Surveillance and monitoring in residential childcare settings

Introduction 

This guidance explains how Ofsted’s inspectors will evaluate how providers and managers administer and use surveillance in:

• children’s homes
• supported accommodation
• residential family centres
• secure children’s homes
• residential holiday schemes for disabled children
• residential accommodation in schools

Ofsted’s approach 

We expect providers, managers and carers to create a positive environment for children to live and learn in, and in which staff interact positively with children.  

You can use the guidance Positive environments where children can flourish when assessing whether your arrangements for any surveillance and monitoring are suitable. 

We look at how children’s rights are respected and take account of the Human Rights Act 1998. 

Inspectors will expect that you are following your own policy. That policy should take account of the relevant remit-specific regulations, standards and guidance, as well as statutory and best practice guidance, for the service that you are providing.  

Inspectors gather information to help them to understand how you use surveillance. They will discuss with you how you have determined that less intrusive safeguards would not be as effective. 

Activities that inspectors may carry out 

Inspectors will take account of the principles we expect you to follow in understanding how you have taken appropriate and proportionate steps to keep children safe.  

Where relevant, inspectors may talk to you about: 

• your reasons for any use of surveillance  

• how you comply with the relevant regulations for your setting and/or follow the best practice principles concerning surveillance, monitoring and the protection of privacy   

• any potential shortfalls in how you have applied the principles and regulations that may have resulted in breaching children’s and/or an adult’s human rights 

• any evidence we may find of a safeguarding matter, such as an intimate body search being carried out  

• the quality and impact of your written policy and procedures   

This list is for guidance only. Inspectors will discuss your arrangements as necessary. 

We will report any shortfalls we identify in the inspection report. We may use our enforcement powers when we find that settings have not done enough to keep children safe, promote their rights, respect their dignity and/or help to equip them for their futures.  

Principles we expect you to follow 

If you use any kind of surveillance, it must meet the needs of the individual and be justified at the time.  

There are specific regulations that certain types of setting must take into account: 

• Residential family centres may use surveillance in family accommodation to safeguard the welfare of the resident or other residents in the centre, or to assess and monitor parenting capacity under regulation 13A of the Residential Family Centres (Amendment) Regulations 2013.

• Supported accommodation services may use devices for monitoring or surveillance only in communal areas, and then only in the circumstances set out under regulation 6(2)(c) of the Supported Accommodation (England) Regulations 2023. 

It is not acceptable for any setting to use surveillance as a default approach to monitoring children’s behaviour; neither should groups of children be subject to indiscriminate monitoring.  

Surveillance inside children’s accommodation is only permissible at the direction of a court or to safeguard an individual child’s welfare. 

You should use surveillance and monitoring devices for the protection of the children only, not staff.  

If you use CCTV or audio monitoring, your plans must include how to ensure that enough staff will be available to continually monitor images and how they will take immediate action to safeguard children without reducing the quality of care. This may differ for secure children’s homes. Every secure children’s home should have a policy that sets out how it uses surveillance and how staff carry out searches. This should include information about any real-time CCTV recording in common areas, which could be used to help monitor the use of restraint and assist decisions on safeguarding and child protection interventions. The CCTV may not be monitored all the time. Specific monitoring arrangements should be in the policy. 

All settings should consider the effect of using surveillance or monitoring devices on individuals and their privacy. You should have regular reviews to ensure that the use remains justified. 

You should include in the family’s or child’s care plan the reasons and rationale for any surveillance. This should be based on an individual risk assessment and agreed with the placing authority’s social worker. Parents, children (if possible) and social workers should be involved in regular reviews about whether surveillance remains necessary. 

Parents (where relevant), children (if possible) and social workers should consent to the use of surveillance. You should inform them how they can make a complaint about it, if necessary. 

You should store images and information securely, for their stated purpose and only for as long as necessary. 

Your written policy should include security arrangements for sharing footage, for example when used as evidence in court hearings. 

CCTV monitoring screens should only be accessible to those staff who need to see the images at the time, for example in a staff office where there is appropriate privacy. 

You should store recordings in a secure place at the residential provision. 

Personal mobile phones and other personal devices should not be used for surveillance activity.  

Staff should have regular and up-to-date training on handling information gathered by surveillance. This should include: 

• what to do when people ask for access to recordings  

• how and when to share information  

• what to do if there are complaints about surveillance   

• what to do if children or parents withdraw their consent to surveillance 

This is not an exhaustive list of principles to follow. It is for guidance only. 

Things we expect your policy will include

As a minimum, we expect your policy to set out: 

• the legitimate purpose and aim of the surveillance, with each purpose and activity individually addressed  

• how the surveillance will keep children safe and why surveillance is the best way of achieving a child’s safety  

• how any data is processed and stored – what security measures are in place to safeguard against unauthorised access and use   

• how often the surveillance activity will be reviewed to ensure that it is still necessary   

• how surveillance and monitoring activities are agreed with the placing authority, parents, carers and children (if appropriate)   

• how others (for example, health visitors) are notified that they are being recorded 

This is not an exhaustive list. It is for guidance only.