The Children's Homes Regulations 2015 Explained
The Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015 Explained
Every Regulation in Plain English
Every registered children's home in England runs by one legal framework. This guide works through all 57 regulations and 5 schedules, one at a time, with a link to the official text of each so you can check anything at the source.
Who This Is For
Registered Managers, Responsible Individuals and Directors who want a working knowledge of the regulations, and anyone opening a home for the first time.
The Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015 are the legal framework that every registered children's home in England operates under. They set out the nine quality standards Ofsted inspects against, who can carry on and manage a home, how homes must be staffed, and what must be recorded, reviewed and reported. They came into force on 1 April 2015 and remain the current regulations today.
The full text of the regulations is free to read on legislation.gov.uk, though few people ever sit down with it. Fifty-seven regulations across seven parts is a lot to hold at once. This guide takes that weight out of it, explaining every regulation in one plain English line and linking each one to the official text when you need to go deeper.
What Are the Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015?
They are secondary legislation made under the Care Standards Act 2000, and they revoked and replaced the Children's Homes Regulations 2001, with the new quality standards taking the place of the old National Minimum Standards. The change in 2015 was deliberate. Where the 2001 regulations measured homes against minimum standards, the 2015 regulations are built around outcomes for each child, set out in nine quality standards that each open with what children should experience.
The Regulations at a Glance
| Part | Regulations | What It Covers |
|---|---|---|
| Part 1 General | 1 to 3 | When the regulations started, what the key terms mean and which settings they apply to. |
| Part 2 Quality Standards and Related Matters | 4 to 25 | The nine quality standards Ofsted inspects against, plus the statement of purpose, placement plans, behaviour, restraint, privacy, medicines and fire precautions. |
| Part 3 Registered Persons | 26 to 30 | Who is fit to carry on and manage a home, including the Registered Manager's qualifications and CPD. |
| Part 4 Staffing | 31 to 33 | Continuity of care, first aid cover, fitness of workers, recruitment checks, the Level 3 requirement, induction and supervision. |
| Part 5 Policies, Records, Complaints and Notifications | 34 to 42 | Safeguarding policies, case records, restraint records, complaints and the notification duties when serious events happen. |
| Part 6 Monitoring and Reviewing | 43 to 47 | The monthly Regulation 44 visit, the six monthly quality of care review, premises reviews and financial position. |
| Part 7 Miscellaneous | 48 to 57 | Notices of absence and changes, what happens if a registered person dies, and modifications for short breaks and secure homes. |
| Schedules 1 to 5 | The detail behind the duties, from the 22 statement of purpose matters to the full contents of a child's case record. |
Who Do the Regulations Apply To? (Part 1, Regulations 1 to 3)
The regulations apply to registered children's homes in England, including secure children's homes and homes providing short breaks, both of which operate with the modifications in Schedule 5. Wales runs under its own separate framework. One boundary catches people out: supported accommodation for 16 and 17 year olds is not covered by these regulations. It is registered with Ofsted under its own regulations and national standards, built around a support model rather than a care model, and we have written separately about how supported accommodation differs from residential care in what it asks of your records.
Regulation 1, Citation, Commencement and Application
Sets out that the regulations came into force on 1 April 2015, apply only to children's homes in England, and extend to a person aged 18 or over who lives in the home.
Regulation 2, Interpretation
Defines the key terms used throughout the regulations, from "children's home" to "placing authority".
Regulation 3, Excepted Establishments
Lists the settings excepted from being children's homes, from further education colleges and 16 to 19 academies to short stay holiday accommodation and young offender institutions.
What Are the 9 Quality Standards for Children's Homes? (Part 2, Regulations 4 to 15)
The nine quality standards are Regulations 6 to 14, prescribed by Regulation 4, and they are the framework Ofsted inspects every registered home against. Each standard opens with a child focused outcome statement and follows it with the measurable requirements a home must meet to deliver that outcome. Regulation 5 sits across all nine and is easy to overlook: it requires the home to work with the wider system around each child, because no home can meet every need on its own, and inspectors expect to see evidence of that engagement.
Regulation 4, Quality Standards for Children's Homes
Introduces the nine quality standards that every registered children's home must meet, which Ofsted inspects against.
Regulation 5, Engaging With the Wider System
Requires the home to involve each child's placing authority, secure the input and services each child needs, and challenge other agencies when their response falls short.
