Between 2023 and 2024, Ofsted identified approximately 900 unregistered children’s homes in the UK, and 12% of the children in these homes were subject to a Deprivation of Liberty order. It is crucial, especially in cases involving vulnerable children, that we do everything possible to ensure they receive the highest standard of care.
Do Children’s Homes Need to Be Registered?
To put it simply, this is a resounding yes. It is illegal to provide care and accommodation through a children’s home without registration. This has recently become a focus of the regulatory body Ofsted, which conducted over 1000 investigations in 2023 alone to tackle the number of local authorities using unregulated children’s homes.
Keep reading to learn about the process behind registering a new children’s home, as well as when and why registration is required.
Can Children’s Homes Provide Care Before Being Registered?
No, children’s homes cannot provide care or accommodation until they have been registered with Ofsted. In November 2024, Ofsted stated that the majority of unregistered children’s homes only look after one person, but more than 10% of these were subject to a Deprivation of Liberty order, meaning they are under constant supervision and are not free to go anywhere without permission or close supervision.
Deprivation of Liberty orders are placed upon those who don’t have the mental capacity to make decisions for themselves, meaning some of the country’s most vulnerable children are being placed into homes with no regulatory oversight.
When is a Children’s Home Required to be Ofsted Registered?
Any children’s home must be registered with Ofsted before any child can be brought into the home and provided with care and accommodation. The steps needed to become Ofsted registered can be long and challenging, and this is particularly the case for new providers who may lack the resources of an established company.
How Do You Register A Children’s Home?
Step 1
To register a children’s home, first, you’ll need to identify the property you’d like to operate your children’s home from. Then, it’s important to decide upon the remit of the children’s home, which will include several things:
- The age range of the children.
- The needs of the children you’d like to provide care for.
- Key details relating to how you’d like your home to operate, such as staffing structure, staffing levels, and whether or not you are going to be therapeutically informed or not.
This step is necessary to ensure you have the staff, training, and space needed for the children you are going to be providing care and accommodation for.
Step 2
You’ll then need to complete a location risk assessment for the property you have chosen for your children’s home. There is no set format for these location assessments, but they must address the following issues:
- Safeguarding concerns, like exposure to anti-social behaviour or sexual exploitation.
- Accessibility and availability of local and specialist services.
- Accessibility and availability of transport links.
- Whether you’ll be able to recruit suitable staff in the local area.
- Whether the location of the home helps to meet the needs of the children who’ll live there.
It’s also worth consulting with a planning consultant to see whether planning permission is required or if a certificate of lawfulness will suffice. It’s advisable to make an application as soon as possible as a decision is likely to take at least 8 weeks.
Step 3
While working on other key registration documents – such as your safeguarding policy, business plan, and children’s guide, to name a few – you should recruit a ‘Registered Manager’ and ‘Responsible Individual’.
If you don’t have a children’s home background, do this with the support of a children’s home consultant.
Step 4
Once the registered manager and responsible individual have been hired and all the registration paperwork is in place, you can then begin the Ofsted application process (SC1 application).
An SC1 form will involve providing the following:
- Details of the financial viability
- Policy documentation
- Information about how the service will be run
- An outline of the home’s remit
Step 5
After completing your SC1 Ofsted application, you will be allocated an Ofsted inspector and a date when they will come to see your home.
The inspector will interview your registered manager and responsible individual to assess how ready you are to admit children.
If you’re successful, the inspector will give you your Ofsted registration, pending managerial sign-off. At this point, you will be completely registered and legally able to provide care.
Children’s Home Registration Support with Changing Outcomes
Changing Outcomes is a children’s homes specialist able to provide registration support to anyone looking to open a children’s home. Each project is overseen by our founder and operations director, Andrew Roberts.
Andrew has successfully registered more than 50 children’s homes and, having been both a Responsible Individual and Registered Manager in the past, understands the demands of both jobs.
Our experience in opening up homes has allowed us to refine the registration process to make it as smooth and efficient as possible. To have an informal chat and start the ball rolling, feel free to reach out.
Contact UsFrequently Asked Questions
Who Registers Children’s Homes?
Registration for children’s homes goes through CQC and/or Ofsted, depending on the home’s main function:
- For sole care and accommodation, only register with Ofsted.
- For solely CQC-regulated activities delivered to children (typically in hospitals), only register with CQC.
- For children’s homes that provide health care within the scope of CQC-regulated activities, register with both Ofsted and CQC.
How Much Does It Cost To Open A Children’s Home?
The typical cost of opening a children’s home is upwards of £150,000. Like with any organisation setup, it involves costs around hiring, premises, HR, database maintenance, insurance, training, and so much more.
How To Check If A Children’s Home Is Registered?
Go to ‘Find an inspection report’ on the Ofsted website. Here, you can search by name, Unique Reference Number (URN), keyword, location, and postcode. If the childcare provider does not appear on the list and all search terms are correct, then they are either not Ofsted registered or have not been through an inspection yet.