September has brought another set of changes for early years settings in England.
Some are quite specific. Others affect the everyday systems sitting behind safeguarding, recruitment and inspection readiness. And, as is usually the case with regulatory changes, the hardest part is not reading the new wording. It is working out whether anything inside your nursery actually needs to change.
The updated EYFS framework came into force on 1 September 2026. Among the changes are clearer safer-sleep requirements, new expectations around screen use, changes to safeguarding notifications, tighter requirements around criminal-record checks and new rules concerning banned dog breeds on childcare premises. Ofsted has also updated its inspection material to reflect the changes. Help for Early Years Providers
None of that calls for panic.
But it is a good moment to check that the policies in the office match what staff are actually doing in the rooms.
Start with safer sleep
Safer sleep is probably the change most likely to affect day-to-day practice.
The requirements now sit more explicitly inside the EYFS itself. For babies aged 12 months and under, providers should use a cot, carrycot, Moses basket or travel cot. Floor beds, sleep pods or similar arrangements do not meet the safer-sleep requirement for this age group. Help for Early Years Providers
That sounds straightforward. The useful question is whether practice across the whole nursery is equally straightforward.
A manager may know exactly what the policy says while a newer member of staff is still working from an older routine. Equipment may have changed. A room may have inherited a sleep arrangement that nobody has questioned because it has always been there.
So rather than simply updating the policy folder, walk the room.
Check what babies actually sleep in.
Check that staff understand why.
Check what happens when a baby falls asleep while travelling and returns to the setting.
And make sure the written procedure describes the practice you would genuinely expect an inspector to see.
IN SHORT
Check the sleep equipment actually being used for babies aged 12 months and under.
Make sure room staff understand the current safer-sleep requirements.
Update written procedures if they no longer describe current practice.
Do not assume that an old routine is still acceptable because nobody has challenged it before.
Ofsted’s September inspection updates now explicitly tell inspectors to assess how settings implement statutory guidance on babies’ safer sleeping arrangements, as well as safer eating and weaning. Early Years Blog
That makes this a practice issue, not a paperwork exercise.
Look again at volunteers and DBS checks
Another change is easy to miss because it sits behind the people who may only spend a few hours in the nursery.
As of September, the supervision exemption for regulated activity involving children has been removed. In practical terms, a volunteer who teaches, trains, instructs, cares for, or supervises children frequently enough may now be carrying out regulated activity, even when supervised by a member of staff.
Where applicable, an enhanced DBS check, including Children’s Barred List information, may be required. The frequency test includes activity on more than three days in a 30-day period, as well as certain overnight activity. GOV.UK
For most nurseries, the useful exercise is not to indiscriminately apply for checks.
It is to look at who actually comes into regular contact with children.
A parent who helps at one occasional event is different from somebody who volunteers every Tuesday morning. A student placement, regular volunteer or other supervised role may need to be looked at differently under the new rules.
What to check
Who currently volunteers regularly in the setting?
What do they actually do with children?
How often are they there?
What DBS check do they currently hold?
Does that check include Children’s Barred List information where the role now requires it?
Does your recruitment or volunteer procedure reflect the September change?
Ofsted has also clarified that inspectors must be able to access relevant DBS information for volunteers carrying out regulated activity. GOV.UK
This is exactly the sort of small administrative change that becomes awkward only when nobody owns it.
The wording around allegations has changed
The threshold for what providers must notify to Ofsted has also changed.
The EYFS now requires providers to notify Ofsted, or the relevant childminder agency, of allegations of harm, rather than only allegations of serious harm, involving anyone living, working or looking after children on the premises. Help for Early Years Providers
That one word matters.
It means safeguarding leads and managers should make sure the people responsible for escalation are not still working from the previous wording.
This is less about rewriting an entire safeguarding policy and more about checking the decision points inside it.
Who decides whether an allegation needs to be notified?
Who covers if the DSL or manager is absent?
Where is the requirement recorded?
Would the person receiving the concern today know that the threshold has changed?
