Guide
Ofsted report cards: what to put on your nursery website
Since 10 November 2025 early years inspections produce a report card, not a single word. Here is what that means for the badge in your header, the words on your home page and the way parents read them.
What changed on 10 November 2025
Ofsted's renewed education inspection framework and its early years inspection toolkit came into force on 10 November 2025. The single overall effectiveness judgement (Outstanding, Good, Requires improvement, Inadequate) was replaced by a report card with a colour-coded grade for each evaluation area, on a five-point scale: Exceptional, Strong standard, Expected standard, Needs attention and Urgent improvement.
For early years settings the evaluation areas are: safeguarding (met or not met), inclusion, curriculum and teaching, achievement, behaviour attitudes and routines, children's welfare and wellbeing, and leadership and governance. Ofsted's own guide to reading the cards was published on 5 February 2026.
Sources: gov.uk, "Understanding Ofsted report cards and grades", 5 February 2026; NDNA, "Ofsted updates 2025".
Can you still use the Outstanding or Good logo?
Only if your most recent inspection gave you that grade, and only until your next inspection, which will not give an overall grade. Ofsted's logo guidance says the logos "will gradually phase out". You may not edit the logo, and you may not make your own "Ofsted registered" or "Ofsted approved" badge. On 17 April 2026 Ofsted added a QR code badge that links to your report page, which any registered provider can use.
The trap is timing. A site built around a big Outstanding roundel is fine today and wrong the morning after your next inspection. Under the CAP Code (rule 3.1) claiming a grade you no longer hold is a misleading claim, and it is the first thing a competitor or a parent will notice.
Source: gov.uk, "Using Ofsted logos and copyright"; logos.ofsted.gov.uk.
How to show a report card on the website
Answer first: show the evaluation areas as a short table with the grade next to each, in plain words, above a link to the full report on Ofsted's site and the QR badge. Do not translate the grades into your own adjectives. Do not show only the best area.
Three things parents want to know are safeguarding (met), the grade for children's welfare and wellbeing, and the grade for curriculum and teaching. Put those first. Put the inspection date next to the table, because a card from 2025 will read differently in 2028.
If your last inspection was under the old framework, say so: "Graded Good at our last inspection in March 2024. Our next inspection will produce a report card, and we will publish it here." That sentence is honest, it uses the logo you are entitled to, and it prepares the page for the change.
What to do the week you are inspected
Nothing on the website until the report is published. When it is, replace the legacy grade section with the report card table, remove the old logo, add the QR badge, and update the sentence on the home page. On a site we build this is one edit inside the care plan and takes under an hour. On a site with the roundel baked into the header image it is a redesign.
Early outcomes under the new framework: in Ofsted's statistics to 31 March 2026, 93% of inspected early years providers were graded expected standard or better on inclusion, 90% on curriculum and teaching, and 94% on behaviour. Most settings will have a card worth publishing.
Source: Ofsted, "Childcare providers and inspections as at 31 March 2026", published 9 July 2026.