Met or not met
Ofsted’s renewed inspections of state-funded schools started on 10 November 2025. Report cards no longer give one overall judgement. Each evaluation area gets a grade on a five-point scale: exceptional, strong standard, expected standard, needs attention or urgent improvement. For state-funded schools the areas are inclusion, curriculum and teaching, achievement, attendance and behaviour, personal development and wellbeing, and leadership and governance, plus early years and post-16 provision where the school has them. Each grade comes with a written explanation, and the card shows context data from the DfE, such as the number of pupils.
Safeguarding is different. It is reported only as “met” or “not met”.
The old school inspection handbook no longer applies. It was replaced from 10 November 2025 by three documents: the school inspection toolkit, the operating guide for inspectors and inspection information for schools. Ofsted updated all three for inspections from September 2026, with the toolkit in use from 7 September 2026. This guide uses those versions, checked on 20 October 2026.
The toolkit says its safeguarding standards are developed from the requirements of Keeping children safe in education (KCSIE) and Working together to safeguard children. The operating guide gives the rule: safeguarding is graded “met” if all the individual safeguarding standards are met and none of the “not met” standards apply.
What “met” looks like
The toolkit says safeguarding is “met” when all of these apply:
- Leaders and governors have built an open culture where safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. Multi-agency working is effective. There is strategic oversight, and leaders try to learn from cases and incidents.
- Pupils are kept safe and feel safe. Their voices are heard, including pupils who are not on the school site. Teaching about staying safe is part of the curriculum, and pupils and parents know who to go to.
- All staff are vigilant, understand the signs of possible concerns and follow the school’s systems confidently and consistently.
- Leaders fulfil their responsibilities on child-on-child violence, including bullying, sexual violence and harassment, and teenage relationship abuse.
- Leaders know and fulfil the statutory requirements, including safer recruitment, reporting, referrals, record-keeping and the Prevent duty.
- Policies are clear and accessible, and leaders are open to challenge and keep their impact under review.
- Staff get appropriate supervision and support, and leaders follow local authority procedures for concerns and allegations about adults.
- Any minor issues found during the inspection have been resolved, or leaders are taking steps to resolve them.
What leads to “not met”
Safeguarding is likely to be “not met” when any of these apply:
- serious or widespread failures leave pupils, or groups of pupils, unsafe
- leaders have not done enough to fix weaknesses after a safeguarding failure
- leaders are not open to challenge or don’t learn from incidents
- leaders don’t know where pupils who are off site are, or can’t show they have kept them safe. This includes pupils who are absent and pupils in unregistered or unmonitored alternative provision.
- pupils have little confidence that the school will deal with concerns, so they feel unsafe
- leaders don’t fulfil their responsibilities on child-on-child violence, or don’t handle allegations of abuse swiftly
- leaders don’t meet requirements on safer recruitment, reporting, referrals, record-keeping or Prevent
- allegations against adults are not handled in line with requirements, or not referred
- in nursery provision, the quality of care means children have been harmed or are at risk of harm
What inspectors do
The operating guide says that deciding whether safeguarding is “met” means going beyond reviewing documents. Inspectors evaluate the safeguarding culture over time. In every inspection, the lead inspector must:
- review the single central record early on day 1, along with any records about disqualification under the Childcare Act 2006
- meet the DSL and review a sample of casework on day 1, usually in person rather than delegating it
Inspectors will also:
- sample the school’s decisions and any incidents since the last inspection, and check whether the school acted appropriately and referred in good time
- review any allegations or concerns about adults with the headteacher
- ask the chair of governors, or a trustee in an academy, how they would handle concerns or allegations about the headteacher
- meet a randomly chosen group of staff to discuss safeguarding
- talk to pupils about whether they feel safe and who they would go to, without another adult present
- check the school’s compliance with its duty to refer to the Disclosure and Barring Service
If pupils can’t be spoken to at all, the operating guide says safeguarding is likely to be “not met”, because inspectors can’t gather enough reliable evidence about the culture.
Records to have ready
Ofsted’s inspection information says schools must make these available by 8am on the first day:
- the single central record, and any records about disqualification under the Childcare Act 2006
- records of DBS and other checks for volunteers in regulated activity
- a list of referrals to the DSL, and any passed to the local authority, with a brief note of the outcome
- any referrals to the LADO about staff or other adults
- a list of pupils with open cases with children’s social care, and pupils with a multi-agency plan
Schools can choose to share a safeguarding audit, but it is not required. Ofsted says it doesn’t need documents in any particular format, or produced just for inspection.
If something is wrong
Minor issues. If leaders can fix small problems, such as an administrative error or a policy that needs updating, before inspectors leave, inspectors should give them every chance to do so. Safeguarding can still be “met” if the fix is in hand, for example where training is booked but hasn’t taken place yet.
Suspending the inspection. If bigger improvements are needed but all other areas are at least at the expected standard, inspectors can suspend the inspection. This is only possible where leaders can resolve the issues within 3 months and there are no significant risks to children. The deadline is a maximum of 3 months and can be shorter, and governors or trustees, and the local authority where relevant, should agree to help the school make the changes. Inspectors return to finish it, and the school publishes the suspension letter and sends it to parents.
Not met. If safeguarding is “not met”, the school is placed in a category of concern. It requires significant improvement, or special measures where leadership and governance is also graded “urgent improvement” and leaders are judged not to have the capacity to improve. The local authority is invited to the final feedback meeting wherever safeguarding is likely to be “not met”. Schools in a category of concern are monitored, and the final feedback tells leaders when to expect the first monitoring inspection.