The key person approach: what the EYFS requires and how it works

The EYFS requires every child to be assigned a key person. Their job is to make sure the child’s care fits their individual needs, help the child become familiar with the setting, offer a settled relationship, and build a relationship with the child’s parents. The reason is attachment: a young child who feels secure with one familiar adult settles, explores and learns. In a nursery it works best when another familiar adult covers the key person’s absences, and with a planned handover whenever the key person changes.

This guide covers England.

What does the EYFS say about the key person?

The requirement is short. In the group and school-based framework effective 1 September 2026 it is paragraph 3.42; in the childminder framework it is 3.46. The wording on the key person’s role is the same in the September 2025 and September 2026 versions. Each child must be assigned a key person, whose role is to:

• make sure the child’s care is tailored to their individual needs
• help the child become familiar with the setting
• offer the child a settled relationship
• build a relationship with the child’s parents or carers

The key person should also help families engage with more specialist support where that is appropriate.

Three other requirements hang off it:

• Parents must be told the name of their child’s key person and their role (3.100; childminders 3.99).
• Your daily record of children’s attendance must include the name of each child’s key person (3.104). Childminders only need to record it when the key person is not the childminder (3.103).
• Learning, not only care. The framework says the key person also supports learning by understanding each child’s needs deeply, and that the key person requirements matter as much for learning and development as for safety and welfare (1.19; 1.13).

Why it matters: attachment

The framework puts it plainly: children need to build an attachment with their key person for their confidence and well-being. A child who knows that one particular adult will notice them, comfort them and come back is free to leave that adult’s side and explore. A child who does not know who will come is busy watching the door.

DfE’s Help for early years providers describes the key person as the family’s advocate, someone who holds the child in mind, without replacing the parents.

Ofsted’s current toolkit asks whether key person arrangements promote children’s security and support their emotional development and self-regulation, and whether practitioners understand the importance of secure attachments in helping children settle. Among the signs of the lowest grade for children’s welfare and wellbeing is a key person system that does not work well enough for each child’s care to be tailored to their needs.

How many key children, and who gets whom?

The EYFS sets no number. It is a judgement based on:

• Age. Babies need more of their key person’s time than four-year-olds.
• Hours. Match key children to the practitioner’s working pattern. A practitioner who works Monday to Wednesday should not be key person for a child who attends Thursday and Friday.
• Need. A child with SEND, a child with a social worker, or a family going through a hard time takes more time.
• The child’s choice. If a child has clearly attached to someone else during settling in, consider changing the key person to match. It is about the child, not the rota.

Making it work with shifts and part-time staff

Nurseries open ten or eleven hours a day. No practitioner works all of them. That is the main practical problem with the key person approach, and it has practical answers.

Cover with a familiar face. When the key person is on a break, an early or late shift, on holiday or off sick, the child is best looked after by another adult they already know well, usually someone else in the room. The EYFS asks for one key person, not a second; this is simply how the relationship survives a real rota.

Put the key person where it counts. Plan rotas so the key person is there for the moments that matter most: arrival, a baby’s feeds and sleeps, and the first weeks of settling.

Share what the key person knows. A short note on the room board or in your records, such as “Ava settles with the blue blanket and ‘Twinkle Twinkle’”, lets anyone on shift give consistent care.

Protect a little time. Ten minutes a week away from the floor to update records or plan a parent conversation keeps the role from becoming a name on a list.

The key person and parents

The key person is the parents’ main point of contact about their child, not the room leader or manager, unless something needs escalating. In practice:

• The key person does the home visit or first meeting where possible.
• Parents know when their key person works, and which familiar faces they will see when the key person is not there.
• The key person leads progress conversations, including the progress check at age two.
• If the key person is worried about a child’s progress in a prime area, the framework requires the practitioner to discuss it with the parents and agree how to support the child (1.13; childminders 1.7).
• Hard conversations happen face to face, with the manager or SENCO present if needed. See parent communication that works.

When the key person changes

Room moves, staff leaving and maternity leave all mean a change of key person. Each one is a small transition for the child. Ofsted’s toolkit specifically looks at whether children are prepared for transitions within the setting as well as to other settings.

• Plan an overlap where you can: a few sessions where the new key person spends time with the child while the old one is still there.
• Tell parents before it happens, face to face if you can, with the new key person present.
• Write a handover note (structure below) so nothing the old key person knew is lost.
• Update your records so the daily record shows the new key person.
• Expect a wobble. Some regression in sleep, eating or drop-offs is normal for a week or two.

Key person for childminders

Under the childminder framework the key person is the childminder, or an assistant where appropriate (3.46). If an assistant is the key person, the same duties apply: they must know the child and build the relationship with the parents. When inspecting co-childminders, Ofsted’s operating guide says inspectors establish which childminder is the key person for which children, so make sure that is clear in your records and to parents.

Key person responsibilities checklist

Use this as a job description or a supervision prompt.

• Leads the home visit or first meeting and the settling-in plan
• Knows the child’s routines, comforts, likes, fears and words
• Knows the child’s allergies, health needs and who has parental responsibility
• Does a good share of the child’s feeds, nappies, sleeps and comforting, especially early on
• Is the parents’ first point of contact and speaks to them regularly
• Knows what the child can do now and what they are ready to learn next
• Raises any concern about a prime area with parents promptly
• Completes the progress check at age two with parents
• Helps the family reach specialist support where needed, with the SENCO
• Shares key information with the room team, so whoever covers knows the child
• Knows the safeguarding procedure and passes concerns to the designated safeguarding lead
• Prepares the child and family for room moves and the move to school

Handover note structure

Keep it to one page. Write it with the parents where possible.

1. Child and family. Name, age, who they live with, who has parental responsibility, who collects, home languages.
2. Health and safety. Allergies and action plans, medicines, health needs, dietary needs.
3. Routines. Feeding, sleep (how they fall asleep and when), toileting, arrival and goodbye routine.
4. Comfort. What upsets them, what calms them, comforters, favourite songs or phrases.
5. Relationships. Friends, adults they trust in the setting, siblings in the setting.
6. Learning. What they can do now, current interests, next steps, any agreed support or plans.
7. Family. How the parents like to communicate, anything happening at home the family has chosen to share, anything agreed with the family that is still open.
8. Open actions. Referrals, reviews or meetings in progress, and who is now responsible.

Keep safeguarding information out of the general handover. Pass it through your designated safeguarding lead in line with your safeguarding procedure.