Guidance

Early years foundation stage profile handbook

Updated 9 September 2025

Summary

This guidance has been produced by the Department for Education (DfE) to help teachers to complete the early years foundation stage (EYFS) profile assessment. 

The EYFS profile must be completed for each child in the final term of the academic year in which they reach age 5. Therefore, it is usually undertaken by reception teachers.

On rare occasions, other early years settings will need to complete the profile, if it is not being done in reception year at school.

For the purposes of this guidance, ‘teacher’ should be understood to refer to any early years practitioner (including childminders) working with the child and completing the EYFS profile assessment.

Who this publication is for

This guidance is for all those in England who are involved in EYFS profile assessments, including:  

• reception and key stage 1 teachers and teams, or other early years practitioners where relevant
• headteachers and managers
• local authorities

Statutory requirements

The main purpose of this handbook is to provide guidance for schools when completing the EYFS profile assessment for children, usually in the final term of the academic year in which they turn 5.

For the purposes of this guidance, ‘school’ is inclusive of all providers who are required by the EYFS to complete the profile. If a child attends more than one setting, the EYFS profile assessment must be completed by the provider where the child spends the majority of their time between 8am and 6pm. For most children, this will be a reception class in a school or specialist provision.

This handbook provides non-statutory guidance to explain the EYFS profile assessment arrangements for schools and local authorities.

This guidance uses the word ‘must’ where the provision is a legal requirement.

Important dates

Date	Activity
30 June	Deadline for schools to complete the EYFS profile for each child and submit the data to their local authority.
31 July	Deadline for local authorities to return final approved EYFS profile data to DfE.

EYFS profile purposes

The EYFS profile

The EYFS profile is a statutory assessment of children’s development at the end of the EYFS, usually the end of the academic year in which the child turns 5 (reception year).

Each child’s level of development is assessed against 17 early learning goals (ELGs) across all 7 areas of learning in the EYFS statutory framework. For each ELG, teachers must assess whether a child is meeting the level of development expected at the end of the EYFS, or if they are not yet reaching this level and should be assessed as ‘emerging’.

The profile is intended to provide a reliable and accurate summative assessment of each child’s development at the end of the EYFS, in order to support children’s successful transitions to year 1.

Children are defined as having reached a good level of development (GLD) at the end of the EYFS, if they have achieved the expected level for the ELGs in the prime areas of learning, which are:

• communication and language
• personal, social and emotional development
• physical development

Plus the specific areas of:

• mathematics
• literacy

This helps to understand broadly what a child can do in relation to national expectations.

Teachers are expected to use their professional judgement to make EYFS profile assessments, using their knowledge and understanding of what a child knows, understands, and can do.

When to complete the EYFS profile

The EYFS framework requires the EYFS profile assessment to be carried out in the final term of the year in which a child reaches age 5, or, in exceptional cases, the final term of the year before the child moves into year 1 if the child remains in EYFS provision beyond age 5.

The EYFS profile must be completed for each child and submitted to the local authority, no later than 30 June of that academic year.

Purposes and main uses of the profile

The main purpose of the EYFS profile assessment is to support children in a successful transition to key stage 1 by informing the professional dialogue between EYFS and key stage 1 teachers. It should inform these teachers about each child’s stage of development and learning needs and help them to plan the key stage 1 curriculum to meet the needs of all children. The EYFS profile is also used to inform parents and carers about their child’s development.

DfE publishes national, regional and local authority level EYFSP statistics on an annual basis on explore education statistics. DfE does not publish school level EYFSP statistics on this platform. EYFSP data submitted from the summer term in 2026 onwards will be available in Analyse School Performance (ASP) a secure web-based platform accessible via Department for Education Sign-in from the end of the 2026 autumn term.

Schools will be able to view their own school-level data within this platform, including the percentage of children reaching a good level of development and the percentage of children at the expected level for each early learning goal.

Ofsted will also have access to the same school level EYFSP data that is available in ASP. As stated above, this will apply to EYFSP data submitted from the summer term in 2026 onwards and therefore will feature in Ofsted’s inspection data summary report (IDSR) from the end of the 2026 autumn term. EYFSP data will be used as a starting point for conversations during inspection, including how schools use the data to support transitions from reception into key stage 1. Ofsted will not make gradings solely using EYFSP data.

