The words children's home regulation is written in. Quality Standards, visits, reviews, notifications and plans — what each term actually means, who it obliges, and what an inspector finds when it has been treated as paperwork.
Regulation & inspection
Children's Homes Regulations 2015
The Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015 set the legal framework for running a children's home in England.
Quality standards
The quality standards are the outcomes-focused standards in the Children's Homes Regulations that a home must meet — covering children's protection, health, education, positive relationships, care and the home's leadership..
Ofsted inspection
An Ofsted inspection of a children's home evaluates the experiences and progress of the children living there and the effectiveness of its leaders and managers, resulting in a published graded judgement..
Ofsted registration
Ofsted registration is the permission a provider needs to operate a children's home.
Records & plans
Statement of purpose
A statement of purpose sets out what a children's home is for — the children it cares for, the care it provides, its ethos and its facilities.
Notifiable event
A notifiable event is an incident a children's home must report to Ofsted and other relevant parties — including serious harm, allegations against staff, a child going missing and certain other significant events..
Safeguarding
Safeguarding is the action taken to protect children from harm and to promote their welfare.
Missing from care
Missing from care describes a child looked after who is absent from their placement and whose whereabouts are unknown.
Placement plan
A placement plan sets out how a children's home will meet a particular child's needs day to day — their routines, health and education arrangements, contact with family, and the support agreed for them..
Daily log
A daily log is the running record of a child's day in a children's home — what happened, how they were, what staff did.
Referral
A referral is a placing authority asking a home to consider a child.
Admission
An admission is a child moving into a home.
Impact risk assessment
An impact risk assessment considers how a new placement would affect the children already living in a home, and how the existing group would affect the new child..
Care plan
A care plan is the placing authority's plan for a looked-after child, setting out how their needs will be met and what the plan for their future is.
Return home interview
A return home interview is an independent conversation with a child after they have been missing, to find out why they went, what happened while they were away, and what would help..
Child exploitation
Child exploitation is where a child is coerced or manipulated into activity — sexual, criminal or both — in exchange for something, or through threat.
Restrictive physical intervention
Restrictive physical intervention is the use of force to restrict a child's movement.
Deprivation of liberty
Deprivation of liberty is where the arrangements for a child's care amount to continuous supervision and control without them being free to leave.
Case record
A case record is the full record a home keeps about a child — plans, logs, health and education information, incidents and correspondence — retained for a long period after they leave..
Low-level concern record
A low-level concern record captures behaviour by an adult that is inconsistent with expected conduct but falls below the threshold for a referral.
Complaints procedure
A complaints procedure is how a child, or someone on their behalf, raises a concern about the home and how it is handled.
Roles & responsibility
Registered manager
A registered manager is the person registered with Ofsted to manage a children's home day to day.
Responsible individual
A responsible individual is the person nominated by an organisation running a children's home to supervise the management of the home.
LADO
The LADO, or local authority designated officer, is the person in a local authority responsible for managing allegations against adults who work with children, including staff in children's homes..
Independent person
An independent person is the visitor who carries out Regulation 44 visits — someone not connected to the home, appointed to see it as it is and report on it..
Staff supervision
Staff supervision is the regular structured meeting between a member of staff and their supervisor, covering practice, wellbeing, development and any concerns..
Staff training
Staff training in a children's home covers the qualification staff must work towards, plus the specific training the home's children and its model of care require..
Safer recruitment
Safer recruitment is the set of checks and practices used when appointing people who will work with children — including enhanced DBS checks, references, and exploring gaps in employment..
Advocacy
Advocacy is independent support for a child to express their views and have them heard — in reviews, in complaints, and in decisions about their care..
Visits & reviews
Regulation 44 visit
A Regulation 44 visit is an independent visit to a children's home carried out at regular intervals by a person who is not connected to the home, producing a written report on how the home is meeting children's needs..
Regulation 45 review
A Regulation 45 review is the registered person's own periodic review of the quality of care in a children's home, producing a written report on whether the home is meeting children's needs and what should change..
Regulation 44 report
A Regulation 44 report is the written output of an independent visit, setting out what the visitor found about whether children are safe and their needs are being met, with recommendations..
Quality of care review
The quality of care review is the registered person's own periodic evaluation of how well the home is meeting children's needs, drawing on everything the home knows about itself..
Improvement plan
An improvement plan is the set of actions arising from a review, an inspection or a visit, each with an owner, a date and evidence of completion..
Looked-after child review
A looked-after child review is the periodic meeting, chaired by an independent reviewing officer, that considers a child's care plan and whether it is meeting their needs..
A–Z
- Admission
- Advocacy
- Care plan
- Case record
- Child exploitation
- Children's Homes Regulations 2015
- Complaints procedure
- Daily log
- Deprivation of liberty
- Impact risk assessment
- Improvement plan
- Independent person
- LADO
- Looked-after child review
- Low-level concern record
- Missing from care
- Notifiable event
- Ofsted inspection
- Ofsted registration
- Placement plan
- Quality of care review
- Quality standards
- Referral
- Registered manager
- Regulation 44 report
- Regulation 44 visit
- Regulation 45 review
- Responsible individual
- Restrictive physical intervention
- Return home interview
- Safeguarding
- Safer recruitment
- Staff supervision
- Staff training
- Statement of purpose
More terms are being added. These pages explain what the words mean; they are not a substitute for regulatory advice or your own registered manager's judgement.