Registering children’s homes in an emergency: priority applications
Guide for local authorities and providers on when Ofsted will prioritise an application to register a children’s home.
Applies to England
Introduction
We will prioritise applications to register children’s homes that are needed urgently because local authorities require:
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an emergency placement for a named child or children, or
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local provision to meet an identified urgent sufficiency need
We will continue to consider all applications, but provision that meets the priority categories will be considered sooner.
We may prioritise applications from local authorities or private providers whose application meets one of the following criteria:
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the provision applied for has received capital funding from the Department for Education to develop new children’s homes
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the provision is being opened exclusively as part of the response to accommodate unaccompanied asylum-seeking children who are being transferred under the national transfer scheme
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a child who is subject to a deprivation of liberty order from a court is being accommodated in a children’s home that is currently unregistered
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the provision is needed in exceptional circumstances in response to an emergency situation – in this case the Ofsted Senior His Majesty’s Inspector (HMI) in the region will determine whether we can prioritise the application
Exceptional circumstances
Exceptional circumstances may include:
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applications for children’s homes in areas where there is extremely high demand and insufficient placement options; this will be determined using information such as sufficiency data, which may include our Children’s social care in England 2025 data
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provision that will offer highly specialist care for children with complex support needs and/or disabled children, for example those leaving secure children’s homes or long stays in hospitals
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provision that was historically registered incorrectly and has been instructed to register with an alternative regulator
Our approach to prioritising applications
The safety and well-being of children remain paramount to our decision-making. Prioritising does not mean that we will reduce our examination of your suitability to operate. We will not register any premises, providers or individuals that we do not consider to be suitable. We cannot relax or disapply any element of the Care Standards Act or associated regulations when considering a priority application.
If you already have registered provision with Ofsted, we will use the information you have previously supplied. We will also consider the quality of any existing registered provision in our decision-making.
Timeframe
If you give us the right information at the right time and show that you are fully prepared and ready to open, we will make a determination about your priority application as soon as possible. In general, this will usually take a minimum of 2 to 6 months.
We will keep processing all other applications as quickly as possible. We have an exceptionally high volume of new registration applications to process. This means it is likely to take a minimum of 6 to 18 months to reach a decision on new applications.
Contacting your Ofsted region
You must contact your local Ofsted region and speak to a Senior HMI or Regulatory Inspection Manager (RIM) to explain your intention to register. If you are a private or voluntary provider, you must ask the commissioning local authority to email confirmation to Ofsted that the application relates to a specific child or children. The Senior HMI/RIM will not be able to give any guarantee that the application will be successful.
If you are a local authority wanting to apply to register, you should email the Senior HMI/RIM to let them know what you intend to do.
If you are applying because you are providing care and accommodation for a child who is subject to a deprivation of liberty order from a court, you should email the Senior HMI/RIM, including a copy of the local authority commissioning form. It is also helpful to ask the child’s local authority to email Ofsted to alert us that your application is being submitted.
Include in your email:
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the name of the local authority/provider making the application
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the name of the person within the local authority/provider organisation who is responsible for the application
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the name of the proposed manager
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the name of the proposed responsible individual
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any detail about timescale
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a number that the Senior HMI/RIM can contact you on to discuss your intention to apply
If you decide to pursue the application, the Senior HMI/RIM will email you a self-declaration form for you to confirm that your application is urgent.
We can consider accepting the application without a named proposed manager if both the following apply:
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we have received confirmation that the High Court has used its powers of inherent jurisdiction to authorise the Deprivation of the Liberty of a child (DoL) or that local authorities are seeking to accommodate unaccompanied asylum-seeking children who are being transferred under the national transfer scheme
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the child is placed in an unregistered children’s home
This means that we will consider accepting an application without a manager’s SC2 form. However, we cannot accept an application without a completed SC1 form.
We expect to receive the manager’s SC2 application within 12 weeks. If we do not, we will consider closing the whole application through our ‘unable to determine’ process. Any fee you have paid will not be refunded.
Important process for submitting documents
Before you fill out your online application, you must complete the statement of self-declaration form.
We can accept priority applications without all of the policies and documents we usually require with the SC1.
When you are completing your online application, you will be asked the following question: ‘Do you have these policy documents to upload for your new children’s home?’
Priority applicants must tick ‘yes, I have these documents’, even if you do not have all of them ready yet.
It will ask you to upload the following documents:
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statement of purpose
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equalities policy
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copy of certificate of insurance
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children’s guide
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missing child policy
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safeguarding policy
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behaviour management policy
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prevention of bullying policy
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complaints procedure
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location assessment of the local area
Each time, you must either upload the document that has been requested or a copy of your completed self-declaration form and a copy of the local authority’s confirmation that a named child requires urgent accommodation.
You must upload the self-declaration form at least once, and the local authority confirmation at least once, instead of the required policy document. If you have prepared all the requested documents, please choose 2 of these to submit to us later and upload the forms in their place.
This is so that we can receive your self-declaration form and the local authority confirmation with your application and avoid any potential delays to your registration.
Once you submit your application, email the Ofsted applications team on SCadmin@ofsted.gov.uk to confirm that you have submitted it.
Applications from providers accommodating a child, who is subject to a deprivation of liberty order, in an unregistered children’s home
If you are a provider accommodating a child who is subject to a DoL order you must:
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complete the online SC1 form
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submit a signed and dated cover statement with the SC1, to provide a brief explanation of the reasons why it is urgent and meets the priority criteria
Read our guidance on placing children who are subject to a DoL order for more information.
Applications from those that already have registered provision (local authorities or private/voluntary providers)
If the information relating to people connected with your previous application has not changed, we do not need that information again. If you put forward people who are currently known to or registered with us, this will speed up the application.
You must complete the online SC1 and any SC2s together with all other information required as detailed in the Registration guide for children’s social care services, together with a dated cover statement, to provide a brief explanation of the reasons why the application is urgent and meets the priority criteria.
The application process
If you have given us all the necessary information in your application, and the Senior HMI has confirmed the application meets the priority criteria, we will notify you that the application can be progressed.
If information is missing and we cannot progress the application, we will contact you quickly to see how we can resolve this.
Once you have paid the application fee, we will begin all necessary checks. We will chase responses from referees and will ask you to do so too.
The allocated inspector will then contact you and help you to ensure that all other required documentation, staffing details and information will be available at the registration visit and interviews.
Refusing applications
We are legally unable to grant your application to register if it has not demonstrated that your proposed arrangements will comply with the relevant regulatory requirements.
Review
We will review this policy regularly. The first review will be in April 2026.
Updates to this page
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We have updated the circumstances under which an application may be considered under the priority application policy. This includes amendments to the criteria we will use when considering if an application meets the policy. We have also provided a definition of what we mean by 'exceptional circumstances' and clarified the time frame under which both priority applications and those that do not meet the priority application criteria will usually be processed.
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Removed references to the ‘fit/suitable person’ assessment questionnaire. Applicants do not need to complete the questionnaire at the registration stage of application. Suitability is assessed at interview stage.
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Updated to clarify that provision urgently needed for unaccompanied asylum seeking children comes under the scope of this guidance. We’ve also added a section on ‘Applications from providers accommodating a child, who is subject to a deprivation of liberty order, in an unregistered children’s home’ following the publication of our guidance.
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Guidance amended to make it clear that providers who have not been registered before can also submit an emergency application.
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Clarified guidance on accommodating a child who is subject to a deprivation of liberty order.
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Updated to reflect changes in COVID-19 restrictions and to clarify who can submit an application.
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Added in guidance on an important temporary process for submitting documents.
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First published.