From September 2025, using EYFSP data from the 2021 to 2022 academic year onwards, the DfE will also share school-level EYFSP data on the view your education data (VYED) platform, as part of plans to give all schools, local authorities and trusts better insight to inform improvements in early years. Responsible bodies (trusts and local authorities) will also have access to school-level and aggregated data for their schools. The data, analysis and insight available on this platform will continue to improve through 2025 to 2026 and beyond. Ofsted will not have access to the EYFSP data in the VYED platform.

DfE uses EYFS profile data to monitor changes in levels of children’s learning and development nationally, regionally, at local authority level and at school level, and to compare the development outcomes of different groups of children according to characteristics such as sex and eligibility for free school meals. Data may be used by DfE to inform future policy and direct support and resource where it is needed, for example through our regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) support offers.

Other organisations also make use of the data to support good outcomes for children. For example, the draft Local Government Outcomes Framework by the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) includes the proportion of children with a good level of development at the end of reception as an outcome measure. Giving every child the best start in life confirmed that we will also set a statutory numerical target for each local authority to raise the proportion of children achieving a good level of development in their local area by 2028.

The EYFS profile is not intended to be used for ongoing assessment or for entry-level assessment for early years settings or reception classes. It is important not to use the ELGs as the basis for a curriculum, as this would narrow the curriculum. For support with developing or enhancing a curriculum, schools may refer to the non-statutory curriculum guidance Development Matters.

Through day-to-day interactions with children, teachers will notice and observe what they are learning. This will inform teaching and learning on an ongoing basis throughout the final year of the EYFS. This will include identifying areas where children may be at risk of falling behind, so that teachers can provide effective support where needed.

EYFS profile principles

Principles of EYFS profile assessments 

Reliable and accurate assessment at the end of the EYFS is based on the following factors.

The teacher’s knowledge of each child

Assessment is based primarily on the teacher’s professional knowledge of what the child knows, remembers and can do day-to-day. It is a means of checking whether a child has learnt what has been taught. It can take place during routine interactions with children and does not need to be planned or documented.

The teacher may simply reflect on the knowledge, skills and understanding that the child demonstrates in the course of everyday learning to plan what to teach next.

Teachers should quickly identify children who need additional learning support, so that the appropriate additional support can be put in place. Where something has been well taught, a child’s learning is embedded and secured. The child is likely to demonstrate what they know and can do consistently in a range of situations.

The teacher’s use of summative assessment

Over the course of the reception year, teachers should plan what they want children to learn and build their knowledge of what each child knows, understands and can do. They should draw on this knowledge and their own expert professional judgement to make an accurate summative assessment at the end of the year.

Summative assessment is based on a holistic view of what the child can demonstrate against each ELG at the end of the EYFS. When assessing children against the ELGs, teachers should look at the whole description for each goal to determine whether this best-fits their professional knowledge of the child.

The ELGs are interconnected, meaning children can demonstrate development in more than one area of learning when engaging in a particular activity. Teachers should consider the child’s development across the areas of learning, and whether the levels of development in relation to each of the goals make sense when taken together.

Ensuring assessment is informed by a range of perspectives

Assessment is predominantly based on the teacher’s professional judgement but should also take account of contributions from a range of perspectives including the child, their parents and carers, and other relevant adults. This will provide a rounded picture of the child’s development.

A teacher’s relationship with parents and carers is especially crucial when working with children from different cultural backgrounds as they can help teachers understand the values that explain their child’s responses to the environment and social situations.  

Ensuring assessment is inclusive

Teachers need to be alert to the general diversity of children’s interests, needs and backgrounds to accurately assess their development and outcomes against the ELGs.

This includes children with a special educational need or disability (SEND), whose development may be identified by teachers in different ways.

Children whose home language is not English should have opportunities to engage in activities in the security of their home language. Children will demonstrate their development not only through what they have been taught but also when activities are linked to their cultural experience, such as:

• role play
• cookery
• celebrations
• visits
• events

Ensuring assessment is underpinned by a broad curriculum and effective pedagogy

Teaching should enable each child to demonstrate their learning and development fully.

Effective assessment takes place when teachers use their knowledge of the child to identify what they know, understand and can do in order to shape teaching and learning experiences for the child reflecting that knowledge.

