Ofsted’s New Early Years Report Cards

Oftsed's New Early Years Report Cards

On 9th September, Ofsted announced that from 10th November, the one word-judgement will be replaced by a five-point grading scale across a range of evaluation areas for early years settings and schools. The changes are in response to feedback from Ofsted’s Big Listen consultation earlier in 2025. These findings were published as part of the announcement, alongside new inspection toolkits specific to each area of education.

There will no longer be an overall effectiveness grade. Instead, early years settings will receive grades for each evaluation area. There are five new gradings based on the report card system outlined in the consultation. These will be:

• Exceptional
• Strong standard 
• Expected standard. 
• Needs attention.
• Urgent improvement

The grades, along with short summaries of an inspectors’ findings, will be displayed in a ‘report card’ which Ofsted says will ‘advise parents and carers on who to trust with the care and education of their child.'

Subsequently the DfE has confirmed, as a result of Ofsted’s changes to inspections and the introduction of report cards, the regulations and statutory guidance will be updated to reflect the new inspection framework. An additional change is that the frequency of early years inspections will increase from every six years to every four years.

The reforms are designed to not only raise standards for children and learners, but to address concerns about workload and wellbeing among early years professionals while aiding clarity and accessibility for families.

New inspections under the report card system will begin 10th November 2025. There are new inspection toolkits and statutory framework available here and here. There are separate frameworks for childminders and group/school-based providers.

Sources:
1. https://www.eyalliance.org.uk/news/2025/09/ofsted-confirm-changes-early-education-inspections-and-reveals-updated-report-cards
2. https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/content/news/ofsted-reveals-details-of-new-report-card-and-inspection-grades
3. https://ndna.org.uk/ofsted-publishes-new-inspection-framework/
4. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ofsted-confirms-changes-to-education-inspection-and-unveils-new-look-report-cards