Following an unprecedented and sustained rise in applications to register children’s homes, on Thursday 18 September, we published our revised policy for prioritising children’s homes applications. The revised policy sets out the criteria for urgently dealing with applications. In short, …
Residential family centres (RFCs) are establishments where vulnerable families are given accommodation, their capacity to parent safely and effectively is assessed, and they can be given the advice, guidance or counselling they need. RFCs are designed to contribute to the …
In this blog, I want to talk to providers of children’s homes, residential special schools and boarding schools about what we’re currently seeing on inspection when it comes to restraint and restrictive practices. I want to emphasise how important it …
We want to address some concerns in the sector about registrations for children’s homes and supported accommodation taking longer than normal. First, I want to thank you for applying to register (whether you already have or are intending to) and …
Back in 2018, we first set out the ingredients of effective multi-agency safeguarding arrangements, using what we had seen working well in our reviews and inspections. Over time, through our inspections, we’ve learned more about what the most effective arrangements …
Our goals for oral health in children’s social care We've been working closely with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to look at the importance of good oral health for children. We want to tackle oral health inequality by driving improvement …
As part of the children’s social care reforms, the Department for Education (DfE) has published its Families First Partnership (FPP) programme guide. The guide is aimed at safeguarding partners who are implementing reforms around family help, multi-agency child protection and …
Next month, we will be making a small number of changes to our social care common inspection framework (SCCIF). These are mainly aimed at children’s homes and fostering agencies. The changes are intended to encourage more providers to look after …
Today is Young Carers Action Day, an annual event organised by Carers Trust to call for better support for young carers. Just over a year ago, we amended our inspections of local authority children’s services (ILACS) to help inspectors and …
It is often a struggle to find the right social care provider for children with the most complex needs. We want to help those wanting to open provision for them, and commissioners that are looking for suitable homes. So, we …
