Apply to register a residential family centre

Question 1

Who needs to fill in the form

Accepted Answer

The person who needs to fill out the form depends on the type of provider you are.

Organisations, including limited liability partnerships

To fill out the form, you must be in one of the following roles, or be authorised by someone in one of the following roles:

a director acting for the company
an individual performing the same or similar functions as a director
a partner
a trustee, director or chairperson acting for a charity or statutory body
a chairperson or committee member acting for a committee

Partnerships not registered as limited liability partnerships

To fill out the form, you must be one of the partners acting on behalf of all the partners in the partnership.

Individual providers

If you are an individual provider, you must fill out the form yourself.

If you are a group of individuals (not operating as a partnership or company), one of those individuals must fill out the form.

Question 2

Information you will need to provide

Accepted Answer

We will ask for information about the residential family centre you want to register with Ofsted, and those who will be associated with your service.

You will be asked for:

your company’s registration details (which must match the details recorded by Companies House)
your unique reference number (URN) if you have applied to register, or have been registered with Ofsted previously for any type of service
previous applications and registrations details for children’s social care services
previous applications and registration details for any early years provision
previous applications and registration details for adult social services
information about the residential family centre you want to register
details of your premises and any travel arrangements between premises
the range of fees that you will charge
the date you plan to open your residential family centre
the maximum number of families you want to accommodate
the Care Quality Commission (CQC) registration number, if you hold a registration with CQC
individuals you want to link to the registration, such as managers
an original Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) certificate for everyone who needs one
details of a responsible individual who can submit their Apply to be associated with a children’s social care service (SC2) form as part of the application

The form asks for a lot of information. It can take several hours to complete. Gather everything you need before you start. You can save your progress and come back to it later if you don’t have all the information.

Previous Ofsted applications and registrations

If you’ve applied to register any social care or early years provision with Ofsted before, we will need your URN.

Unique reference number

Your URN will be on correspondence regarding the relevant registration, and will follow a certain format:

For social care registrations before 2015, the URN starts with SC and has 6 digits, for example SC123456
For social care and early years registrations from 2015, the URN is 7 digits, for example 1234567
For early years registration before 2015, the URN starts with EY and has 6 digits, for example EY123456

We also need the URN of:

any holding companies you have registered with Ofsted
any registered services in which you have a financial interest

Holding company and subsidiary details

If you are a holding company with subsidiaries registered with Ofsted, you will need to tell us the name, trading start date, URN, address and contact details for each subsidiary.

If your organisation is a subsidiary of a holding company, you must tell us the holding company’s name, trading start date, registered company number (or charity number, if applicable), address and contact details. You must tell us about all the other subsidiaries of your holding company.

You must also give us the accounts for the last 2 years for your holding company and all its subsidiaries.

Previous applications and registrations

Ofsted must know about all of your previous applications and registrations for early years or children’s social care services and adult social care services. You will be asked if you have:

made a previous application
had a previous application refused
been registered or licensed to run a service
had a registration cancelled

If you answer yes to any of those questions, we will request further information.

The information we need about previous applications includes the URN. If you do not have a URN for that service (for example, adult social care services), then you will need to tell us about the type of service, date of application, reason for the refusal (if relevant) and which public authority dealt with the application.

We also need to know who you registered with, how long the registration was for and the type of service. If you have had a registration cancelled, you need to provide either the URN or details about the service, including dates of registration and why it was cancelled.

Question 3

Documents required for your application

Accepted Answer

We cannot accept your application unless you have provided all the documents that we require, and all the people who need to provide an SC2 form have done so.

With the SC1 form, you will need to provide:

your statement of purpose
evidence of planning permission
your certificate of insurance or written confirmation that insurance will be provided
your residents’ guide
your safeguarding policy
your accident and missing resident procedure
your prevention of bullying policy
your complaints procedure
evidence of financial viability, including your business plan and cashflow forecast
if you are registering as a company, your last 2 annual reports and accounts (if available)
reports for any holding company and any subsidiaries (if applicable)
your charitable objects, if applicable
a copy of your agreement or legal proof of a partnership (for applications from partnerships)

When you are completing the SC1 form or SC2 form, you are required to disclose other information that the Care Standards Act 2000 identifies as relevant to your application. We will also ask to see other policies at different stages of the process, for example during a site visit.