Those are much more useful questions than whether the policy has “September 2026” typed on the front.
Screen use now needs deliberate thought
Both versions of the updated EYFS also require providers to have regard to government guidance on children’s screen use in early years settings. Help for Early Years Providers
That does not mean screens suddenly become forbidden.
Nor does it mean nurseries need to remove every tablet tomorrow morning.
It does mean that screen use should be intentional rather than simply habitual.
A tablet used briefly by a practitioner to support an activity is different from a screen being used because the room has reached the awkward half-hour before tea.
The sensible question is:
Why is the screen being used, and what is the child getting from it?
It is worth looking across rooms because practice can vary more than managers realise.
If one room rarely uses screens while another has quietly built them into the daily routine, the setting may not have one coherent approach at all.
That does not require a grand digital strategy.
It requires a conversation with staff and a clear position everyone understands.
Check the things that are easy to overlook
There are several other changes worth knowing about.
Registered childcare cannot now be provided from premises where a banned dog breed is kept or present. The EYFS also strengthens requirements around criminal-record checks and what staff must disclose about matters affecting their suitability to work with children. For childcare on domestic premises, there are additional notification requirements concerning people aged 16 or over who live or work there. Help for Early Years Providers
Many group nurseries will read some of that and conclude that little needs changing.
That is fine.
The point is to make that decision deliberately rather than discovering six months later that nobody checked.
Do not turn this into another policy-writing exercise
There is a familiar pattern whenever regulation changes.
A document gets updated.
The new version is saved in the correct folder.
Everyone moves on.
Then somebody asks a practitioner what happens in practice and the answer bears only a passing resemblance to the policy.
The better test is to choose a handful of real situations.
A baby falls asleep.
A regular volunteer starts next week.
A member of staff raises a safeguarding concern.
A practitioner wants to use a tablet with a small group.
Ask what happens next.
If the answers are clear and consistent, the paperwork is probably supporting good practice.
If four people give four different answers, changing the date on the policy will not fix the problem.
What Ofsted will now be looking at
The renewed inspection framework is already in place, but Ofsted’s September updates bring the inspection material into line with the latest EYFS requirements.
Inspectors are now specifically directed to consider implementation of statutory guidance around safer sleeping, safer eating and weaning. DBS arrangements are also part of the early inspection conversation, and providers must meet both the inspection toolkit standards and the relevant EYFS requirements to be graded at the expected standard. GOV.UK
That does not mean managers need to prepare a performance for inspection.
Quite the opposite.
The strongest position is usually the simplest one: the nursery knows what the requirement is, staff understand it, and normal practice demonstrates it without somebody having to hunt for evidence at the last minute.
The September check
If you have not reviewed the changes yet, this is a sensible starting point.
SAFER SLEEP
Check current sleep arrangements for babies aged 12 months and under.
Confirm staff understand the updated requirement.
Make sure policy and room practice match.
VOLUNTEERS AND RECRUITMENT
Review regular volunteer roles.
Check whether existing DBS arrangements remain appropriate.
Confirm your recruitment procedures reflect the new requirements.
SAFEGUARDING
Update the notification threshold from “serious harm” to “harm” where required.
Make sure the people making safeguarding decisions are aware of the change.
SCREEN USE
Review how screens are actually used across the nursery.
Make sure their use is deliberate and consistent with the new guidance.
INSPECTION READINESS
Check that the evidence you would rely on is part of normal nursery practice.
Do not wait for the inspection call to discover that the written procedure and the room routine are different.
The honest summary
Most of the September changes are not dramatic.
That is probably why they are easy to underestimate.
They sit in the ordinary parts of nursery life: how a baby sleeps, who volunteers in the room, what happens when somebody raises a concern, whether a tablet comes out by habit, and whether staff understand the same procedure in the same way.
Good compliance is rarely about having more documents.
It is about being able to see, quickly and confidently, that what should happen is what actually happens.
And that is probably the most useful way to approach the September changes: read the requirement once, then go and look at the nursery.
