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.
Applies to England
Documents
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
Last updated
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Updated with information about children’s homes that are also registered by the DfE as independent schools or approved as non-maintained special schools.
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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.
Update history
2026-08-20 09:30
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.
2024-04-30 09:30
See ‘Summary of changes’.
2024-02-29 12:18
See ‘Summary of Changes’.
2023-02-27 16:27
Updated with information about children’s homes that are also registered by the DfE as independent schools or approved as non-maintained special schools.
2022-03-01 09:44
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.