I want to start with something you might feel a little uncomfortable. Most settings I have ever visited, including some really fantastic ones. Would say they are inclusive, and they mean it. The values are real. The intent is there. But intent and practise are not the same thing.

There is a gap between understanding inclusion as a principle and actually spotting the moment when it is not happening. The moment when a child is quietly left out, when a family has stopped really engaging. And when a member of your team is struggling in a way that is starting to affect the children they work with. Now those moments are not always dramatic, they're often small. And that is exactly why they are so easy to miss.

This video is about closing that gap. It is about what to look for, why it matters for wellbeing, and how your team can make sure the small things are seen, raised and acted on every day. Not just when something goes wrong.

I've recently written about inclusion and the new Ofsted framework for the NMT magazine. I'll link that in the description because it covers how important this subject is. But what I want to do here is to go deeper on the practise, the human side, the things that happen before any inspector ever walks through the door. Not that this is something that is just done for Ofsted. Of course.

Inclusion, as a value, is not difficult to hold. Every child matters. Every family deserves to feel welcome. Every member of your team deserves to be supported. Most people in early years believe all of that genuinely. But recognition is a different skill. It is the ability to see in real time on an ordinary Wednesday afternoon that something is not right for someone. And that skill is not automatic. It is not something that comes with good intentions. It has to be built deliberately through supervision, through reflection, through a culture where noticing is part of the job description.

Here is what I see most often in settings where inclusion breaks down at the practise level. Practitioners wait for something obvious. They are looking for a clear incident, a clear complaint, a clear moment when something has gone wrong. And because the small signs don't look like incidents, they don't get logged, they don't even get mentioned.

Over time, those small signs add up, patterns forms. And by the time somebody notices the pattern, the child or family or team member has already been experiencing, that barrier for weeks, sometimes months. The question is not whether your team cares, it's whether they know what they are looking for, and whether there is a clear, simple route for them to say something. When they see it.

Let's start with children, because this is where the stakes are the highest. Inclusion barriers for children are often visible to educators before they are visible to anyone else. The educator who's with the child every day, who knows how they usually move. Through the routines. Who notices when something has changed.

But what are they actually looking for? Let me be specific, because I think vagueness is one of the reasons these signs get missed.

Withdrawal and disengagement. A child who usually joins in at group time and starts hanging back. A child who stops seeking out particular activities they used to love. A child who becomes quieter, harder to reach, less responsive to adults that they were previously friendly with. Now these can be developmental. They can be temporary. But they are worth noting. Because if a pattern across several weeks. That is information.

Let's consider peer dynamics, a child who is regularly left out when a when other children choose to play, choose to play. A child who stays on the edge of a group. Rather than feeling able to join in. Perhaps their name is repeatedly shortened or mispronounced, and nobody steps in to correct it. Or they miss those small spontaneous moments of belonging, a shared joke, the invitation to sit together, or another child naturally making space for them. None of these things on their own. Are safeguarding instances, but they may be signs that a child is not fully included. If nobody notices them. They will not be recorded. And if they're never brought together, nobody will see the pattern.

From a communication and language perspective, a child with English as an additional language. Who has perhaps stopped trying to communicate. A child who watches what is happening but rarely feels able to join in, or a child who cannot easily access the room, the language or the experiences on offer because very little reflects the world they know at home. We should not simply label that child as disengaged. We need to ask whether we have made it possible for them to take part. That difference matters.

Perhaps a child's attendance becomes irregular. And nobody is quite sure why. Or the child attends every day, but their family now drops them off and collects without a real conversation. Neither of those things automatically means there's a problem. But a chance, but a change may be telling us something, and we miss a chance. Because it could sit alongside other observations that will make it matter.

In On the Button, well-being records and attendance information can be looked at together. A practitioner can record that a child's seemed different today. A change in attendance may be noticed as well. One observation may mean very little. Together, over time, they may begin to tell a story.

