The Otii Digest
Honest thinking on inspection readiness, compliance, and running a calmer early years setting.
Also on Medium →What the SEND white paper actually means for nurseries
I've read a lot of government documents about the early years. Most of them are about us rather than for us, and you can usually tell within a page. This one is different, and I want to be specific about why.
Safeguarding Early Years Safeguarding 2026: EYFS & KCSIE Changes Explained | Otii
I’ve read a lot of government documents about the early years. Most of them are written about us rather than for us, and you can usually tell within a page or two. When the September 2026 statutory updates dropped—bringing explicit requirements from Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) into the EYFS framework, I took that familiar deep breath. If you operate a setting or lead a team, you probably took it, too. Recently, I sat down with independent safeguarding expert and former LADO Ann Marie Christian and Angelica Sinska on The Voice of Early Childhood podcast to unpack what these September 2026 changes actually mean in daily practice. Because let’s be honest: our sector is tired of top-down mandates, 190-page documents, and being treated like an afterthought. We don't need more fear-mongering; we need clarity, practical systems, and a culture of safety that actually protects children without drowning practitioners in panic. Here is what is really changing this September, why the old ways of logging safeguarding are breaking down, and how we can move forward calmly.
Staff & Wellbeing We need to talk about the wellbeing basket
What team wellbeing actually means - and why tracking it matters more than treating it.
Safeguarding isn't a product. It's a pulse.
Safeguarding is showing signs of becoming another tokenistic industry, badges, apps, one-off training, all promising a quick fix. It was never meant to be a bolt-on. It's a pulse.
Ofsted & Inspection Leadership and Governance in early years.
Ofsted published its latest inspection data this month, covering November 2025 to March 2026 , the first data release under the renewed inspection framework. Across all six evaluation areas, one stood out and not for the right reasons.
Keep calm and pass inspection: what Ofsted is really asking for
The new framework isn't asking settings to do more. It's asking them to be clearer. Maggie Bolger breaks down the September 2025 Ofsted framework — calmly, clearly, and without jargon.