Regulation 6, the Quality and Purpose of Care Standard
Children receive care that meets their individual needs and reflects what the home's statement of purpose promises, delivered by staff who understand and work to that purpose.
Regulation 7, the Children's Views, Wishes and Feelings Standard
Children are consulted about their care and daily life, and their views carry real weight in the decisions that affect them.
Regulation 8, the Education Standard
Children attend education and make measurable progress from their own starting point, with the home acting as an engaged and ambitious parent would.
Regulation 9, the Enjoyment and Achievement Standard
Children take part in activities they enjoy, develop their interests and build skills and confidence they can carry into adult life.
Regulation 10, the Health and Wellbeing Standard
Each child's physical, emotional and mental health needs are identified, understood and met, including registration with a GP and dentist and access to specialist support.
Regulation 11, the Positive Relationships Standard
Children are helped to build positive relationships with the adults caring for them and with the other young people in the home.
Regulation 12, the Protection of Children Standard
Children feel safe and are safe, with the risks each child faces assessed, understood and actively managed by staff who know what to do when concerns arise.
Regulation 13, the Leadership and Management Standard
The registered person leads the home with the skills, oversight and resources needed to deliver every other standard consistently, and uses monitoring to keep improving.
Regulation 14, the Care Planning Standard
Children are only admitted when the home can meet their needs, and arrivals, plans and moving on are handled thoughtfully and evidenced properly.
Regulation 15, Duty to Have Regard to Published Statements
The registered person must have regard to statements published under section 23 of the Care Standards Act 2000, which is what gives the Guide to the quality standards its legal force.
A surprising number of guides online say the nine quality standards live in Schedule 1 of the regulations. They do not. Schedule 1 lists the matters a statement of purpose must cover. The standards themselves are Regulations 6 to 14. If a summary gets that wrong, treat the rest of it with caution and go back to the source text.
Statement of Purpose, Behaviour and Daily Life (Part 2, Regulations 16 to 25)
The second chapter of Part 2 sets the day to day requirements that sit alongside the standards. It is where the statement of purpose, placement plans, behaviour management, restraint, privacy, contact, medicines, surveillance and fire safety live, and it is the chapter a Registered Manager reaches for most often. A placement plan that exists but is not kept live and monitored gives staff nothing to work from and inspectors nothing to trust.
Regulation 16, Statement of Purpose
Every home must keep an up to date statement of purpose covering the 22 matters in Schedule 1, work in line with it and provide it to Ofsted.
Regulation 17, Placement Plan for a Looked After Child
The home must co-operate with the child's placing authority in agreeing and signing the plan that sets out how the child will be cared for day to day.
Regulation 18, Placement Plan for a Child Who Is Not Looked After
For children outside the care system, the home prepares the plan itself before the child arrives where practicable, consulting the placing authority and taking the child's views into account.
Regulation 19, Behaviour Management and Discipline
Sets out how behaviour may be managed and lists the forms of discipline that are never permitted in a children's home.
Regulation 20, Restraint and Deprivation of Liberty
Restraint may only be used to prevent injury to any person, serious damage to property or, in a secure children's home, a child absconding, and every use must be necessary and proportionate.
Regulation 21, Privacy and Access
Children's privacy must be appropriately protected, and any limit on privacy or access to areas of the home must exist to safeguard children, be necessary and proportionate and be kept under review.
Regulation 22, Contact and Access to Communications
Children must have private access to a telephone and post and facilities to meet family and advisers, and any restriction needs the placing authority's consent or, in an emergency, full details given to them within 24 hours.
Regulation 23, Medicines
Medicines must be stored securely, administered only to the child they are prescribed for and recorded each time, with safe arrangements for handling and disposal.
Regulation 24, Monitoring and Surveillance
Any monitoring or surveillance of children must be for safeguarding, consented to in writing by the placing authority, no more intrusive than necessary and, where practicable, known to the child in advance.
Regulation 25, Fire Precautions
The home must have working fire precautions, regular drills and clear procedures that every member of staff knows.
Who Can Run and Manage a Children's Home? (Part 3, Regulations 26 to 30)
Part 3 sets the bar for the people who carry legal responsibility for the home, from the provider through the Responsible Individual to the Registered Manager.
Regulation 26, Fitness of Registered Provider
Sets the fitness requirements for the individuals and organisations that carry on a children's home.
