Guidance

Social care common inspection framework (SCCIF): secure children’s homes

Guidance on how Ofsted inspects secure children's homes.

Applies to England

Documents

Details

This framework sets out Ofsted’s process for inspecting secure children’s homes.

Our approach is underpinned by the following 3 principles that apply to all social care inspections:

  • to focus on the things that matter most to children’s lives
  • to be consistent in our expectations of providers
  • to prioritise our work where improvement is needed most
Published 22 February 2017
Last updated 2 February 2024 + show all updates
  1. Additional guidance on deferring an inspection, inspector conduct during inspections, when and how the provider can raise issues, concerns or complaints during and after the inspection, supporting the well-being of the provider’s managers and staff during inspections and visits, attendance at keeping in touch meetings, discussions with staff and feedback meetings and who the provider may share provisional and final inspection outcomes with.

  2. Minor revisions made to the ‘Children’s education and learning experience’ evaluation criteria to clarify the relationship between the education inspection framework and the social care common inspection framework.

  3. Updated the evaluation criteria in the children’s education and learning section, to take into account the particular circumstances and experiences of children. Updated the evaluation criteria to align, where applicable, with other framework changes on children’s progress, the management of risk, the use of restraint and the need to appoint a registered manager, if the post is vacant, within 26 weeks. Small changes to guidance for inspectors on recording evidence in the inspection database, including corrected Annex A's. Added in guidance for the inspector to inform the Children’s Commissioner when the inspection judgement is inadequate.

  4. Minor edits for clarity in the 'Monitoring visit' section. Revised text referencing the updated 'Ofsted code of conduct' policy.

  5. Minor change to clarify that we may carry out a monitoring inspection to do a premises check as part of the DfE licence approval process or provide advice about building projects.

  6. Added inspection guidance for April 2022: replaced interim inspections with assurance inspections and added additional guidance for when inspectors discover possible unregistered provision.

  7. In ‘The inspection report’ section, added clarification on the non-publication of child-friendly summary reports.

  8. Removed guidance on assurance visits, as we are no longer carrying these out.

  9. Added guidance on inspecting secure children’s homes during COVID-19 restrictions. Updated guidance to reflect the changes to Ofsted’s post-inspection processes and complaints handling (including the timeline) that we introduced in September 2020. Minor edits for readability.

  10. First published.