If your nursery was last inspected before November 2025, it probably still has one word attached to it, such as good or outstanding. Parents know it, and a buyer would look at it before anything else. At your next inspection that word goes, and a report card with a grade for each area of your work takes its place.
This guide explains how the report card works for nurseries in England and how inspectors reach each grade. It then covers when Ofsted comes back, and what the grades mean for your funding and for a sale. Our guide to selling a nursery covers the wider sale.
What changed on 10 November 2025
Ofsted's renewed education inspection framework has applied to early years inspections since 10 November 2025. The single overall effectiveness grade has gone. Each area of a nursery's work now gets its own grade, and the results are published as a report card.
The standards inspectors use are in the early years inspection toolkit. The version in use since 1 September 2026 was published in June 2026. It added a welfare standard on babies' sleep and feeding, and made clear that a setting must meet the EYFS requirements as well as the toolkit's own standards. The toolkit, an operating guide for inspectors and an information page for providers together replaced the old early years inspection handbook.
If your last inspection rated you good or outstanding, you can keep using Ofsted's logo for that grade until your next graded inspection. After that it has to come down, because the grade it refers to is no longer given.
Seven evaluation areas, with safeguarding judged on its own
For nurseries there are seven evaluation areas. Safeguarding is judged met or not met. The other six are graded on a five-point scale.
| Evaluation area | What inspectors look at |
|---|---|
| Safeguarding | An open culture that puts children first, staff training, the designated safeguarding lead, safer recruitment and how allegations about adults are handled |
| Inclusion | How you spot and support disadvantaged children, children with special educational needs and disabilities, children known to social care and others facing barriers |
| Curriculum and teaching | Whether your curriculum is ambitious and builds on what children already know, in line with the EYFS educational programmes |
| Achievement | The progress children make from their starting points across the seven areas of learning in the EYFS |
| Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines | How staff help children manage their feelings and behaviour, and how you work with parents on routines and attendance |
| Children's welfare and wellbeing | Key person relationships and healthy routines, including the guidance on babies' sleep and feeding |
| Leadership and governance | Whether leaders and those responsible for governance meet the EYFS requirements and know where the setting needs to improve. Staff workload and wellbeing count too |
The scale runs from exceptional at the top, through strong standard and expected standard, down to needs attention and urgent improvement.
How inspectors reach each grade
Every area starts at expected standard. The inspector first asks whether your nursery meets all the expected standards for that area, which includes meeting the legal requirements of the EYFS. If it does, they look at whether it also meets all the strong standards. Only then do they consider exceptional, which needs clear evidence of the extra standards the toolkit sets out for that grade.
Ofsted calls this a secure fit, and if one standard for a grade isn't met, that grade can't be given. Minor inconsistencies can still be listed as next steps without lowering the grade.
Needs attention and urgent improvement
Below expected standard, the difference is about the effect on children. If some EYFS requirements are breached, but not in a way that significantly affects children, and the inspector has no doubts about the provider's suitability, the area is graded needs attention. The inspector must then set actions for you to put right the cause.
If the breaches do significantly affect children, or the inspector has concerns about the provider's suitability, the area is graded urgent improvement and Ofsted will consider enforcement action. History counts as well. A string of minor breaches, in a setting that has broken the rules before, can bring leadership and governance below expected standard on its own.
Safeguarding met or not met
Safeguarding is met when every safeguarding standard in the toolkit is met and none of its not met indicators apply, which includes meeting the relevant EYFS requirements. Small administrative points, such as a policy that needs updating, can be put right during the inspection. A not met judgement doesn't automatically pull the other areas down. But the nursery will usually be inspected again within six months, and Ofsted can take enforcement action in between.
What the grades look like so far
Ofsted's provisional figures cover 683 full inspections of nurseries and other childcare on non-domestic premises between 10 November 2025 and 31 March 2026. The table shows two of the areas.
| Grade | Leadership and governance | Curriculum and teaching |
|---|---|---|
| Exceptional | 1% | 0% |
| Strong standard | 28% | 21% |
| Expected standard | 54% | 63% |
| Needs attention | 13% | 14% |
| Urgent improvement | 4% | 2% |
Safeguarding was not met in 18 of those 683 inspections, about 3%. In Kent, 20 nurseries and similar settings had a full inspection in the same period, and all 20 had safeguarding judged met. Across every type of early years provider, just over half of full inspections gave the same grade in every area.