The ELGs represent a narrow measure of what is assessed at the end of the EYFS and should not restrict the breadth of what is taught in the final year of the EYFS. It is for schools to determine their curriculum (having regard for the ‘Educational Programmes’ set out in the EYFS framework) and pedagogical approach to support children’s learning and development.

Ensuring assessment does not include burdensome evidence gathering

Schools should not include burdensome evidence gathering requirements against any of the areas of learning in their assessment policies so that teachers can spend as much time as possible interacting with children and directly supporting their learning and development.

However, teachers may find it helpful to record, in a simple way, particularly noteworthy achievements, such as what phonemes and numbers a child has learned, in order to determine what to teach next.

This is sufficient to make a judgement. Sources of written or photographic evidence are not required, and teachers are not required to record evidence.

Completing the EYFS profile

Exemptions

The EYFS profile must be completed for all children attending a school on or before 30 June in the academic year in which the child turns 5, including children with SEND and those who have not spent a long time in the school (for example due to illness, arriving from abroad or not starting at the school until a substantial part of the year has gone by), unless:

• an exemption has been granted for the setting (reserved for independent schools or schools with established principles in conflict with the EYFS)
• an exemption has been granted for an individual child (reserved only for cases where a child’s family has religious or philosophical beliefs that contradict the EYFS)

You can get more information on exemptions in:

• Exemptions from the EYFS for providers and individual children guidance
• The Early Years Foundation Stage Regulations 2008

In some cases, teachers may have a more limited knowledge and understanding of what a child knows, understands, and can do and it may be more difficult for an accurate EYFS profile assessment to be made. However, if teachers judge that a child has not met an ELG, for whatever reason, it is important that they report the child as ‘emerging’ and then communicate to the year 1 teacher why the assessment has been made. This will ensure that all children are supported as much as possible in their transition to year 1.

The A code (the assessment rating for a child who has an exemption) should only be used for children who have an individual exemption on grounds of religious or philosophical beliefs. Schools who submit it for any other reason would not be meeting the statutory requirements of the EYFS. Information on how to record an exempt child can be found in data collection and submission.

Assessing children against the early learning goals

Each child must be assessed against the 17 ELGs and teachers may choose to provide a commentary on the 3 characteristics of effective teaching and learning.

For each ELG, teachers must judge whether a child is either:

• meeting the level of development expected at the end of the EYFS (and should be assessed as ‘expected’)
• not yet reaching this level (and should be assessed as ‘emerging’)

The ELGs are based on typical child development at the age of 5, so most children are likely to meet the ‘expected’ level of development. Teachers should use their professional knowledge of the child to decide whether each ELG description best-fits the child’s learning and development.

The best-fit model requires teachers to consider the whole of each ELG description when making these judgements – best-fit does not mean that the child has equal mastery of all aspects of the ELG.

Each ELG descriptor is written in bullet point form, but this is for presentation purposes only to aid clarity. Teachers should not tick off these bullet points one-by-one, they should use their professional judgement to determine whether each ELG in its totality best-fits the child’s learning and development. The most accurate picture of the child’s overall embedded learning will come from a holistic view of the descriptor.

Teachers should only make judgements based on the criteria that are set out in the ELGs themselves and should not add any additional criteria. The profile recognises and values linguistic diversity and is inclusive of children whose home language is not English. The ELGs for the Communication and Language, and Literacy areas of learning, must be assessed in relation to the child’s competency in English, or competency in British Sign Language (BSL). However, the remaining ELGs may be assessed in the context of any language.

In cases where a child is using BSL or another language, teachers will need to observe the child over time and seek input from the parents and bilingual support assistants to be confident about what the child knows and understands. Teachers should use their professional judgement to consider whether the accounts provided are consistent with their professional knowledge of the child. Other teachers as well as parents or carers should be consulted to aid with this.  

For all ELGs, including Speaking, a child’s established or preferred mode of communication can be used. This includes non-speaking communication, such as signing.

In order to be judged as expected, the child must demonstrate the criteria of the ELG.

The mode of communication is the way a child chooses to communicate, not the language a child communicates in. Therefore, when using any mode of communication, the ELGs for the Communication and Language and Literacy areas of learning must still be assessed in relation to the child’s competency in English, or competency in BSL.