Statement of purpose

You must have a unique statement of purpose and residents’ guide for each residential family centre that you are applying to register. Their contents will vary according to the type of centre that you intend to operate. For example, if you intend to accommodate families to monitor the parents’ skills and provide them with advice, guidance or counselling without formal assessment, how you will do this must be set out in your statement of purpose. Your use of closed-circuit television (CCTV) must also be clearly set out in your statement of purpose.

The statement of purpose should meet the requirements of the residential family centres regulations.

We will take the quality of the statement of purpose into account when making our decision about your fitness to practise.

Residents’ guide

All applications must include a residents’ guide. When creating this, it is important that you have in mind the level of understanding of those who are going to read it. The type of words you use, the pictures you include, and the level of detail you go into should help every family who reads it to understand the important things about your residential family centre and what they can do to tell you if they think that something is not right.

Premises

Planning permission

You must tell us whether any planning permission is required on every building that will make up your family centre. We strongly recommend that you wait until any required planning permission is granted before you apply for registration. This is because there may be significant delays in getting planning permission. This may result in your application being returned to you, and your fee will not be refunded.

You must provide us with a copy of one of the following:

evidence that planning permission is in place
local authority confirmation that no planning permission is required
local authority confirmation that the proposed property’s current use class is allowed
a copy of your planning permission application

We will be unable to carry out a registration visit until you have provided us with one of the documents listed.

If you only send a copy of the planning permission application and we don’t receive the full planning permission within 12 weeks, we may be unable to decide on your application. If you are appealing a planning decision, you should notify us of this, and we will consider extending this timescale.

Showing us that the premises are fit for purpose

You must show us that the premises you propose to use are fit for purpose and suitable for those you intend to provide a service for. You must prove that you have assessed and managed any risks associated with the building. You will demonstrate this through a health and safety assessment and risk management plan.

We will carry out a premises assessment. This must show the steps you have taken to assess whether the accommodation is appropriate and equipped for families to live there. Ofsted expects you to have considered that the location of the premises is right for families to be able to access community support services and resources, for example health and education services. There is no set format for premises assessments.

Your premises assessment must address the following broad issues:

health and safety matters
facilities and play materials for children of all ages
appropriate facilities and adaptations if you intend to offer placements for disabled parents and disabled children
accessibility and availability of local and specialist services
availability of suitable staff in the local area
a location that helps to meet the needs of families and promote their independence

Certificate of insurance

You must get a certificate of insurance for death, injury, public liability, damage or other loss before your centre starts to operate.

We appreciate that some insurers will not provide this until registration is granted. In this case, you must give us written confirmation that you will have a certificate of insurance before you start to operate. If the name and the address of the centre is not included on the certificate, you must prove that it is covered before you start to operate.

Policies

It is important that the policies you have reflect your statement of purpose and match the needs of the children and families you intend to care for.

Policies must follow relevant government guidance but should also be tailored to the children and families who will be in your setting. For example, a policy to prevent bullying may look very different in a residential family centre from one in a centre where children have less staff support, as conflict may develop between families, or children may have special educational needs and/or disabilities.

Accident and missing resident procedure

This should tell staff what do when families are at risk of being missing from the centre or are missing. It should explain how to respond based on parents’ and individual children’s needs and vulnerabilities and should reflect local area reporting protocols. It should include how staff assess children’s safety and well-being for the prevention of, and in the aftermath of, an accident. It must include the impact of reported accidents on parents and children and who is notified about these.

Safeguarding policy

This policy should reflect the host local authority protocols for safeguarding and child protection. It must also explain how to work with a family’s placing authority if there are safeguarding concerns.

