An extra 3,000 unannounced nursery inspections will take place in England from September, with safe-sleep checks for young children included for the first time, the government has announced.
The move, which triples the number of such inspections compared with the year to April 2025, follows a BBC investigation that uncovered high-profile nursery failings where children died or were sexually abused.
“Extra 3,000 unannounced nursery inspections in England from September, with safe-sleep checks included for first time.”
Among those cases was the death of 14-month-old Noah Sibanda at Fairytales Nursery in Dudley, West Midlands, in 2022. CCTV played to Wolverhampton Crown Court in April showed Noah “struggling and thrashing” while face down on a soft cushion inside a teepee in the nursery’s baby room. Nursery worker Kimberley Cookson had wrapped the toddler tightly in a sleeping bag with a blanket over his head, then placed her leg across his lower back for seven minutes, the court heard. Believing he had fallen asleep, she left him alone. Staff did not physically check on him for about two hours. He was found unresponsive and later pronounced dead in hospital.
“Those children weren’t seen as humans, they weren’t seen as children,” said Masi Sibanda, Noah’s mother. “I do feel they were being treated like inanimate objects. They didn’t treat them as living, delicate beings.”
Cookson was jailed for manslaughter. The nursery was fined £240,000 for corporate manslaughter, and owner Deborah Latewood received a suspended sentence for a health and safety offence. CCTV showed Noah was not the only child treated roughly, tightly wrapped and placed face-down to sleep.
Yet at the last full Ofsted inspection, 10 months before Noah died, safeguarding arrangements at the nursery had been described as “effective” and the site’s overall rating was “good”. In a statement to the BBC, Ofsted said that while the report for that inspection “did not specifically reference sleeping arrangements, they were observed for some children and found to be safe”. However, after Noah’s death, another Ofsted inspection at Fairytales found concerns that babies and toddlers were at serious risk.
Under the new measures, sleep practices – such as how and where a child is put down for rest and whether they are checked on – will be considered at all inspections of early years providers by Ofsted. If routines fall short, it will be reflected in the overall rating, the regulator said.
The Department for Education said the changes would “give parents assurance that safeguarding across the system is upheld to the highest possible standards”.