You can find details of the ELGs and what children will be able to do at the expected level of development in the EYFS statutory framework.

Completing the profile for children with an outcome at the ‘emerging’ level 

Where children have an outcome of ‘emerging’ for an ELG, this judgement alone will not provide a complete picture of their learning and development at the end of the EYFS.

For some children this may be because they are born late in the academic year or missed a considerable amount of the final year of the EYFS. For others, this may be related to potential or identified SEND. The teacher is likely to know the detail behind this outcome as a result of their knowledge of the child built up over time.

Where a child has an outcome of ‘emerging’ for one or more of the ELGs, things to be passed on to the year 1 teacher are:

• EYFS profile judgements
• additional information about the barriers to learning that have been identified
• any successful strategies to help the child overcome these barriers

See more information on reporting the EYFS profile to the year 1 teacher.

Completing the profile for children with SEND

SEND covers different types of need, including:

• communication and interaction
• cognition and learning
• social, emotional, and mental health
• sensory and physical needs

Children in the early years may have a range of needs which cut across some or all of these broad areas. Ongoing assessment should help teachers discover in more detail the factors influencing the child’s learning and development. Children develop and learn at different rates.

A delay in learning and development may or may not indicate that a child has SEND.

With extra support to make progress, many children can catch up with their peers. Therefore, it is important to identify any delays early so that a targeted plan to support the child’s future learning and development can be implemented and the appropriate support can be put in place.

When completing the profile for a child with SEND, it is important to consider what further information will need to be shared with the child’s year 1 teacher during transition. Teachers must have regard to the SEND code of practice when supporting children with SEND and teachers in school settings should speak to the school SENCo for advice and guidance in the first instance.

Children are not exempt from the profile on the basis of SEND. Completion of the EYFS profile is a useful opportunity to help the year 1 teacher to plan the curriculum to meet the needs of all children. This will ensure children with SEND are supported as much as possible in their transition to year 1.

Children will have differing levels of knowledge, skills and abilities across the profile. It is important that there is a full assessment of all areas of their development. Some children with SEND may be at the ‘expected’ level of development for some ELGs, and at an ‘emerging’ level for ELGs where their specific condition has an impact on their learning and development. Other children with SEND may, with the right support, reach the expected level in the ELGs, even where their specific condition has an impact.

Where a child has SEND, teachers should take care to ensure the child is able to demonstrate their level of development. Children must be assessed on the basis of what they can do when using the adaptations and reasonable adjustments they normally use to carry out daily activities.

Examples of adaptations include:

• mobility aids
• magnification
• adapted information and communication technology (ICT) and equipment

Reasonable adjustments can be any of those ordinarily available in the school’s provision including:

• prompts
• visuals
• sensory support
• movement breaks

If, when using reasonable adjustments and adaptations, a child is still unable to meet the criteria of an ELG they should be judged as ‘emerging’ and additional information should be provided to the year 1 teacher to support the child’s transition into year 1.

Where a child has SEND, teachers should be alert to identifying the child’s level of development in a variety of ways, including eye pointing, use of symbols, or signs. In this case, teachers should give additional detail about the child’s understanding and preferred means of communication in their EYFS profile record.

Actively involving children, their parents or carers, and other professionals such as the SEN coordinator (SENCo) or health professionals in the assessment process is especially crucial when working with children with SEND. This will enable teachers to get a clear picture of the child’s learning and development and ensure parents or carers have a clear understanding of their child’s development and any additional support which will be offered.

When communicating the EYFS profile data to the year 1 teacher, additional information should also be passed on alongside the data for children with SEND. Teachers should also share any other records from within or outside the setting with year 1 teachers and use these records to inform transition conversations and processes. Wherever possible, other professionals working with the child should be invited to contribute to transition conversations.

The DfE early years SEND assessment guidance and resources support a child-centred, strengths-based approach to assessing children’s needs on an ongoing basis.

Moderation

Moderation of EYFS profile assessments should be a collaborative process with colleagues.

This supports the quality assurance of assessment judgements and provides a valuable opportunity for professional development.

Within each school, teachers can informally agree assessment judgements with others, for example, discussing knowledge and understanding about a child’s development with other EYFS teachers or a year 1 teacher. This does not require collecting or recording unnecessary evidence.