Now families. Are one of our most important sources of information. About whether inclusion is really working. And yet their experience can be one of the most easiest things to overlook. Partnerships is not simply keeping families informed. It means involving them, listening to what they know about their child. And making sure they feel able to tell us when something is not right. When that trust starts to weaken, the signs are often quiet. A parent who used to chat at collection now leaves as quickly as possible. Replies to to the key person become shorter, more formal, or stopped altogether. They answer our questions but no longer ask any of their own. Of course, families are busy and communication changes for all sorts of reasons. One rushed week is not an inclusion concern. But a sustained change, particularly alongside other observations, is worth noticing. A family may not come to a stay and play session. Or other events. That does not mean they are uninterested in what their child's learning. Work, transport, caring responsibilities, confidence or language may all be barriers. Some parents have had a difficult experience with education themselves or with other professionals. Others may feel embarrassed about their own literacy or simply unsure of what is expected. The important thing is not to make assumptions. It is to notice the change, start a respectful conversation and find out what would help. We cannot remove a barrier if we do not know it is there.

Now, no setting can represent every part of every family's life in every activity, but children and families should be able to recognise something of themselves in the setting. Perhaps a parent has explained something important about diet, faith, or home life. And it has not been acknowledged or followed up. Perhaps their festivals and traditions are always absent while other families' experiences are treated as the norm. Our families do not always complain when this happens. They may simply lower their expectations and stop offering information. A thoughtful educator notices the moment a parent shares something, and the parent will wait unconsciously to see whether it has really been heard.

Now On the Button provides a clear route for recording well-being concerns about families, not only children, and that matters. Because what is happening around a family will often affect the child as well. A parent may appear overwhelmed at drop off. The family may be facing housing or financial difficulties, or a parent may mention something important in passing and quickly move on. It is not about watching or judging families. It's about making sure useful information. Is spotted and not left in one person's memory.

Record does not have to be long. Needs to be factual, dated, and visible to the right person so that someone can decide whether support or a further conversation is needed.

OK, so now, let's. Look at team members, because staff often are missing from conversations about inclusion. Staff wellbeing is an explicit focus within the Ofsted framework. Leaders are expected to understand how the workload and wellbeing are affecting their team. And that connects directly to children's experience.

A practitioner who feels overwhelmed, excluded, or unsupported will find it much harder to give children the individual attention they need. But this is not only about inspection, it tells us something important about the kind of setting we are running. You may notice that a practitioner's warmth or patience has changed. Someone who is usually open with colleagues has become short or withdrawn. Their attendants may be less reliable, or they may arrive and leave looking as though they have very little left to give.

We should not diagnose the reasons or jump to conclusions. The change may be personal or it may be connected to what is happening at work. They may feel overloaded, overlooked, treated differently, or simply unable to ask for help. And this is the conversation we cannot ignore. An educator who is not OK may be less able to notice when a child is not OK. The two are not separate. For the team, perhaps one person is repeatedly spoken over in meetings. Their ideas are rarely acknowledged, and eventually they stop offering them. A team member from a different background may have stopped sharing anything personal. Because previous comments or reactions have made them feel uncomfortable. These concerns can be much harder to raise than concerns about a child. They involve colleagues, working relationships, and the worry that may. They may have misunderstood what was seen.

But difficulty raising a concern does not make the concern disappear, and that is why On the Button includes both general wellbeing route to highlight something, and an anonymous whistleblowing route.

An educator can raise a concerns about poor or inappropriate practise. In a way they feel it's appropriate, with or without their name attached to the log. Then it reaches the manager, is dated and becomes part of the evidence that needs a response. It does not replace a proper conversation or a fair investigation if one's needed. What it does is to make sure the concern exists somewhere other than in one person's head. The educator does not have to choose between protecting a relationship and meeting their responsibility.

For a manager, our job is to create the conditions in which people can tell you difficult things, not only the obvious concerns or the things they are completely certain about. But also the smaller observations that do not fit quite right in the moment. Not every difficult day needs to become a formal concern. But recurring changes or anything beginning to affect children should not be ignored. On the Buttons wellbeing logs can be used for children, families, and staff. When leaders can see what is being noticed across all three, they can respond to inclusion as a whole setting responsibility rather than a collection of unrelated incidences.