It must also explain:

who is responsible for safeguarding in your organisation
who manages any concerns raised about the nominated safeguarding lead
what happens if someone makes an allegation against a member of staff
what action you will take if a child needs protection
the records and procedures to follow for missing children
the process of identifying and minimising the risk of parents who go missing with their child

Prevention of bullying policy

This policy should explain how:

staff prevent and respond to incidents of bullying
staff support children who are bullied
staff support anyone accused of bullying

Complaints policy

This policy should explain how:

staff respond to complaints from children and adults
complaints are investigated and how long this takes
people can escalate a complaint if they are not happy with the outcome
children are involved in the complaints process
children can contact someone outside the home if they want to raise a concern

Evidence of financial viability

Unless you are applying from a local authority or a health authority, you must include with your application:

your business plan
your cashflow forecast
your last 2 annual reports, including reports for any holding company and any subsidiaries
your last 2 annual accounts
the name and address of the registered or principal office if you are a subsidiary

Trusts commissioned by a local authority to carry out the functions of the local authority need to present their latest annual accounts, but you do not have to provide all the above. Instead, you can provide in writing from the local authority:

assurance that the trust is financially viable
details of how the local authority will review the trust’s performance, including its finances

Business plan

As a minimum, the business plan should cover:

background information
a marketing plan
a financial plan
an operational plan that includes:
- evidence that you have a manager and enough staff for the number of families you initially intend to accommodate
- evidence that you have a social worker registered with Social Work England
- a recruitment plan to support an increase in families in the centre
- information about how you will deal with staff turnover
- information about how you will recruit and train staff to meet individual families’ needs

Cashflow forecast

Your cashflow forecast should estimate the projected monthly income and expenditure for the first 12 months of operation. This is simply a summary of the money that is expected to be paid into and out of the residential family centre, in cash terms, over the period. This is usually broken down into a month-by-month forecast.

Annual reports and accounts

If you are already operating, you must provide up to the last 2 annual reports and accounts. Where applicable, you should also include the annual reports for the holding company and any subsidiaries of that holding company.

New companies do not need to submit annual reports or accounts.

If relevant, you should provide a copy of any partnership agreement and any charitable purposes as set out by the Charities Commission.

Fees

You must pay a children’s social care registration fee as part of your application. Once you have submitted your application and we have all the documents to process it, we will send you an invoice for the fee. This fee is non-refundable.

You must also pay a registration fee for each application for a registered manager, including if there is a new manager during the application process. This applies to registered managers for both a new and an existing residential family centre.

Once your residential family centre is registered, you must children’s social care annual fee. Fees are set by the Department for Education (DfE) and are reviewed and updated every year.

When you apply for a new registration, we always check whether you owe us fees from any previous registrations. We will consider any outstanding fees when assessing your fitness, your integrity and your financial viability to provide a new residential family centre.

Question 4

Recommended document file size and formats

Accepted Answer

You can upload documents in the following formats:

PDF
Microsoft Word (.docx)
Excel (.xlsx)
PowerPoint (.pptx)
image file (.jpeg or .png)
OpenDocument formats for a word processing document (.odt), a spreadsheet (.ods) or a presentation (.odp)

Documents must not be more than 2 MB in size.

If you need to reduce the size of your documents, try to:

reduce the size of images before putting them in a document
remove any unnecessary images
save a Word document to the latest version of Word or as a PDF document
save a PDF document to the smallest file option

If you are unable to upload any documents with your application due to the format or size, send them via email to sc.admin@ofsted.gov.uk. Provide your name and application or submission reference number. Upload a blank Word page to your application with just the date you emailed the documents to Ofsted and the comment ‘Document emailed to sc.admin@ofsted.gov.uk.’

Question 5

Registration visit and interviews

Accepted Answer

We will carry out a registration visit for each application and visit all the buildings that are included in the application. During the visit, we assess the premises and services that you intend to offer and will interview all those associated with the application. An inspector will contact you to discuss whether any reasonable adjustments are required.

Documents required during inspector’s visit

Before or during the visit, the inspector will ask for specific documents that were not part of your original application. We ask for these to check whether you are ready to operate. You will only have this information, such as staff member details, after we accept your application. We are unlikely to make a decision about your registration without this information. It helps Ofsted judge how well you can care for children and keep them safe.

