EYFS Safeguarding in September 2026: What Early Years Settings Need to Know Before the Autumn Term

If you’ve been scrolling through the early years threads on social media this month, you’ll have noticed the same conversation cropping up over and over. Safeguarding. Ofsted. September changes. Am I ready? Are we ready?

You’re not imagining it. There is a lot happening, and while some of the noise is a little tangled, the underlying picture matters. So let’s cut through it.

Two waves of change, one clear direction

The confusion online largely comes down to the fact that there have actually been two rounds of safeguarding changes to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), not one.

Round one landed in September 2025. This is when the “lead practitioner” role was formally renamed the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) — bringing early years terminology into line with schools. It’s also when Annex C of the EYFS framework was introduced, setting out the minimum criteria for safeguarding training, and when the requirement to refresh safeguarding training at least every two years came in (replacing the previous three-year cycle).

Every single early years setting in England, from large nursery groups down to individual childminders, was expected to have a DSL in place from that point. If you’re a childminder working alone, you are the DSL for your setting. There’s no exemption based on size.

Round two lands on 1 September 2026. This is the update that’s been dominating feeds recently. From that date, the revised EYFS framework brings in strengthened expectations around:

• Safer sleep — moving from separate guidance into the statutory framework itself
• Safer eating — with new procedures and staff training expectations, and continuous supervision of children while they eat
• Mobile phones, cameras and electronic devices — clearer policies for staff use of personal devices, and protection of children from inappropriate photography or recording
• Whistleblowing — procedures must now explicitly cover volunteers and apprentices, not just paid staff
• Child absence follow-up — systems must be in place to follow up prolonged or unexplained absences and record the actions taken
• The DSL role reinforced — with a clear expectation that DSLs have sufficient authority, appropriate up-to-date training, and understanding of local safeguarding arrangements

Crucially, Ofsted will begin inspecting against the updated framework using its refreshed early years toolkit from 1 September 2026. Breaches of the safeguarding and welfare requirements can influence whether safeguarding is graded “met” or “not met” the outcome that shapes an entire inspection judgement.

So, is your setting actually ready?

Here’s the honest question worth sitting with over the summer. If Ofsted walked through the door in the first week of September, could you evidence:

• A named DSL (and, where relevant, a Deputy DSL) with training completed or refreshed within the last two years?
• That every member of staff, including apprentices, bank staff and volunteers, has completed safeguarding training that meets the Annex C criteria?
• A safeguarding policy that spells out how training is delivered and how staff put it into practice day to day?
• An attendance policy that tells parents what happens if their child is absent, and a clear internal procedure for following that up?
• Written safer sleep and safer eating procedures that reflect the September 2026 expectations?
• A mobile phone and device policy that is genuinely being followed, not just filed?
• At least two emergency contacts on record for every child?

Most settings we speak to are around 80% of the way there. It’s the last stretch, the evidencing, the embedding, the training refreshes that keep slipping down the to-do list, that catches people out.

The summer lull is your friend (yes, really)

We know August is the month when children go on holiday and everything else piles up. But it’s also quietly the best window of the year to get compliance work done. Fewer inspections. Fewer illness absences. A workforce that finally has ten minutes to sit down at a laptop without a toddler on their knee.

This is exactly where e-learning earns its keep. It doesn’t need cover arranging. It doesn’t need six diaries lining up. Staff can log on during quieter afternoons, during naptimes, from home, during INSET days, whenever the window opens. Progress is tracked, certificates are issued automatically, and your compliance paperwork writes itself.

How The Midlands Training Company can help

We’ve been supporting nurseries, pre-schools, childminders and school-based early years teams through EYFS changes for years, and we’re doing exactly the same again this summer.

Our e-learning catalogue is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with free certification on successful completion and course resources available to learners for 12 months afterwards. Courses relevant to the September 2026 changes include:

• Safeguarding Children — meeting the Annex C criteria for all staff
• Designated Safeguarding Lead training — for DSLs and Deputy DSLs whose two-year refresh is coming due
• Prevent Duty
• Food Safety and safer eating practice
• Health and Safety, Fire Safety and Paediatric First Aid refreshers

And because we know one course rarely covers everything a setting needs, our team can put together a tailored package covering multiple staff members across multiple topics, with renewal reminders built in so nothing slips through the cracks come next August.

Prefer tutor-led? We offer classroom-based training at your setting or at our purpose-built centre near Coventry, plus blended options that combine e-learning theory with practical assessment. Whatever suits how your team learns best.

The bottom line

The September 2025 changes weren’t the end of the story, they were the opening chapter. September 2026 adds more, and the Ofsted spotlight sharpens with it.

If you’re reading this in July and thinking “I meant to sort this out weeks ago” you’re not late. You’ve just found the perfect moment. Use the quieter weeks to get your team’s training current, your policies aligned, and your DSL confidently in date. Then you can hit September without the knot in your stomach.

Get in touch with The Midlands Training Company today to talk through your setting’s needs, browse our e-learning catalogue, or request a tailored quote for your whole team.