children. You will need to go through the new standards with parents and provide them with information about healthy eating, portion sizes, appropriate safe food for early years children etc.

Dirty room, tables and chairs.

Ofsted expect to see a high level of cleanliness so children can play and learn in a safe and healthy environment. If there is visual dirt or if children are sitting in dirty spaces, it shows a lack of attention to detail that is likely to be missing from other areas of practice.

Leadership and governance inspection outcomes:

Lack of training on child development.

A focus on child development links to knowing what children typically know and can do at different ages and what is expected when setting 'next steps' for their future learning. Child development knowledge is an essential part of early years practice and underpins practitioner and leadership decisions related to curriculum, teaching, whether children are achieving well etc.

DfE has a free child development training course for providers.

Lack of support for children with SEND.

Ofsted includes a lot of different children within SEND including vulnerable children, children known (or previously known) to social services, children who receive early years pupil premium (EYPP) and more. This comment will also link to the inclusion evaluation area and could mean that the practitioner has failed to identify and / or support children who have gaps in their learning. It might also come through the leadership section of inspection where EYPP has not been targeted on the child or shown to be making a difference to outcomes for the child.

This EYPP blog from Ofsted is essential reading if you have a child in your care who receives EYPP funding.

NASEN has a free SEND training course for providers.

Lack of self-evaluation and action planning.

You do not need a written self-evaluation and action plan. However, Ofsted has suggested you might want to use their inspection toolkit 'expected standard' as an audit of provision, so you identify areas of weakness and work to improve them.

You must be able to identify your strengths and areas of practice you are currently working on. This is usually a question during the planning phone call and then the inspector will look during inspection to see how it is developed in practice. For example, if you say that you are adapting your outside spaces to support learning, you will be able to talk in more detail during inspection about the areas you have already worked on and what you are planning to do next.

Lack of medication permission.

In this instance, the setting had some prescribed cream near the sink for children to use after handwashing, but parents had not signed permission for their child to use the cream. Inspectors expect to see permission in children's files for all medication and / or treatments, signed by parents to confirm administration permission and again to confirm it has been administered.

Childcare.co.uk has free medication administration permission forms.

Poor parent partnerships.

This comment often comes up when Ofsted has spoken to parents during inspection and asked about, for example, information sharing, ideas for home learning, policy or self-evaluation involvement and parents have looked a little vague. You must also ensure all parents are involved in what you are doing with their children – not just the ones you see regularly – and find ways to engage with the harder to reach parents who might not be as willing to get involved.

Ratio concerns.

This comes up with group providers who have not achieved the statutory adult – child ratios and also with childminders who the inspector feels are over ratio and unable to deliver high enough quality of care or learning for the early years children.

The EYFS does give some ratio flexibility, but it must always be balanced against outcomes for children and planned wisely.

Staffing concerns.

Ofsted will inspect safer recruitment, induction training, staff files, ongoing support and supervisions for staff members. Weaknesses in this area of practice usually come up in group setting reports but with more childminders having staff, it is important to promote good practice.

Childcare.co.uk has staff guidance including staff training modules.

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

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