We will always ask for the following information during the visit. Inspectors will tell you before they visit if they expect anything else:

your original birth certificate for your identity when you were born
original certified documents relating to each name change you have had since birth
proof of your address and photographic evidence of your identity, for example a driving licence
your qualification documents
the original DBS certificate for the manager and responsible individual

If you have changed your name, Ofsted will want to see a clear audit trail of those changes and your original birth certificate .

This is an important part of our safeguarding role. If it will be difficult for you to provide original documents, you must tell us as soon as possible so that we can help you to resolve the problem.

Staffing and recruitment

We will look at your staffing list and rota to see that you have enough staff with the right experience and qualifications to work with families from the start of registration. We will ask to see some personnel files so we can check your recruitment practice. We do not expect a full staff team to be in place, but there must be enough staff for your centre to open and be ready to accept your first family.

You must have available all recruitment records for the staff you have recruited before the registration visit, including those of the proposed manager and, where applicable, the responsible individual. If you normally hold these records elsewhere, you must arrange for them to be available at the registration visit.

Training and development

You should have a training and development plan ready that outlines:

staff induction – how new staff are introduced to your centre, its policies, and their roles
supervision arrangements – how staff will be supported, monitored, and guided in their work

Health and safety

You will need to show the inspector your health and safety risk assessment, management plan and arrangements for protection from fire and other emergencies; these must be completed by a suitable person.

You should have all the necessary certificates relating to the premises, for example utility safety certificates, maintenance certificates for equipment (such as lifts and hoists) and insurance certificates available at the visit. We require evidence that the premises comply with:

national and local planning, building and environmental legislation, including disability discrimination requirements, where appropriate
fire regulations, including the requirements of your local fire authority. You must have a suitably trained fire safety officer who has completed a fire risk assessment of the premises and can describe what fire safety procedures will be in place, having consulted an appropriate expert
health and safety regulations, including those related to environmental health

Business development plan

We will look at and discuss your business development plan, including your contingencies for recruitment and managing staff vacancies.

Record-keeping systems and surveillance

You will need to provide examples of any paper-based or electronic systems that you intend to use to record families’ information and the progress of their assessments. You can use these to show inspectors that you understand the regulatory requirements for record-keeping. They may help you to explain your approach to family assessment.

You will be asked to provide a copy of your surveillance and use of CCTV policy, where relevant.

Registration visit

The inspector will:

ask whether any reasonable adjustments are required before each interview or visit
visit all the premises that make up the residential family centre
read and discuss, as necessary, documentation you have provided
interview people in certain roles of responsibility
assess and evaluate all the information we have gathered

After the visit and interviews, the inspector will go over with you:

a summary of the evidence that they have collected
the proposed conditions of registration
what happens next
whether you need to submit any more information or further interviews are required

Registration interviews

Interviews and visits may take place on different days. We will arrange them with each individual concerned. Inspectors will usually interview both the proposed manager and the appointed responsible individual, even if the responsible individual has been interviewed by us before.

Interviews are an opportunity for you to demonstrate your skills, expertise and knowledge for your role. The interview will draw out your experience and values to see how you will use these to provide safe and effective family assessments.

Responsible individuals’ interviews

The interview will cover the responsible individual’s knowledge and understanding of:

the residential family centre regulations for the role of the responsible individual
safeguarding and child protection
the law and guidance in relation to residential family centres
the skills, knowledge and ability to carry on the residential family centre in a way that promotes good practice and continuous improvement
the business and management skills required to supervise the centre
the financial skills and expertise required to ensure long-term financial viability or to forge effective links with another official in the organisation who has these skills
the capacity to carry out regular evaluation of the quality of care provided

We will explore and assess how they will exercise their responsibilities, for example how the responsible individual will:

maintain regular and effective oversight of the centre
promote safe and effective family assessments
consult with families and represent their views to the manager and provider
promote the safety and high standard of the physical environment
analyse and respond to placement endings and outcomes
organise prompt repair of the centre
provide access to the centre if no one is there and Ofsted wants to enter the premises
be available for Ofsted to discuss regulation 23 or 25 of the Residential Family Centres Regulations 2002 or safeguarding notifications made under regulation 26
inform and discuss with Ofsted any referrals made under the ‘Prevent’ duty
be available for feedback on an inspection
inform Ofsted when the manager will be absent for more than 28 days or leaves

Managers’ interviews

Managers must demonstrate that they have the skills needed to lead, manage and improve a residential family centre and that the centre has the capacity and capability to meet the required quality standards.