Any internal or peer-to-peer moderation conversations should, as far as possible, be based on the teacher’s own knowledge of their children.

It is important for teachers to build a shared understanding of the ELGs and the EYFS framework. Schools may wish to work together so that teachers can share experiences and develop their assessment skills.

Reporting the EYFS profile assessment  

Reporting to the year 1 teacher

The main purpose of the EYFS profile assessment is to support a successful transition from the EYFS to year 1.

At the end of reception year, teachers must give year 1 teachers a copy of each child’s EYFS profile, including a record of the child’s outcomes against the 17 ELGs, stating for each ELG whether the child is:

• meeting ‘expected’ levels
• not yet reaching expected levels (‘emerging’)

They may also choose to provide a short commentary on how the child demonstrates the 3 characteristics of effective learning.

Teachers are not required or expected to produce any written reports for year 1 teachers beyond these basic requirements. It is, however, crucial that teachers and year 1 teachers are given sufficient time to discuss and expand on all the information presented in the EYFS profile, in order to give the year 1 teacher a fully rounded picture of the development of each child. This can help them to plan the year 1 curriculum to meet the needs of all children.

Establishing an ongoing dialogue before the summer term will allow processes to be built on a shared understanding and planned and implemented in good time.

In cases where children have an outcome at the ‘emerging’ level, teachers should provide additional information to help the year 1 teacher plan an effective curriculum. This should include:

• information about the barriers to learning that have been identified
• any successful strategies to help the child overcome these barriers
• details of any specific assessment and provision in place for children with SEND

Reporting to parents or carers

Parents or carers should be involved in the assessment process and encouraged to take part in their child’s learning and development. At the end of the EYFS, teachers must provide parents or carers with their child’s EYFS profile results and offer them the opportunity to discuss this with the teacher.

When a child has an outcome of ‘emerging’ for one or more ELGs, teachers should sensitively explain that this is a description of the child’s level of development and does not mean the child has ‘failed’. Teachers may choose to describe the activities and strategies that will support the child’s future learning and development as they transition into year 1, as well as how parents or carers can support their learning and development at home.

Schools must be aware of their responsibilities under the Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulation.

EYFS profile data collection and submission

Overview

The EYFS profile is a statutory data collection. Each child’s records are combined at local authority and national level to produce an Accredited Official Statistics publication.

Responsibilities

Headteacher responsibilities

Registered providers, governing bodies and proprietors of schools exempt from the requirement to register as early years providers with Ofsted have a duty to implement the EYFS. 

In schools, this duty is often delegated to headteachers. This means that headteachers must ensure their school or provision complies with the learning and development requirements and are responsible for the reliability of their EYFS profile outcomes. They must check to ensure that the data accurately reflects the outcomes of the current cohort of children.

Headteachers must:  

• ensure an EYFS profile is completed for all eligible children and data is quality assured
• ensure that reasonable adjustments are made to the assessment process for children with SEND
• take responsibility for the reliability of their EYFS profile outcomes and ensure that the data accurately reflects the level of development of the current cohort of children
• ensure EYFS profile data is returned to their local authority in accordance with the section on data collection and submission
• provide EYFS profile assessments to their school’s governing body to enable it to comply with national data submission requirements and report to parents or carers
• ensure the statutory requirements for the transfer of records between schools are fulfilled, including the completion of the common transfer file (CTF)
• ensure parents or carers are provided with the results and the opportunity to discuss the EYFS profile

Local authority responsibilities

In terms of data collection, local authorities must make provision to ensure the accuracy and consistency of the assessments made by early years providers in their area and return data to DfE as part of the The Early Years Foundation Stage (Learning and Development Requirements) Order 2007.

Local authorities should ensure schools have a secure electronic system to submit EYFS profile data and understand how the data should be formatted

Quality assurance of the data means ensuring that a full and complete set of data is submitted to the department for the schools in each area (for example, following up any missing records either at school or child level or querying any errors or inconsistencies).  It does not mean ensuring accuracy of teachers’ professional judgement.  

Data collection and submission

Schools will submit data to local authorities by transferring a common transfer file (CTF) export file. Schools do not submit data directly to DfE.

For educational settings without access to a secure computer, local authorities can arrange a paper recording system and then key the data into the centralised local authority system.

