Safer sleep is explicit
Safer sleep requirements move into the main body of the EYFS framework.
Review sleep locations, monitoring, bedding, room checks, emergency action, and what parents are told.England / EYFS / Ofsted
The rules move.
Your setting moves first.
New EYFS requirements and Ofsted's updated early years inspection approach apply from 1 September 2026. ChildmindOS turns the official changes into a practical transition checklist for England's childminders.
Independent preparation tool. Not approved or endorsed by Ofsted or DfE.New frameworkSEPT
2026ENGLAND
2026ENGLAND
The EYFS switch
Six changes to put into practice
Policy wording is only the start. Each update needs to match what happens in your home, who works or lives there, and which registration route applies to you.
Banned dogs and childcare premises
Registered childcare cannot be provided on premises where a banned dog breed is kept or present.
Record whether any dog lives at or visits the premises and check the legal position before providing care.Allegations involving harm
The notification wording changes from allegations of serious harm to allegations of harm.
Update safeguarding and allegations procedures, contacts, escalation steps, and notification wording.Enhanced checks before starting
Enhanced criminal record checks cover volunteers, including supervised volunteers, and new employees cannot start before their check.
Review assistant, employee, and volunteer controls even if your current conclusion is that none apply.Suitability disclosures are updated
Disclosure and notification expectations are clarified, including relevant people connected with childcare premises.
Confirm who must disclose changes, what must be reported, to whom, and by when for your route.Have regard to screen-use guidance
Providers must have regard to the government guidance on screen use in early years settings.
Decide when screens support learning or care, when they do not, and how use is supervised and reviewed.Inspection from September
Seven areas. One coherent setting.
Ofsted's toolkit says you do not need a formal self-evaluation, a presentation, special inspection documents, or written evidence for every standard. Preparation should make normal practice clearer, not create a second job.
Safeguarding
Whether safeguarding is effective in knowledge, culture, action, recruitment, and reporting.
Inclusion
How barriers are identified and reduced so every child can participate, belong, and make progress.
Curriculum and teaching
What you want children to learn and how interactions, routines, and experiences help them learn it.
Achievement
What children know, can do, and are ready to learn next from their different starting points.
Behaviour, attitudes and routines
How secure routines, relationships, and expectations help children regulate, participate, and learn.
Children's welfare and wellbeing
How care, health, safety, emotional security, and physical wellbeing are protected throughout the day.
Leadership and governance
For a childminder, how you lead your own practice, meet requirements, improve, and assure any assistants' suitability.
Practical preparation
Keep the records you normally use organised, current, and easy to explain so the seven official areas connect clearly to everyday practice.
A necessary distinction
Ofsted-direct and agency routes are not the same
This England module centres on Ofsted-direct Early Years Register preparation. Childminder agencies have their own quality-assurance route, Childcare Register-only inspections differ, and some evaluation areas do not apply to settings providing only before-school, after-school, or holiday care. ChildmindOS starts with a route check so users do not prepare against the wrong framework.
Do not wait for inspection week.
Open ChildmindOS