Planned Changes to Early Years Safeguarding Requirements Confirmed
Planned Changes to Early Years Safeguarding Requirements Confirmed
Earlier this month, the Department for Education published its response to the recent consultation on safeguarding in the early years. The response outlined several safeguarding changes to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Framework, with the changes coming into effect on 1 September 2025.
The consultation ran for 8 weeks earlier in the year. Feedback was received from a range of people and organisations to help inform the government’s decisions about the EYFS safeguarding reforms.
The key changes include:
- Amendments to promote safer recruitment, such as: new expectations to provide and obtain references and a requirement for safeguarding policies to include procedures to help ensure that only suitable individuals are recruited.
- New obligations for providers to follow up if a child is absent for a prolonged period and amendments to ensure providers have additional emergency contact details.
- New measures to ensure safer eating.
- Creation of a safeguarding training criteria annex and a requirement for safeguarding policies to detail how training is delivered and supported in practice.
- Amendments to ensure that early years students and trainees are required to have paediatric first aid (PFA) training for them to be included in ratios at the level below their level of study.
- New requirements to support whistleblowing.
- Updates to ensure that children’s privacy during nappy changing and toileting is considered and balanced with safeguarding considerations.
- A few minor adjustments to improve the clarity of safeguarding requirements.
The DfE say that the changes aim to strengthen the EYFS safeguarding requirements, making them more thorough for early years providers, and to ensure the safety of all children in early years settings. You can read the full report here.