When Ofsted comes back
Settings on the Early Years Register will normally be inspected at least once in every four years. Ofsted is phasing that window in from April 2026 and expects it to be fully in place by March 2030. It uses your last outcome, and anything else it knows about you, to decide when to come. A nursery will usually be inspected again within these times.
- Four years, if every area is expected standard or above.
- 12 months, if any area is graded needs attention.
- Six months, if any area is graded urgent improvement or safeguarding is not met.
Ofsted can come sooner if it receives a concern and decides an inspection is needed, and it can arrive without notice. For a full day nursery, an inspection normally lasts around six hours, and Ofsted usually rings the working day before.
A new provider's first inspection
Ofsted prioritises the first inspection of every newly registered provider, normally within 18 months of registration. Until that first report card is published, councils should still fund free places there if parents choose it and the provider accepts the council's terms. Ofsted also says it will always inspect a provider that applies to add premises before its first inspection, and it's likely to refuse if that inspection gives needs attention or worse, unless there's strong evidence of lasting improvement.
From inspection to published report card
- Grades given at the feedback meeting are provisional.
- The draft report card usually arrives within 18 working days of the end of the inspection.
- You have five working days to point out anything unclear or factually wrong.
- The final report card normally follows within 30 working days of the inspection.
- Ofsted normally publishes it five working days after sending it to you.
Don't share the grades with parents until the final version arrives. Ofsted tells your council the outcome shortly before publication. If you think the process or the grades were wrong, you can make a formal complaint, and Ofsted deals with it before the report card is finalised.
What the grades mean for your funding
Councils rely on Ofsted's grades when deciding whether to fund free hours at a nursery. For a nursery inspected since 10 November 2025, the Department for Education's statutory guidance for councils sets out two thresholds.
- For all the free entitlements, urgent improvement in leadership and governance, or safeguarding not met.
- For the 15 hours offered to two year olds from families getting extra support, needs attention or below in leadership and governance, or safeguarding not met.
A council isn't required to fund places at a nursery below these thresholds, and the guidance says it should withdraw funding as soon as practicable once the report card is published, allowing for children already in place. It can choose to keep funding, for example where there aren't enough places nearby, or wait for a reinspection. It can also require training or quality improvement, but only the measures named in the report card.
For a nursery where most children take funded hours, that makes leadership and governance, with safeguarding, the part of the report card that carries the most money.
Running the nursery with the report card in mind
Ofsted doesn't expect a written self-evaluation, or any paperwork made for the inspection. In the planning call, the inspector asks you about your strengths and what you want to improve, using the toolkit as the common reference. A manager who can talk through that clearly is doing much of the preparation already.
Inspectors must be able to see your paediatric first aid arrangements and the DBS and vetting records for staff and volunteers. They may also ask for accident records, records of complaints and how they were resolved, referrals to the local authority designated officer, and records of children refused a place. Keeping those in order all year is cheaper than finding them on the morning.
Leadership and governance covers the people above the manager too. For a limited company, that means the nominated individual and the directors. Inspectors may talk to the nominated individual about governance, and the nominated individual or their representative is invited to the final feedback meeting.
What a report card means when you sell
A buyer will read every grade on the report card and look closely at its date. A needs attention grade means a reinspection within 12 months, which may well fall after completion. They'll also ask for the actions Ofsted set and what you did about them.
How the sale is structured changes what happens next. In a share sale, the company stays the registered provider and the grades stay with it. In a sale of the business and its assets, the buyer registers in its own right or adds your premises to an existing registration, and a group buyer whose own first inspection gave needs attention or worse may be refused. Either way, the setting's history stays on Ofsted's reports website for five years, and a new registration is normally inspected within 18 months. Our guide to share sales and asset sales sets out the other differences.
An inspection can land in the middle of a sale. It's worth agreeing with the buyer what happens if it does, before you sign heads of terms, rather than after a grade arrives. Your report cards and actions will also be among the first things asked for in due diligence. Our nursery readiness check takes about five minutes and shows where you stand.