SENCO during inspection

From 1 September 2026, Ofsted's renewed early years inspection approach puts a strong emphasis on inclusion and inspectors will specifically speak with the person acting as the special educational needs coordinator (SENCO) for the setting. In a childminding setting, the childminder is the SENCO - in a group setting there must be a member of staff who is nominated as the SENCO.

During inspection, Ofsted will look at the experiences and outcomes of children with special educational needs and / or disabilities (SEND). Note that paperwork is a consideration during inspection and must be in place, but the focus is on outcomes for the children.

What you need to know for Ofsted

The most important things that you can confidently explain to your inspector include:

• Which children in your setting have an education, health and care plan (EHCP) or a graduated approach plan? - you will need this information before your inspection because the inspector will raise it during the planning call.
• Which children are on your radar - who are you worried about? You should be able to talk confidently about the learning journey of every child in the setting and why you have raised a flag for a particular child.
• Which children are diagnosed with SEND? - you will need to be able to explain their needs.
• What are you doing to support them? - what have you put in place?
• What difference is it making? - what progress have they made? If they are not making progress, what changes are you making to the plan to better support them?

You don't need to create lots of additional paperwork specifically for Ofsted, but you will need a file for each child with their plan and adaptations, appointment details and information from parents and other agencies and professionals linked to the child. Ofsted explicitly says settings should not do additional work or create activities just for inspection.

Childcare.co.uk has a recorded webinar about the graduated approach for members, and there is further written guidance on the graduated approach here.

How can you be ready for inspection?

Know all the children including those with SEND

During inspection, be ready to talk about:

• How many children are on roll - and how many children currently have SEND.
• Who is receiving SEN support and who has an EHCP.
• The main areas of need for your children.
• Which children are awaiting assessments or referrals.
• Which children have recently moved into SEN support.
• What each child can currently do - their strengths, interests and barriers to learning.
• What progress they are making from their starting points.
• What support or adaptations are currently in place.

Rather than saying that you think a child might have autism (you must never diagnose) you might say that a child finds changes to routines difficult and can become overwhelmed in busy environments. You have introduced a visual timetable, give the child warnings before transitions and provide a quieter space when needed. This has helped the child move between activities calmly and they are now beginning to join small-group activities. That type of response demonstrates knowledge, action and impact.

Be able to explain your graduated approach

The Ofsted early years inspection toolkit expects you to be using the graduated approach for children with SEND. The graduated approach is to assess, plan, do and review. You must also identify quickly which children might need extra support, so you can assess, plan, do and review for the right children.

You might be asked:

• How do you identify a child who may have additional needs? - the inspector is looking for speed of response as well as appropriate support in place for the child.
• How do you assess the child's needs? - the inspector is looking at ongoing observations, assessments and close partnerships with parents as well as the statutory progress check at 2.
• How do you decide what support is appropriate? - the inspector wants you to explain extra training you might have taken, targeted reading you might have done as well as conversations with parents and other professionals.
• How do you review whether the support is working? - the inspector wants to understand how you regularly review the child's graduated approach plan, to ensure it is still current.
• What happens if the child isn't making expected progress?
• When would you involve outside professionals?

You should be able to give a real example from your setting - either current or very recent.

Know your interventions and their impact

Ofsted isn't looking for a list saying that you plan visual timetables, sensory activities, speech groups, now and next boards or small-group work. The inspector will want to understand why you are making these adaptations and whether they are helping.

For example, if a child struggles to communicate wants and needs you have identified the need and:

Action: Objects, photos and simple visual choices introduced.

Impact: Child is now independently choosing between two activities and is less frustrated.

Next step: Develop two-word combinations and / or functional communication with support from parents and the relevant professional.

That answer is much stronger than simply saying, 'We use visuals.'

Multi-agency working

The child's plan should include information from other agencies or professionals and you should input further information about the child in the setting when required / requested. You will need to be familiar with the professionals involved with your children, such as:

• Speech and Language Therapy.
• Occupational Therapy or Physiotherapy.
• Educational Psychology.
• Portage.
• Health visitors or Paediatricians.
• Area SENCO and local authority SEND services - including the Local Authority Local Offer which informs parents about the level of support the LA offers their child. You should be able to find your LA Local Offer on their website.

As part of this plan, you need to know:

• Who has been involved with the child.
• Why they were involved.
• What advice they gave.
• How you implemented that advice.
• What difference it has made to outcomes for the child.
• What you are doing if advice hasn't had the desired impact.

Ofsted's inspection approach specifically considers how well the setting identifies and supports children with SEND, working closely with the SENCO.

Know your EHCP children particularly well

If you have children with an EHCP, make sure you know:

• Their key needs across the 7 areas of learning.
• Their outcomes from starting points - the progress they are making.
• The provision specified in their plan and how that provision is being delivered.
• Who is responsible for delivering the plan - for example, the key person or team around the child.
• How often reviews happen - for example, whether the current plan is still up to date for the child.
• How you monitor the child's progress.
• How you work with parents and professionals.
• Any upcoming reviews or changes.

Ofsted's inspection guidance specifically says case sampling should include children with an EHCP where relevant. For example, the inspector will choose a child or group of children and monitor their progress. Case sampling is explained in more detail in the Ofsted early years inspection operating guide.

