Guidance

Social care: Ofsted's enforcement policy

Ofsted's policy on how we regulate children's social care establishments and agencies explains what we may do if a provider is not following the regulations.

• From: Ofsted
• Published: 15 October 2014
• Last updated: 2 October 2026
  Show all updates

  1. 2 October 2026

     See 'Summary of changes'.

  2. 20 August 2026

     Updated following legislative changes that give Ofsted the power to fine operators of unregistered social care, and allow Ofsted to serve notices to social care providers and managers by email.

  3. 30 April 2024

     See 'Summary of changes'.

  4. 29 February 2024

     See 'Summary of Changes'.

  5. 27 February 2023

     Updated with information about children’s homes that are also registered by the DfE as independent schools or approved as non-maintained special schools.

  6. 1 March 2022

     Reviewed the content to make it more accessible and user-friendly (no change to our enforcement powers and general approach to regulation). See 'Summary of changes' for details.

  7. 15 October 2014

     First published.

Applies to England

Documents

Social care enforcement policy

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Summary of changes

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Details

This policy explains how we regulate certain types of children’s social care. It also sets out:

• our powers under the law
• what actions we can take if providers are not following the regulations
• what we may do if we find out about unregistered provision