Records & plans
What is a notifiable event (serious incident notification)?
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.
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<img src="https://careoptix.co.uk/glossary/notifiable-event/diagram.svg" alt="notifiable event — diagram from CareOptix" width="880" height="620" loading="lazy">
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<a href="https://careoptix.co.uk/glossary/notifiable-event">What is a notifiable event (serious incident notification)?</a> — diagram by
<a href="https://careoptix.co.uk">CareOptix</a>
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</figure>Notification is about visibility rather than blame. The regulator cannot act on what it does not know, and a home that notifies promptly and fully is demonstrating the openness the standards expect.
Timeliness is part of the duty. A notification made late invites a question about why, and that question usually turns out to be more damaging than the event itself would have been.
The same event often requires notification to several parties — the placing authority, the child's social worker, sometimes the police or the LADO. Treating Ofsted notification as the whole obligation is a common gap.
What goes wrong in practice
- Delay while the home establishes the full facts, when the duty does not wait for certainty.
- Notified to Ofsted but not to the placing authority or the child's social worker.
- Under-reporting through a narrow reading of what counts as serious.
- No record of what was notified, to whom and when.