When enquiring about management skills, we explore and assess the manager’s experience and skills in:

supervising others who are carrying out an assessment or care role, including any registered social worker employed to carry out assessments
delivering performance management
taking appropriate action to safeguard and protect children and vulnerable adults
building relationships with families
taking into account the views of families, including children
setting out and using quality assurance systems to drive improvement
understanding and managing risk
co-ordinating with multi-agency resources to support effective family assessment
understanding the statement of purpose for the centre
understanding how to meet the regulations and national minimum standards for the needs of families who are being assessed
arranging the delivery of what is required for residential staff to carry out their roles effectively, including, how they assess risk to children throughout the family placement and act promptly when they have concerns

When enquiring about skills in family assessment and monitoring, we explore and assess the manager’s experience and skills in:

understanding the individual needs of the families who are being assessed
understanding the impact of parenting skills and styles on parents’ ability to:
- develop loving and secure relationships with children
- promote relevant stages of child development
- care safely for children
helping parents to understand:
- the importance of building safe and secure attachments for children
- how to give consistent and safe support for children’s behaviour and emotions
- how their actions, relationships and lifestyle affect a child’s safety and well-being
identifying and minimising the risk that parents may pose to children
reviewing the effectiveness of assessment and monitoring practices in the centre
producing reports that provide robust, fair and evidence-based assessments that support clear decision-making about children’s futures

Managers’ qualifications and experience

The manager and branch manager will have, on taking up the post:

have a level 5 diploma in Leadership for health and social care and children and young people’s services. Other recognised social work qualifications are also considered
have a qualification in management at least at level 4
have at least 2 years’ experience relevant to residential care within the last 5 years
have at least one year’s experience supervising and managing professional staff

We will consider relevant experience in roles other than residential childcare. For example, we may consider experience in registered settings that we do not regulate, such as that gained in a residential rehabilitation centre or refuge for domestic abuse survivors, or as a local authority social worker who has worked in a children’s team or as a team manager.

We will ask the manager to demonstrate how your experience is transferable to the role of residential family centre manager and will enable them to support the delivery and continuing development of a high-quality centre that provides families with a suitable and safe place to stay and carries out robust and fair assessment and monitoring activity.

Question 6

Changes to your application

Accepted Answer

During the registration process, you must tell us straight away if there are changes to any of the details in your application.

If you want to make changes to your application before we have granted registration, you must write to tell us about changes to:

the name or address of the proposed provider, responsible individual or manager
the person who is applying to be the provider, responsible individual or manager
the members of a partnership
a director or any other person who has submitted an SC2 form
the conditions that you are applying to register.

If these changes involve a new person in one of the above roles, they will need to fill in an SC2 form. If they do not do this within 12 weeks of you paying your registration fee, we may write to you to tell you that your application has been closed because we have been unable to process it without the relevant information.

Question 7

What happens next

Accepted Answer

When you apply to register a residential family centre, you will get a submission reference number. This is 14 characters and only includes numbers, hyphens and uppercase letters, for example ABCD-1234-1234.

This reference number will be on the email sent to you confirming that your application has been accepted.

All managers, responsible individuals or partners linked to the residential family centre must tell Ofsted about themselves separately by completing an SC2 form. You will need to provide them with your submission reference number so they can complete their application forms. Your application to register a residential family centre is not complete until all application forms are completed. We will get in touch if we have any questions.

Questions about your application

We know that your application is very important to you, and sometimes you want to speak to us to ask us for an update.

If you are unable to find the information you need in our residential family centre registration policy, you can contact our social care applications team by email at sc.admin@ofsted.gov.uk The subject line must say, ‘Social care application’. Provide your full name and reference number for someone to contact you.

Once we have sent your application to our regional team, an inspector will be allocated to your application. They will speak to you and let you know how to contact them.

You are responsible for supplying us with full, correct and suitable information to support your application.

It is an offence under the Care Standards Act 2000 to provide a false or misleading statement in an application.