How are nurseries inspected by Ofsted in England?   

Who inspects nurseries in England?

If you are a parent, wondering how children’s nurseries are inspected in England, this article highlights changes to Ofsted nursery inspections.

Ofsted, the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills inspects and reports on early years provision and education for children and young people.

All early years settings, day nurseries, nursery schools, schools, FE colleges and childminders in England must be registered with Ofsted.

The education watchdog is responsible for regulating, monitoring, inspecting and reporting on early years provision and education.

Ofsted must report on the effectiveness of educational settings to Parliament, parents, carers and commissioners.

What are the Ofsted inspection changes for early years? 

When it comes to how Ofsted inspects nurseries, the education watchdog consulted nursery staff and parents on Ofsted reforms to its inspection process. It introduced a new early years inspection framework, which came into effect 10 November 2025.

As part of the Ofsted changes, nurseries and childminders are to be inspected more frequently.

How often will a nursery have an inspection?

In the early years, Ofsted will increase the frequency of inspections from every 6 years to every 4 years.

Ofsted had already scrapped of use of single grade judgements of ‘outstanding’, ‘good’, ‘requires improvement’ and ‘inadequate’ for education settings (effective from 2 September 2024).

Ofsted removed the single-word judgements for schools and maintained school early years provision for children aged two years and above.

Instead of an ‘overall effectiveness grade’ for nurseries, Ofsted inspectors now judge the schools and maintained school nurseries on existing sub-categories:

• quality of education
• behaviour and attitudes
• personal development
• leadership & management

Disadvantaged and vulnerable children are at the heart of reforms, with a focus on ‘inclusion’ in every inspection.

A new online insights platform ‘Ofsted – Explore an Area’ gives parents information about the education and care services in their local area.

Ofsted reforms include the introduction of new early years report cards in September 2025, to give parents more detailed information than previous Ofsted reports.

The report cards include a new 5-point grading scale for 7 of the 8 evaluation areas for early years provision.

Ofsted has introduced a grade for each evaluation area (apart from ‘Safeguarding’ which is marked as either ‘Met’ or ‘Unmet’) in the report card.

8 evaluation areas for early years provision:

• Leadership and governance
• Curriculum
• Developing teaching
• Achievement
• Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines
• Children’s welfare and well-being
• Inclusion
• Safeguarding

5 grades to rate evaluation areas

The 5 new grades proposed are:

• Exceptional – A new top grade for best-in-class practice in a specific area, when Ofsted deems that an educational provider is doing something that is ‘too good to be kept inside the school gates’. This best practice will be shared with other providers.

• Strong Standard– Consistently secure across different aspects of learning/subjects, year groups, key stages. Leaders are working above and beyond the legal and professional standards expected of them.

•  Expected Standard – Early years provider is offering a secure standard of education. This includes meeting the legal requirements and the expectations set out in non-statutory guidance, as well as the professional standards required of the type of provision.

• Needs Attention  – Some aspects of provision are inconsistent, limited in scope or impact or not meeting the legal requirements, expectations set out in non-statutory guidance, or the professional standards required. However, inspectors have determined that leaders have the capacity and means to make the necessary improvements.

• Urgent Improvement –Needs urgent action to provide a suitable standard of education and/or care for children.

The report cards include short summaries of what inspectors found.

Why did Ofsted making changes?

The government’s announcement follows talks with education providers and the family of headteacher Ruth Perry, after her coroner’s inquest verdict was recorded as ‘suicide: contributed to by an Ofsted inspection carried out in November 2022’.

The headteacher’s school’s Ofsted inspection process had downgraded her school from ‘Outstanding’ to ‘Inadequate’.

Paul Whiteman, General Secretary of National Association of Headteachers, said: “The scrapping of overarching grades is a welcome interim measure. We have been clear that simplistic one-word judgements are harmful”. 

Ofsted reform happened in response to the coroner’s verdict – with Ofsted inspections in the 2024/25 academic year no longer giving an ‘overall effectiveness’ grade for schools and maintained nurseries being inspected.  

“Our new report cards will give parents a clearer understanding of the strengths and areas for improvement at the places where their children learn” said His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver.

Sir Martyn Oliver added: “Children deserve the best possible education; their parents deserve the best possible information and education professionals deserve to have their work fairly assessed by experts.”

How does Ofsted inspect nurseries and other early years provision?

Inspectors spend most of Ofsted nursery inspections observing the daily routines and activities that early years staff provide. This helps inspectors ‘judge how well an early years provider promotes children’s learning, progress, safety and well-being’.

• Ofsted inspectors observe children playing.
• Inspectors ask children what they learn from activities.
• They talk to parents about what they think of the care and education.
• Inspectors speak to staff to determine if they are meeting their legal responsibilities.
• They may ask staff what children understand and ask how they support children to develop further.  
• Inspectors examine nursery policies and other nursery documentation.
• After the inspection, the regulator can publish a report which identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the early years provision.

How long do nursery inspections last?

Nursery inspections have not previously taken longer than 6 hours. If the nursery offers restricted hours, inspections usually take about 4 hours.

Can Ofsted investigate complaints?

Ofsted will not investigate complaints about issues concerning an individual child or mediate between parents and an early years setting.

Ofsted does not tend to respond to a complaint, if you have not followed the early years setting’s complaints process. However, it can call an immediate inspection at short notice, in response to a very serious complaint.

Where can I find an Ofsted nursery inspection report?

Ofsted inspection reports are published on Ofsted’s website.