Whew, this is a long one!

Now I want to return to the gap that I mentioned right back in the beginning. Thank you for listening. Between what people are noticing in the setting. And whatever reaches the people who can act on it.

Good practise may be happening every day. But important information, observations, decisions and actions, if they're never recorded, patterns can be much harder to see, harder to hand over, and harder to evidence later. Recording the small things is not about creating paperwork for the sake of it, it's about giving important information somewhere to go. It doesn't mean recording every small detail, it means recording what is relevant and what may matter to someone's wellbeing, safeguarding or inclusion.

A practitioner may record that a child seemed different today. On its own, that note may lead to nothing more than keeping a closer eye. But if another observation is added 2 weeks later. And then another. A pattern may begin to emerge. And this is what helps leaders make sound safeguarding, wellbeing and inclusion decisions.

In my NMT magazine article, I make the point that important practise needs to be visible. That matters for inspection. But inspection is not the most important reason to record.

We cannot respond to a risk that nobody has highlighted. We cannot support a family whose changing circumstances have gone unnoticed. We cannot help a member of our team if. Everyone sees the signs but assumes somebody else will say something.

The record is not the purpose, the purpose is noticing, sharing and responding. The record makes that process visible and helps make sure it is followed through.

What On the Button makes possible. One well-being log may look very little, a 2nd may add context. A third linked to the same child, family, or member of staff may reveal much more. And when the actions and outcomes sit alongside those records, you have a clear account of what was noticed and what happened next. Concerns are kept in one place and linked over time, and the right people can see them without any delay. A chronology can be produced quickly when it is needed, and that helps with inspection readiness, but more importantly, it helps people respond before small concerns become bigger ones.

OK, I do want to bring inspection into this because it is relevant. But I want to be clear about where it belongs. Inclusion now has its own grade on the Ofsted report card. Under the current framework, it is evaluated in its own right, separately from personal development and on the five point scale. But the reason to build an inclusive culture is not simply to prepare for inspection. Inspection readiness should be the result of getting this right every day. Children deserve that, families deserve it, and your team deserves it too.

It still helps to understand what inspectors may be looking for, though. So Do you know which children may be facing barriers? And what those barriers are. It means understanding vulnerability and changing circumstances across all your children. Then adaptation. What did you change for this child? Did it help? Was it reviewed?

Understanding the child's experience is important, particularly for children who do not communicate verbally. Careful observation in how they do communicate. Engage and respond can help us understand that experience. And staff wellbeing matters too. How do leaders know when the workload or wellbeing is affecting the care the children receive?

This evidence may sit across wellbeing logs, concern records, attendance information, and action notes. It does not need to be complicated, but it does need to be consistent, factual, and followed through.

My August, NMT article, I, in that, I explain the framework. But the central point is simple. Settings will evidence that evidence inclusion well when their team has developed the habit of noticing. Not because an inspector is due, but because that is how inclusive an inclusive setting should work every day.

Most practitioners understand inclusion as an important value. The harder skill is to recognise what inclusion or exclusion looks like in an ordinary day.

That skill has to be developed, it grows in a culture where noticing is expected, where people can raise something without agonising over whether it is serious enough. And where small observations. Go to someone who can decide what should happen next.

On the Button makes the recording part straightforward. The wellbeing log can be used for children, families, and team members, so the small things are less likely to disappear. Records are dated, visible to the right people and linked over time. And where an educator needs to raise poor or inappropriate practise anonymously, there's a route for that too.

But No system can create the culture on its own. Educators need to know what they, what they notice matters. Managers need to read what is being recorded, collected. And the information they have to make sure appropriate action is taken and recorded. And that is what inclusion looks like in real life. Not the policy or the display on the wall, it is the educators who notices the records that give the observation somewhere to go. The conversation that follows and the action that makes people, makes something better for that child does make people better for the child. For the family or the team member.

There is a taster demo of On the Button at weareonthebutton.com. It is short to make it easily accessible to you with a cuppa.