Children’s home providers face waits of 6-18 months to register services deemed not to be a priority, due to a new Ofsted policy designed to deal with unprecedentedly high levels of applications.
The regulator has said it is moving away from registering homes solely based on when applications were received and will prioritise those designed to tackle local shortages in provision, as well as to provide emergency placements for particular children.
In a blog post published last week, Ofsted’s national director of social care, Yvette Stanley, said the shift reflected the “chronic shortage” of homes in some areas, amid a disproportionately high number in others, leading to children being placed far from friends and family.
It is also a response to a near doubling in the number of applications to register children’s homes over the past year, compared to the previous 12-month period, which has significantly increased the time the regulator is taking to approve services.
How children’s home prioritisation policy has changed
Ofsted’s policy for registering homes as a priority previously only allowed for applications to be fast-tracked in cases when councils needed emergency placements for named children.
These could only be accepted from providers accommodating a child under a deprivation of liberty (DoL) order in an unregistered home, those opening a service for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children moving area under the national transfer scheme (NTS) or those delivering provision that was “needed in exceptional circumstances in response to an emergency situation”, as determined by an Ofsted senior inspector. What constituted exceptional circumstances was not specified.
Under the revised policy, Ofsted will continue to prioritise applications for homes to provide emergency placements for specific children, but will also do so for those designed to deliver “local provision to meet an identified urgent sufficiency need”.
Priority given to DfE-funded homes
The regulator has also provided further detail on the criteria it will use for determining whether an application falls into one of the two priority categories. As well as cases where a child has been placed in an unregistered home under a DoL or is being transferred under the NTS, it says it may also prioritise provision that has received capital funding from the Department for Education (DfE).
The DfE provided £90m for the renovation and development of children’s homes this year, with £560m to follow from 2026-29, some of which will be used to develop fostering provision, for example, by enabling carers to extend their homes to accommodate more children.
Earlier this year, the DfE allocated £53m of the £560m to 49 councils to develop acccommodation to prevent children with complex needs at risk of being deprived of their liberty from being placed in unregistered homes.
Tackling placement shortages
Ofsted will also continue to prioritise applications for provision in “exceptional circumstances”, but the revised policy provides further detail on what this means.
The regulator states that it may include applications for homes in areas where there is very high demand and insufficient supply or for provision offering highly specialist care for disabled children or those with complex support needs, for example, in cases where young people are leaving secure children’s homes or hospital. It also covers cases where provision has been registered incorrectly.
Where applications are deemed to be a priority and the applicant has provided the right information at the right time and is ready to open, Ofsted says the process should take two to six months. However, it has stressed that prioritisation does not involve any relaxation of registration standards under the Care Standards Act 2000.
Waits of up to 18 months
Under the policy, other homes will be registered as quickly as possible. However, in the light of the “exceptionally high volume of new registration applications”, this is “likely to take a minimum of 6 to 18 months”, the policy adds.
In her blog post, Stanley said: “We have not been able to keep pace with the increase in applications. This is clearly not a satisfactory situation for providers who are keen to begin supporting and caring for children, and for local authorities who are desperately looking for suitable homes for their children and young people. Most importantly, it’s harmful to children.”
She said that dealing with applications “solely in order of the date they are received” would “fail to fully take into account which applications are best placed to provide what children need now”.
‘Too many children isolated from friends and family’
“There is a disproportionately high number of homes in some areas while, elsewhere, there is a chronic shortage,” she added. “Too many children are living too far from home, isolated from their family and friends, and not necessarily receiving the type of care that meets their specific needs.
“We believe it is right that we prioritise applications that address the shortage of placements for those children in most urgent need and, more generally, those areas where there is clear evidence of a lack of suitable provision.”
The policy only applies to children’s homes and not to any other form of regulated social care provision. However, Ofsted is also receiving high numbers of applications to register providers of supported accommodation for 16- and 17-year-old looked-after children and care leavers.
Stanley said that, if the revised children’s homes policy has the desired effect, it will consider implementing a similar approach in relation to supported accommodation from April 2026.
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