Regulation 27, Appointment of Manager
A manager must be appointed where the provider is an organisation or is not in day-to-day charge of the home, with Ofsted notified of the appointment without delay.
Regulation 28, Fitness of Manager
Sets the experience, skills and qualifications a Registered Manager must hold, including the Level 5 Diploma requirement.
Regulation 29, Continuing Professional Development
Registered persons and Responsible Individuals must keep their own skills and sector knowledge up to date.
Regulation 30, Compliance With Regulations
Where more than one person is registered for a home, a duty met by one of them does not have to be repeated by each of the others.
What Do the Regulations Say About Staffing and Training? (Part 4, Regulations 31 to 33)
Our view, after eleven years alongside more than 1,000 homes, is that training compliance fails on visibility rather than willingness. Homes rarely refuse to train people. They lose track of who is due what, and the gap only surfaces when an inspector samples a staff file. A live staff training matrix that shows current status across the whole team removes that failure mode entirely.
Regulation 31, Staffing of Children's Homes
Temporary staff must not break the continuity of children's care, at least one person on duty must hold a suitable first aid qualification, and anyone working as a nurse must be a registered nurse.
Regulation 32, Fitness of Workers
Nobody may work at the home unless they are fit to do so, backed by the Schedule 2 checks, and care staff must attain the Level 3 Diploma by the deadline the regulation sets.
Regulation 33, Employment of Staff
Covers induction, probation, job descriptions, supervision, annual appraisal and a disciplinary procedure that treats failing to report abuse as a disciplinary matter.
What Records Must a Children's Home Keep? (Part 5, Regulations 34 to 39)
The regulations do not just ask homes to do the right thing, they ask homes to be able to show it. Most compliance failures in this sector are evidence failures rather than care failures, and the homes that walk into inspection calmly are the ones where record keeping happens as part of the shift, with nothing left to reconstruct afterwards.
Regulation 34, Policies for the Protection of Children
The home must have safeguarding, missing child and countering bullying policies that staff know and follow in their daily work.
Regulation 35, Behaviour Management Policies and Records
Every use of control, discipline or restraint must be recorded within 24 hours, signed off by the registered person within 48 hours and discussed with the child within five days.
Regulation 36, Children's Case Records
A case record must be kept for each child covering the matters in Schedule 3, kept secure and up to date, each entry signed and dated, and retained in most cases for 75 years from the child's date of birth.
Regulation 37, Other Records
The home must keep the records listed in Schedule 4, from the register of children to staff rosters and visitor logs, retained for at least 15 years from the last entry.
Regulation 38, Storage of Records
Lists the documents, from the statement of purpose to restraint records and case records, that must be kept accessible, and confirms they may be kept in electronic form.
Regulation 39, Complaints and Representations
The home must have a complaints procedure children know how to use, with a record of every complaint and its outcome.
What Must Be Notified to Ofsted and Others? (Part 5, Regulations 40 to 42)
None of the notification duties are difficult obligations, but every one of them is a finding waiting to happen if nobody owns the deadline. Regulation 40 requires notification without delay, extending beyond Ofsted to the placing authority and other relevant bodies. Regulation 41 is the one homes most often get wrong, because its notification goes to the local authority for the area rather than to Ofsted.
Regulation 40, Notification of a Serious Event
Ofsted and the relevant authorities must be notified without delay when a serious event happens, from a child's death or an allegation of abuse to involvement in sexual exploitation, a serious incident involving the police or a child protection enquiry.
Regulation 41, Notification of Admission and Discharge
The local authority where the home is located must be told in writing, without delay, of every admission and discharge, unless it is also the child's placing authority.
Regulation 42, Notification of Offences
The provider, the manager, the Responsible Individual and any directors or partners must tell Ofsted in writing, without delay, if convicted of any criminal offence.
What Is a Regulation 44 Visit and What Must Be Reviewed? (Part 6, Regulations 43 to 47)
Part 6 covers how the home is monitored and reviewed. Inspectors read Regulation 44 reports before they arrive, and the quality of the home's recorded response to each report forms part of the leadership and management judgement. The homes that get real value from the visit treat the independent person as a critical friend and evidence what changed after each report, which is exactly the trail Ofsted looks for across a home's records. The financial duty in Regulation 47 is the one new providers most often overlook.
