Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to his oral contribution in response to the hon. Member for Twickenham during the Oral Statement of 7 July 2025 on Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life, Official Report, column 687, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of Ofsted inspecting early years providers once every four years on the safety and wellbeing of children.

Moving to a four-year inspection cycle as opposed to a six-year inspection cycle is a return to the standard set pre-Covid. We believe by reducing the inspection cycle to align with schools, we should be able to better address safety concerns raised in recent safeguarding incidents in the sector and as noted in Ofsted’s Big Listen. As announced in the recent Best Start in Life Publication, Ofsted will also receive additional investment from the department to raise the quality and consistency of inspection through strengthening quality assurance and focused inspector training.

We constantly monitor and review the early years foundation stage statutory framework requirements and how these requirements are inspected by Ofsted to ensure children are kept as safe as possible. Changes are informed by engagement with providers, health professionals, sector stakeholders and safeguarding experts and using lessons learned from previous incidents.