Whistleblowing in the Early Years

Sue Asquith, Early Childhood Consultant explores what whistleblowing is and why it is so important.

What is Whistleblowing?

Whistleblowing, sometimes called ‘making a disclosure in the public interest’, is the activity of someone reporting wrongdoing. A whistle-blower is a person, (often, but not always, an employee), revealing information about activity within an organisation which is deemed illegal, immoral, unsafe, unethical or fraudulent. In childcare settings, whistleblowing is mainly connected to safeguarding children; reporting wrongdoing or misconduct that fails to meet the standards required to provide the highest standards of care and protect the welfare of children.

Whistleblowing has formed part of quality safeguarding training and childcare practices for many years; the premise of whistleblowing is the same throughout the UK and many parts of the world but the exact procedures (how to whistle blow and who to) may differ depending on the type and size of your childcare setting and which country you are in.

Since 1 September 2025, whistleblowing is an explicit safeguarding and welfare requirement of the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) for all early years settings in England. The 2025 EYFS states:

‘Providers must put appropriate whistleblowing procedures in place for all staff (including students and volunteers) to raise concerns about poor or unsafe practice in the setting’s safeguarding provision. This must include when and how to report concerns and the process that will be followed after staff report concerns. Providers must ensure staff are aware of the setting’s whistleblowing procedures and must ensure all staff feel able to raise concerns about poor or unsafe practice and know that such concerns will be taken seriously by the senior leadership team’.

The EYFS is for early years providers in England. However, many international schools, nurseries and kindergartens align their working practices to EYFS and the home nations have information from their inspectorates and standards too.

What Kind of Things Need Whistleblowing?

Here are some examples:

Concerns about a serious breach of Health & Safety which has been ignored.
Colleagues spending excessive one to one time with children above and beyond that required by their role
Seeing someone with a mobile phone or other image sharing device such as a smart watch or smart sunglasses
Over familiarity between colleagues, especially where one of them looks to be uncomfortable.
A colleague discussing complex and confidential information, sharing the names and details of those involved.

How to Whistle Blow

Your early years setting or school may have a specific policy and procedure for whistleblowing, or whistleblowing information may form part of a larger safeguarding and child protection policy and/or your employer/employee contract.

Policies usually start with encouraging you to raise your concerns within the early years setting or school. Internal whistleblowing procedures may include approaching your employer, a member of the senior management team, the designated safeguarding lead (DSL) or there may be others in the setting specifically responsible for HR and/or the health and safety of staff and children. Whistleblowing internally within you organisation may help your concern to be directed to the right person to affect an immediate response and action. Your whistleblowing policy may tell you what to expect if you report your concern internally in the setting and there may be the option to whistle blow anonymously.

It is important to:

Clearly state what your concern is about
Mention whether you have any specific personal interests or conflicts in the matter
Include information about how you think the matter could be resolved.

Whistleblowing policies may include:

A commitment to provide the very best care and education for children and to promote the health, care and well-being of all children and staff, actively encouraging people to report any concerns
Procedures about how the setting will handle your concerns openly and transparently throughout the process
How they will recognise and respect that everyone involved has the right to confidentiality. Who might need to know your details and why and how to whistle blow anonymously
Who will investigate concerns and the steps they will take to remain impartial, independent and accountable
Who will be involved in investigations where management have a conflict of interest or may be seen to have a conflict of interest
Clear, agreed procedures and timescales to be met wherever possible; more complex issues may have to be referred externally to the LADO in England or SSSC in Scotland at various stages to escalate and advance your concerns should this be required
Information about legislation such as the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, the Equality Act (2010), the Data Protection Act (2018) and General Data Protection Regulations (2018)
What happens after an investigation and how they will ensure that any lessons learned are shared
The support available for the whistleblower if they have seen or heard something distressing

It is important to know that you can still report your concern within your setting or externally even if do not have a written policy or procedure specifically covering how to whistle blow.

You may be worried about being identified or named as the whistleblower; in smaller settings even if you make an anonymous disclosure, it may be obvious who has raised the concern. If you feel unable to whistle blow within your setting there are other avenues to explore.

There Are Other Options

The EYFS states ‘Where a staff member feels unable to raise an issue with their employer or feels that their genuine concerns are not being addressed, they should use the other channels open to them:

NSPCC whistleblowing advice line is available. Staff can call 0800 0280285 – 08:00 to 20:00, Monday to Friday and 09:00 to 18:00 at weekends. The email address is: [email protected]. Alternatively, staff can write to: National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), Weston House, 42 Curtain Road, London EC2A 3NH.
Ofsted provides guidance on how to make complaints about a provider: Complaints procedure – Ofsted – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
General guidance on whistleblowing can be found via: Whistleblowing for employees’.

Please check the specific information if your organisation is not in England (there are some useful links in the further reading section at the end of this blog).

The Legal Framework

The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, commonly referred to as the ‘Whistleblowing Act’, amended the Employment Rights Act 1996 to provide protection for employees who raise legitimate concerns about specified matters. These are called ‘qualifying disclosures.’

A qualifying disclosure is one made in the public interest by an employee who has a reasonable belief that any of the following is being, has been, or is likely to be, committed:

A criminal offence
A miscarriage of justice
An act creating risk to health and safety
An act causing damage to the environment
A breach of any other legal obligation or concealment of any of the above
Any other unethical conduct
An act that may be deemed as radicalised or a threat to national security
The company is not obeying the law (such as not having the right insurance or breaching the EYFS safeguarding and welfare requirements or the early years registration requirements for your country)
Covering up wrongdoing

To make a protected disclosure under the Public Interest Disclosure Act you:

must believe it to be substantially true
must not act maliciously or make false allegations
must not seek any personal gain.

It is not necessary to have proof that such an act is being, has been, or is likely to be committed; a reasonable belief is sufficient.

As a whistleblower you are protected by law; you should not be treated unfairly or lose your job because you whistle blow. In the UK, you can take a case to an employment tribunal if you’ve been treated unfairly because you have blown the whistle.

You can get further information from the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas), Citizens’ Advice, the whistleblowing charity Protect or your trade union.

Whistleblowing isn’t betrayal – it is accountability – a duty of care

It is your public duty to report anything that is dangerous, isn’t right, is illegal or if anyone at work is neglecting their duties.

Whistleblowing is covered in my Safeguarding and Child Protection training for staff as well as my Advanced Safeguarding training for DSLs. The EYFS states that safeguarding training must be renewed every two years and must meet the content listed in Criteria C.