Maintained schools should contact their local authority for support.

Non-maintained schools, or schools without access to a management information system, can request an input spreadsheet via DfE’s data collections service request form.

Local authorities should submit the data to DfE using the COLLECT data collection system. Access to COLLECT is through the department’s DfE sign-in. A range of validation checks are applied to the data by DfE using COLLECT and the data must pass these checks in order to be accepted by DfE.

Data specification 

All schools must participate in the assessment arrangements outlined, unless an exemption has been granted for the setting or an individual child. If an exemption is granted for an individual child, ‘A’ should be recorded for the ELGs the child is exempt from. Information on exemptions from the profile can be found in the exemptions section.

Assessment rating	EYFS judgement
1	Indicates a child who is at the ‘emerging’ level at the end of the EYFS
2	Indicates a child who is at the ‘expected’ level at the end of the EYFS
A	Indicates a child who has an exemption

All schools must report EYFS profile results to their local authority upon request as outlined in The Childcare (Provision of Information About Young Children) (England) Regulations 2009, unless the Secretary of State for Education has granted the school an exemption from the EYFS learning and development requirements.

Local authorities are required to return the requested EYFS profile data to DfE by 31 July each year. The following table sets out the requirements for submission of EYFS profile data and contextual child data to local authorities and DfE.

Status of child and provision	Submission of data to local authority	Local authority submission to DfE
Child in a maintained school	Yes, where requested by local authority	Yes
Child in EYFS provision in receipt of government funding in the summer term	Yes, where requested by local authority	Yes
Child in EYFS provision not in receipt of government funding in the summer term	Yes, where requested by local authority	No
Child in an academy or free school	Yes, where requested by local authority	Yes
Child in an independent school in receipt of government funding in the summer term	Yes, where requested by local authority	Yes
Child in an independent school not in receipt of government funding in the summer term	Yes, where requested by local authority	No
Child in an alternative provision, including a pupil referral unit, AP free school or AP academy	Yes, unless the child is also registered at another school and the other schools is submitting the data	Yes, unless the child is also registered at another school and the other school is submitting the data
Child in a non-maintained special school	Yes, where requested by local authority	Yes
Child with a registered childminder (for the majority of the time they spend within EYFS provision between 8am and 6pm)	Yes, where requested by local authority, or if the childminder is in receipt of government funding in the summer term	No, unless the childminder is in receipt of government funding in the summer term
Child in an EYFS provision where the school has an exemption from the learning and development requirements of the EYFS	On a voluntary basis only	No
Child being educated at home	No, unless the child attends a school that is required to submit data for at least part of the academic year they turned 5	No, unless the child attends a school that is required to submit data for at least part of the academic year they turned 5

Children transferring schools

The EYFS profile must be completed for all eligible children attending a school. For dual-registered children attending more than one school during their final year in the EYFS, the profile must be completed by the school where the child spends most time during the year. The school that does not complete the profile for the child does not need to submit any data to the local authority.

If a child moves schools during the summer term (half-terms 5 and 6), the schools must agree which of them will complete the profile. When deciding this, it is important to consider what would best benefit the child’s education and their transition into year 1. In general, if a child starts at a new school on the first day of the second half of the summer term (or any time after that), then the previous school should submit the data.

If a child moves school at any time before the summer term, then the new school should submit the data. Where half-term dates differ between local authority areas, it is the school where a child attends (or will attend) for the longest period of time across the academic year that submits the data. 

Where the previous school is not in England and therefore does not follow the EYFS, the new school must submit the data. 

If a child moves to a new school during the academic year, the original school must send their assessment of the child’s development against the ELGs to the new school within 15 days of receiving the request, if the profile has been completed.

The governing body or academy trust must arrange to have the child’s educational record and the defined items of data that comprise the CTF sent to the child’s new school. This task is often delegated to headteachers by governing bodies or academy trusts.

The information must be sent within 15 school days of the child ceasing to be registered at their previous school unless the new school is not known. In this case it should be sent within 15 school days of receiving a request from the child’s new school. If the new school is unknown, DfE recommends that the school should still complete the CTF and load it onto the school to school (S2S) secure transfer system.

If schools do not receive a CTF for a new child, they can ask their local authority to search for the file on S2S.

