June 2026
The Department for Education (DfE) has this month (June 2026) published new guidance, Inclusive Education Estates: Supporting Inclusive Environments in Mainstream Settings. It sets out how educational environments can be adapted to better support all children, including those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
Although the guidance is non-statutory, it represents an important step in the government’s wider ambition to create a more inclusive education system. The guidance applies across all phases of education, including early years provision, and offers practical recommendations for creating environments where every child can belong, achieve and thrive.
This advice lines up with practical ideas such as making your setting more inclusive with the inclusive early years fund and helps turn those ideas into real improvements without huge spending.
Why This Guidance Matters for Early Years
For many children, a nursery setting is their first experience of learning outside the home. The DfE recognises that physical environments can either support or create barriers to children’s learning, wellbeing and participation.
The guidance highlights that children with SEND may experience anxiety, sensory overload, communication difficulties or challenges with emotional regulation that can be intensified by poorly designed environments. Thoughtful adaptations to buildings, rooms and outdoor spaces can reduce these barriers and improve outcomes for all children, not just those with identified SEND.
Importantly, the guidance highlights that inclusive design is not about expensive specialist equipment. Instead, it encourages settings to make practical, achievable improvements that can have a significant impact on children’s daily experiences.
Small tweaks such as softer lighting or a cosy corner can change how a whole day feels. This approach supports the wider goal of every child achieving and thriving through thoughtful spaces.
What Does the Guidance Recommend?
The DfE identifies ten core elements of inclusive design that settings should consider when reviewing their environments:
- Accessibility and movement
- Navigation and wayfinding
- Quiet spaces and sensory comfort
- Acoustics
- Lighting and visual comfort
- Ventilation
- Thermal comfort
- Access to nature
- Sanitary provision
- Furniture, fittings and equipment
These principles provide a framework for evaluating existing provision and identifying areas for improvement.
Key Messages for Early Years Settings
1. Start with Children’s Experiences
One of the strongest themes running through the guidance is the importance of understanding the environment from the child’s perspective.
The DfE recommends using a “Day in the Life” approach, encouraging settings to walk through the day as a child might experience it, identifying moments where anxiety, sensory overload, confusion or physical barriers may occur. This includes arrivals, transitions, mealtimes, outdoor play and departures.
For nursery leaders, this means getting everyone involved including; practitioners, parents and, where appropriate, children themselves in identifying challenges and solutions. These simple step mirrors advice in creating enabling environments by seeing your early years setting through a child’s eyes. It turns vague worries into clear actions.
2. Reduce Sensory Overload
Many young children, particularly those with sensory processing differences, can find busy environments overwhelming.
The guidance recommends:
- Decluttering learning spaces.
- Simplifying displays.
- Limiting excessive visual stimuli.
- Creating predictable and consistent layouts.
- Separating noisy and quiet activities.
These changes can help children focus, self-regulate and feel more secure throughout the day.
3. Create Calm and Quiet Spaces
The DfE strongly encourages settings to provide low-stimulation spaces where children can regulate their emotions, rest or retreat when feeling overwhelmed. These do not need to be expensive sensory rooms.
Examples include:
- Soft-furnished dens.
- Cosy reading corners.
- Screened-off quiet areas.
- Outdoor shelters or garden retreats.
- Small group rooms for focused support.
The guidance notes that calm spaces are often more beneficial and versatile than specialised sensory environments.
4. Improve Acoustics
Noise can be a significant barrier to learning and wellbeing, particularly for children with autism, hearing difficulties or sensory sensitivities.
The DfE recommends:
- Soft furnishings and rugs.
- Acoustic ceiling panels or wall treatments.
- Quiet den spaces.
- Reducing noise from furniture and equipment.
- Separating noisy and quiet activities.
Simple improvements to acoustics can help children concentrate, communicate and engage more effectively.
5. Review Lighting and Visual Comfort
Lighting can have a significant impact on children’s wellbeing and ability to learn.
The guidance recommends:
- Maximising natural daylight.
- Replacing harsh or flickering lighting.
- Using warm, even LED lighting.
- Reducing glare.
- Using calming, muted colour palettes.
- Creating visually comfortable environments.
For early years settings, this may mean reviewing both artificial lighting and how natural light is managed throughout the day.
6. Strengthen Connections with Nature
One of the most positive aspects of the guidance is its emphasis on nature-based environments.
The DfE highlights evidence linking access to nature with improved emotional regulation, reduced stress and enhanced attention.
Recommendations include:
- Free-flow access to outdoor provision.
- Sensory gardens.
- Growing areas.
- Natural materials and textures.
- Trees and planting.
- Outdoor learning spaces.
- Willow dens and sheltered seating areas.
Many nurseries already excel in this area and may find the guidance confirms existing good practice. It also connects with getting our children outdoors because nature is essential for wellbeing and attention.
7. Ensure Clear Wayfinding
Young children benefit from predictable and easy to understand environments.
The guidance suggests:
- Clear activity zones.
- Visual cues and symbols.
- Consistent signage.
- Makaton-supported visual communication.
- Clearly defined circulation routes.
These adjustments can support independence and reduce anxiety, especially for children with communication or processing difficulties.
Funding Opportunities
The DfE makes clear that inclusive improvements do not always require big budgets. Many adaptations can be achieved at relatively low cost.
The guidance also highlights several potential funding sources, including:
- High Needs Provision Capital Allocations (HNPCA) via local authorities.
- The Inclusive Mainstream Fund (IMF).
- Existing setting reserves.
Importantly for early years providers, the guidance confirms that DfE funding can support inclusive adaptations in early years provision as well as schools and colleges.
Providers should engage with their local authority to explore available opportunities and ensure their needs are reflected in local SEND planning.
Practical Next Steps for Nursery Leaders
The publication provides a useful opportunity for settings to review their current provision and consider small but meaningful improvements.
A good starting point would be to:
- Conduct an inclusion-focused environment audit.
- Walk through the setting from a child’s perspective.
- Gather feedback from staff and families.
- Identify areas that may cause sensory overload or anxiety.
- Review acoustics, lighting and visual clutter.
- Evaluate opportunities for creating calm spaces.
- Consider how outdoor environments can better support regulation and wellbeing.
- Build inclusive design principles into future maintenance and development plans.
Final Thoughts
The DfE’s new guidance reinforces a message many early years professionals have championed for years: environments matter.
Creating inclusive spaces is not simply about meeting regulatory requirements. It is about ensuring every child feels safe, valued, supported and able to participate fully in nursery life.
For early years providers, the guidance offers a practical framework for improving accessibility, wellbeing and inclusion through thoughtful environmental design. Whether that be by reducing clutter, improving acoustics, creating cosy retreat spaces or strengthening children’s connection with nature, even small changes can make a lasting difference to children’s experiences and outcomes.
For more detailed support on inclusion, check inclusion in the early years a practical guide for practitioners and the SEND reform proposals explained an early years guide. Settings working with families from different language backgrounds may also find value in supporting children with English as an additional language in the early years.
Also, the full DfE Inclusive Education Estates Guidance can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a3bb3cf4c7605ab567238e7/inclusive-education-estates.pdf