How are nurseries inspected by Ofsted in England?   

Who inspects nurseries in England?

As a parent, you may wonder how nurseries are inspected in England.

Ofsted, the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills, is reforming the way it inspects and reports on early years provision and education for children and young people and this article highlights changes to Ofsted nursery inspections.   

How does Ofsted inspect nurseries and other early years provision?

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.

Inspectors currently 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’.

They watch children play. Inspectors ask children what they learn from activities. They speak to parents about what they think of the care and education. Inspectors talk 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.  

After the inspection, the regulator can publish a report which identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the early years provision.

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.

How long do nursery inspections last?

Currently, nursery inspections will not normally take longer than 6 hours. If the nursery offers restricted hours, inspections usually take about 4 hours.

How often should a nursery have an inspection?

In England, new childcare providers are inspected on average within 30 months of registration. After this at least once every 6 years.

Ofsted inspects more often if it receives a concern about an early years provider.  

What are the Ofsted inspection changes for early years? 

When it comes to Ofsted nursery inspections, the education regulator is currently consulting with education providers and parents on Ofsted proposals for changes to how educational settings are inspected.

On 2 September 2024, the government announced the immediate scrapping of single headline grade judgements of ‘outstanding’, ‘good’, ‘requires improvement’ and ‘inadequate’ for education settings.

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

Private nurseries continue to receive single-word overall ratings for now

However, private nurseries and independent schools are among the educational settings that will continue to get one-word judgement grades in Ofsted inspections for the time being.

Ofsted is currently consulting on proposed changes to its inspection structure and the introduction of new report cards from September 2025.

Why is Ofsted making these 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’.

Bridget Phillipson, Education Secretary, said: ‘Single headline grades are low information for parents and high stakes for schools’.

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 is underway in light of 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.    

Instead, inspectors judge the schools and maintained school nurseries on existing sub-categories:

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

The school inspection handbook was updated to reflect that from September 2024, graded inspections of state-funded schools will not include an overall effectiveness grade.

The government is proposing new School Report Cards from September 2025 which will give parents more detailed information than current Ofsted reports. Ofsted is currently consulting on the new report cards and a change to inspection structures.

The report cards will including a new 5-point grading scale for 7 of the 8 evaluation areas for early years provision. Ofsted has proposed a grade be given for each evaluation area (apart from ‘Safeguarding’ which will be marked as either ‘Met’ or ‘Unmet’) in the new report card.

Proposed 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 new grades to rate evaluation areas

The 5 new grades proposed are:

• Exemplary – 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 – 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.

• Secure – 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.

• Attention needed – 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.

• Causing concern – The lowest quality grade – needs urgent action to provide a suitable standard of education and/or care for children.

The report cards will also include short summaries of what inspectors found.

Reform includes the introduction of a new early years inspection framework. There will also be a new Ofsted Academy to improve training for inspectors.  

If you are a parent or a staff member at an educational setting, you are invited to give your opinion of Ofsted’s consultation proposals. The consultation closes on 28 April 2025.

You can also watch the video above explaining the Ofsted consultation’s mock-up of a report card.

Where can I find an Ofsted nursery inspection report?

Ofsted inspection reports are published on Ofsted’s website.