EYFS safeguarding reforms effective September 2025
Sue Asquith, Early Childhood Consultant explores the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) reforms that come into effect from September 2025.
The Department for Education (DfE) continually monitors and reviews the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) safeguarding requirements to ensure they are comprehensive and suitably robust to help providers keep children as safe as possible. A consultation was held from 22 April to 17 June 2024 seeking views on proposals to strengthen EYFS safeguarding requirements. There were 1470 responses, the Government response was published in October proposing to go ahead with all proposals.
The proposals:
- Amendments to promote safer recruitment, including requirements to obtain references and for safeguarding policies to include procedures to help ensure that only suitable individuals are recruited.
- Creation of new requirements for providers to follow up if a child is absent for a prolonged period of time and amendments to ensure providers hold additional emergency contact details.
- Creation of new requirements to ensure safer eating.
- Creation of a safeguarding training criteria annex and a requirement for safeguarding policies to include details of how safeguarding training is delivered and how practitioners are supported to put it into place.
- Amendments to ensure that early years students and trainees are required to have paediatric first aid (PFA) training to be included in ratios at the level below their level of study.
- Amendments to ensure that children’s privacy during nappy changing and toileting is considered and balanced with safeguarding considerations.
- A small number of other minor changes to the structure and wording of the safeguarding requirements to improve clarity.
Experience-based route for early years practitioners
A consultation in 2023 proposed changes to the EYFS including a proposal to introduce an experience-based route for early years practitioners to gain status to work within staff:child ratios. In its response DfE noted its intention to proceed with this change.
A further technical consultation was launched 22 April 2024 seeking views on the proposed decision-making model for the experience-based route, as well as eligibility criteria and process requirements. the government consultation response was published 28 January 2025.
Educators undertaking the experience-based route must complete 751 – 900 hours of relevant work and supervised practice, before the assessor can undertake a final assessment and decide whether they have met the criteria to work in the ratios at level 3. This requirement will apply to both full-time and part-time staff. With this in mind, providers can start to use the experience-based route to assess and support staff from 3rd March 2025 so that they might be ready to be signed off for when the EYFS is updated. Educators/staff completing the experience-based route will be able to count in the staff:child ratios at level 3 at their current setting after necessary changes have been made to the ratio requirements in the EYFS, expected from September 2025.
Are you prepared for September?
There have been several updates to the EYFS statutory framework over the last few years and I do my best to help provide accurate information and useful support as soon as the changes occur.
Here’s a list of support and information available from me via my website:
- You can access my Safeguarding Reforms webinar exploring all the proposed changes and new wording. The recording is just £5.50pp, you can access this immediately after a card payment. You will find the webinar recording under the Pay to view heading on the training page of my website
- I have updated my Advanced Safeguarding for DSLs to include all topics listed in Annex C. This includes information from the reforms such as the new wording about safer recruitment information and references, safeguarding training, safeguarding policies and following up on children’s absences. I deliver Advanced Safeguarding training live on-line or you can catch a recording on-demand as a pay to view option to train at your convenience. 5 hours of training for just £55pp! You can check the live webinar schedule and access the recording via the training page of my website here
- My Safer Eating webinar is also available as a pay to view recording via my website. This is ideal for anyone working in the early years sector including managers, key persons, childminders and cooks/chefs. We explore the proposed new EYFS wording including allergens, allergies, anaphylaxis and choking. 1.5 hours of training for just £16pp and it is available to view immediately after a card payment.
- If you are a manager wishing to support staff on the experienced-based route (EBR) from 3rd March, we have you covered too! There is a FREE webinar exploring the Government response here. In addition to the free information, Hazel and I have recorded a 1.5 hour webinar explaining the EBR including our top tips for mapping over previous certificated experience, assessing staff and assessment materials for just £55 – you can access this here.
- I updated my Safeguarding and Child Protection training for all staff in November 2024 to cover all the content that will be listed in Annex C and much more. I have already trained 100s of staff since November. There are several training options for you. You can book individual staff onto my open live on-line training where they will join delegates from other early years setting. Alternatively, I can deliver live on-line or in person to staff teams. You can even access a recording of a session by emailing me or completing a contact me form via my website. I have held the price of my safeguarding training at just £21pp for several years, there is a multi-staff discount for booking several places and costs can further reduce if you train your whole team.
- I will aim to compare and contrast the new EYFS statutory framework when it is published highlighting all the word changes (as I have done with previous updates). Please follow me on FaceBook and join my FB group to get all the updates as they are available Sue Asquith Early Childhood Consultant | Facebook
You can find details of all my live on-line training and all my pay to view courses here: CPD I Childcare Courses I Sue Asquith – Early Childhood Consultant Please reach out if you can’t find what you are looking for as I am scheduling courses and writing new content all the time; I also write and deliver bespoke training sessions. I can make a virtual appearance as a guest speaker in staff meetings or visit your setting to deliver training.
Please do not hesitate to email me info@earlyyearstrainingconsultant.co.uk or complete or contact me form via my website.