If you registered your childminding setting a while ago, you probably wrote your safeguarding policy once and have been updating the odd date on it ever since. That habit just got more expensive. The Early Years Foundation Stage framework changed on 1 September 2026, and several of the changes go straight to the heart of what your policies need to say.
The headline change: harm, not just serious harm
Until now, childminders in England only had to inform Ofsted of an allegation that reached the threshold of serious harm. From 1 September 2026, that threshold has been lowered to harm. This is not a wording tweak. It means a wider range of incidents and allegations now need to be reported, and a policy still written around “serious harm” is no longer describing your actual legal duty. If your safeguarding policy names a threshold, this is the line to check first.
Safer sleep is no longer a footnote
Safer sleep practice has always mattered, but it sat outside the main text of the EYFS as separate guidance. It has now been brought directly into the framework itself. In practice, this means safer sleep is no longer something you can treat as background knowledge picked up on a course years ago. It belongs in your written practice and your policy documents as clearly as any other statutory requirement.
A few other changes worth knowing
A small number of further changes came in alongside these. Providers cannot operate from any premises where a banned dog breed is kept or present. Enhanced criminal records checks are now required for volunteers, and checks must be completed before anyone starts, not arranged as a formality afterwards. Settings must also have regard to updated guidance on children's screen use, and staff need to be told plainly what they are expected to disclose about their own suitability to work with children.
This is an England change, not a UK one
The EYFS only applies in England, so none of this changes your legal position if you register in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. Scotland's requirements sit under the Health and Social Care Standards and the Care Inspectorate's own framework, Wales under the National Minimum Standards enforced by Care Inspectorate Wales, and Northern Ireland under the Minimum Standards overseen by the Health and Social Care Trusts. Each already has its own reporting duties and safer sleep expectations, they simply have not been rewritten this month the way England's have. Worth remembering next time you see “UK childcare rules changed” in your feed and you are not registered in England at all.
None of this is legal advice, and it is not a substitute for reading the updated EYFS document in full or checking directly with Ofsted if you are unsure where a specific incident sits. But if you have not looked at your safeguarding policy since the summer, this is the week to do it.