Regulation 43, Appointment of Independent Person
An independent person must be appointed to visit the home every month, independent of the home's management.
Regulation 44, Independent Person Visits and Reports
The monthly Regulation 44 visit reports on whether children are effectively safeguarded and whether the conduct of the home promotes their wellbeing, with the report going to Ofsted, the children's placing authorities, the provider, the manager and the RI.
Regulation 45, Review of Quality of Care
The registered person must review the quality of care at least every six months and supply the written report to Ofsted within 28 days of completing it.
Regulation 46, Review of Premises
The home's location and premises must be reviewed at least once a year, taking safeguarding risks in the surrounding area into account.
Regulation 47, Financial Position
The registered provider must run the home on a sound financial footing and give Ofsted financial information when asked.
Notices, Changes and Special Settings (Part 7, Regulations 48 to 57)
Part 7 covers the administrative duties that keep Ofsted's picture of the home accurate, along with the modifications for short break services and secure children's homes.
Regulation 48, Notice of Absence
Ofsted must be given notice when the person in day-to-day charge will be absent from the home for 28 days or more.
Regulation 49, Notice of Changes
Ofsted must be notified of significant changes, such as a new provider, a change of premises or a change of Responsible Individual.
Regulation 50, Appointment of Liquidators
Liquidators and receivers must notify Ofsted of their appointment and explain how the home will continue to run.
Regulation 51, Death of Registered Person
Sets out what must happen so the home can continue to operate lawfully if a sole registered person dies.
Regulation 52, Short Breaks and Secure Children's Homes
Applies the regulations, with the modifications in Schedule 5, to short break services and secure children's homes.
Regulations 53 to 57, Amendments, Revocations and Review
Technical provisions covering amendments to other legislation, the revocation of the 2001 regulations and the review required by April 2020.
What Do the Five Schedules Cover?
The schedules carry the detail behind the duties.
Schedule 1, Matters to Be Included in the Statement of Purpose
The 22 matters every statement of purpose must cover, from the home's ethos to its staffing structure. See Regulation 16.
Schedule 2, Information Required for People Working at the Home
The recruitment checks required before anyone carries on, manages or works at a children's home. See Regulation 32.
Schedule 3, Information for Each Child's Case Records
Everything a child's case record must contain, from personal details to health matters and contact arrangements. See Regulation 36.
Schedule 4, Other Records With Respect to Children's Homes
The operational records every home must keep, from the register of children to duty rosters, fire drills and accounts. See Regulation 37.
Schedule 5, Modifications for Short Breaks and Secure Children's Homes
How the regulations flex for short break services and secure settings. See Regulation 52.
Where Does the Guide to the Quality Standards Fit In?
The Department for Education published the Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations including the quality standards in April 2015, alongside the regulations. It is a statement published under section 23 of the Care Standards Act 2000. Regulation 15 requires the registered person to have regard to it, and Ofsted takes account of how the registered person is following it when deciding whether a regulation has been met. For each quality standard the Guide sets out the regulation's text, explains the terms used and describes what is expected, with further guidance on the management and administrative regulations in Parts 3 to 7. A new Registered Manager should read it in full.
Together, the two documents set out what is required of a registered children's home. They do not set out how to manage the recording, reviewing and reporting involved day to day. That is a systems question, and it is the one Sue Solutions has spent over eleven years answering.
Every One of These Regulations Generates Records
Sue Solutions was built by people who worked in children's residential homes and supported accommodation, so the evidence these regulations require is captured as part of the day, not on top of it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. The Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015 remain the regulations in force for registered children's homes in England, and legislation.gov.uk lists no outstanding amendments awaiting application.
No. Supported accommodation for 16 and 17 year olds is registered with Ofsted under its own regulations and national standards, which are structured around a support model rather than a care model. Providers running both children's residential homes and supported accommodation services work to two separate frameworks and need records that map to each.
Regulation 44 requires an independent person to visit the children's home at least once every month and write a report on whether children are effectively safeguarded and whether the conduct of the home promotes their wellbeing. The report goes to Ofsted, the children's placing authorities, the registered provider, the manager and the Responsible Individual.
Regulation 28 sets the fitness requirements for the manager, including the Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Residential Childcare or an equivalent qualification, achieved within the timescale the regulation sets, along with relevant experience of caring for children in a residential setting.
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