Where both the old and new schools have the necessary facilities, the CTF must be sent to the new school either through S2S, or over a secure network that can only be accessed by the local authority, the governing body, multi-academy trust or a teacher at any school within that local authority.

The basic requirement is that the old school will send the educational records and CTF to the new school by one of these methods. If either school does not have the facilities to send or receive information in this format, the local authority may provide the file where there are agreed and secure local arrangements to that effect.

Children who remain in EYFS provision beyond the age of 5 

The expectation is that children will move with their peers so they will be assessed against the EYFS profile once. In exceptional circumstances, after discussion and only in agreement with parents or carers, a child might remain in EYFS provision beyond the end of the academic year in which they reach age 5. Schools should take care to make sure this decision does not prejudice the child’s personal, social, and emotional development.

In these exceptional cases, assessment should continue throughout the child’s time within EYFS provision, and the profile should be completed once only, at the end of the year before the child moves into year 1. If the child is only continuing in EYFS provision for part of the following year, the profile should be completed at the end of the child’s time in the EYFS before they move into year 1. The data should then be submitted at the end of that academic year with the rest of the cohort.

We recommend the decision for the child to remain in the EYFS is made before starting the profile for the cohort. However, if the decision is made after the profile has already been completed, then a new assessment will need to be made and submitted the following year with the new cohort.  This is required as the child’s stage of development and learning needs will likely be different in the new year compared to the last. It is therefore important a new EYFS profile assessment is made so that the child can be supported as much as possible in their upcoming transition to year 1.

The school should discuss their intention to defer the child’s statutory assessment with their local authority. This will ensure the child’s data is not considered missing when the school submits profile outcomes for the current cohort. Care should be taken when entering the child’s profile assessment into any electronic recording system.

The child’s date of birth may now be outside the expected range for the cohort – local authorities should give schools instructions in such cases. DfE will consider the child to be part of this new cohort and will accept data submitted in this way if the local authority has provided the information to DfE.

DfE may check the accuracy of the dates of birth of individual children with the relevant local authority.

Children who are home-educated

The profile assessment and reporting arrangements do not apply to children who are being home-educated and have not attended a school at all during the academic year they turned 5.

However, where a child has been home-educated for part of the academic year they turned 5, then joined a school, or vice versa, the school must complete the EYFS profile for the child.

Children who are missing education

The profile assessment and reporting arrangements do not apply to children, who at the time of completing the assessment, are missing education.

Children missing education are children of compulsory school age who are not registered at a school and are not receiving suitable education otherwise than at a school.

Where the child was previously registered at the school but is taken off school roll because they have become a child missing education, (including for example, moving abroad), then the profile does not need to be completed for the child. The school should contact the local authority to ensure the child is removed from their data collection roll.

How the requirements apply to different types of school  

Academies and free schools in England

Academies must implement the requirements of the EYFS by virtue of Section 40 of the Childcare Act 2006. All references to academies in the guidance include free schools as, in law, they are academies.

Ministry of Defence (MoD) schools  

MoD schools are required to participate in the assessment and reporting arrangements for the EYFS profile in line with the administration in England.

Overseas schools

Overseas schools, which are not MoD schools, cannot participate in the EYFS profile assessment and reporting arrangements.  

Hospital schools

Hospital schools may be required to complete the EYFS profile depending on the type of school and whether it is required to comply with the EYFS.

Home-educated children

The EYFS requirements including the EYFS profile assessment and reporting arrangements do not apply to children who are being educated at home unless they have attended a school for part of the academic year they turn 5.  

Independent schools and EYFS providers registered with Ofsted

All independent schools and registered EYFS providers must comply with the assessment and reporting arrangements unless they have an exemption from the EYFS learning and development requirements for children 3 and over.  This includes specialist provision.

Providers with children not in receipt of government funding

Under regulations made under section 99 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are allowed to collect specified data for children not in receipt of government funding in the summer term. EYFS providers are required to comply with local authorities’ requests for this data. Local authorities are required to submit data to DfE. The local authority can request data including:

• the judgement of ‘expected’ or ‘emerging’ for each ELG
• the child’s date of birth
• the home address where the child normally resides
• the child’s ethnic group
• the child’s sex
• whether the child has SEND
• if the child has English as an additional language