Be able to talk about inclusion

This is particularly important from 1 September 2026. Ofsted describes inclusion as being about the experiences and outcomes of children with SEND, disadvantaged children, children known to social care and children facing other barriers to learning and wellbeing. Think about, for example, whether the child is genuinely included - not that they attend but that they can:

• Access the environment - inside and outside and join in activities.
• Communicate and be understood by those around them.
• Participate in routines, join in and play with other children, with adaptations where necessary.

For a childminder working from your own home, reasonable adjustments tend to look practical rather than a separate room or a setting-wide policy. This might include:

• Adapting your home environment - a low-stimulus corner, a clear pathway or visual markers around the house and garden rather than a dedicated room.
• Building in extra warning time around transitions involving your own household - other minded children arriving or leaving or your own family coming home.
• Adapting or duplicating resources cheaply - such as chunky-grip cutlery or a visual choice board rather than buying specialist equipment.
• Briefing your own family, where appropriate, on how to support and include the child.

Everyone in the setting must have high expectations for every child, so that they have the same opportunities as their peers (with adaptations in place) across the curriculum, environment, resources etc. They must support independence, the child's interests and ensure every child has a strong sense of belonging as part of the community.

Know how you support practitioners

As the SENCO you are the lead practitioner - you must be able to talk about how you, for example, identify and provide training for staff. An inspector might also be interested in how you make SEND everyone's responsibility. Be ready to explain:

• How you advise colleagues / practitioners.
• How you model strategies to support practice.
• How you share information about children's needs in the setting, monitoring consistency for the child.
• How you support staff who are less experienced with SEND.
• How SEND strategies are embedded into everyday practice rather than being something the SENCO does separately.

Ofsted's updated guidance emphasises that inclusion is the responsibility of all leaders and staff, not just the SENCO.

Know your parents' involvement

You should be able to demonstrate genuine partnership with parents. Think about:

• How concerns are initially shared - what do you do if a parent is reluctant to follow your advice?
• How parents contribute to identifying needs - how often do you, for example, ask parents for feedback about what their child is doing at home?
• How you communicate progress with parents and agree next steps.
• How parents are involved in reviews.
• How you share strategies that can be used at home.
• How you respond when parents disagree with your assessment.
• How you support parents to access local services.

During inspection, Ofsted inspectors aim to speak with parents and one of the questions they will likely ask is about the quality of support for children with SEND.

Know your SEND Policy

To comply with the EYFS you must write and regularly update your SEND Policy and share it with parents. You must also know your LA's local offer to share with parents. If you work with assistants / staff, everyone in the setting needs to read the policy, so they know that you are the SENCO and you can help them with, for example, referral pathways and access to specialist support.

The SEND Policy should explain how you will make reasonable adjustments for the child in the setting and support transition when they are ready to move on. The inspector will want to know how this works in practice so be ready to give some examples - for example, transition meetings and plans for the child, visits to the next setting, photos and visual stories, parent meetings and information sharing.

Childcare.co.uk has a model SEND Policy for members which you can adapt for your own use.

What will you need to show the inspector?

As we have already noted, you don't need a file 'for Ofsted' but you do need to ensure your SEND documentation is up to date and accurate. Information you might need includes, for example:

• SEND Policy and LA Local Offer - shared with everyone in the setting.
• Current SEND register.
• SEN support records and EHCP information.
• Referrals you have sent and followed up.
• Professional reports and advice.
• Graduated plans for the child and relevant adjustments you are making.
• Parent communication.
• Individual support and / or plans where appropriate.
• Transition information for the child.

You should also have records of training and professional development opportunities, examples of staff support and coaching. If you receive additional funding for the child - for example, early years pupil premium (EYPP) - you must also be able to talk about how it is spent to benefit the child. This How we look at the use of EYPP blog from Ofsted will provide some support.

What might the inspector ask?

• How quickly do you aim to identify a child with SEND?
• How do you know when a child needs SEN support?
• Talk me through one child currently receiving SEN support.
• What are their needs? - your understanding of their needs must be accurate, based on support from other agencies and professionals.
• What are you doing to support them? Why did you choose those strategies?
• How do you know they're working? What progress has the child made?
• What happens if the child doesn't make progress?
• How do you involve parents? - if parents are not engaged, Ofsted are likely to suggest you are not trying hard enough.
• Which outside agencies are involved?
• How do you implement professional advice? - for example, making changes to provision, monitoring the effectiveness of changes and supporting the child.
• How do you support other practitioners in the setting to meet children's needs?
• How do you ensure children with SEND are included? - for example, how do you make reasonable adjustments? How do you support children with SEND during transitions?
• How do you monitor the quality of SEND provision? - you will need to talk about the impact of your provision on outcomes for children.
• What are your current priorities for SEND?
• What are you most proud of regarding SEND provision?
• A question that is coming up recently - what would you improve if you had the resources or time?

Ofsted's inspection approach is about understanding the setting's context, quality and impact and leaders are expected to identify priorities for improvement. As part of looking up your LA context you should check the LA's latest SEND inspection outcome (if available). It will give you an indication of the level of support you will get from them if you need it for a child and tell you what more you will need to do in the setting while you are waiting for, for example, waiting lists with other agencies. You should share relevant information with the inspector and might also be asked to explain confidentiality, how information is stored and shared etc.

You can find your area context using this Ofsted website.

Childcare.co.uk has further guidance on their Ofsted inspection preparation page.