A Regulation 44 visit is a visit to an Ofsted-registered children's home by an independent person appointed by the registered provider. It must take place at least once each month and may be unannounced. The independent person produces a report giving their opinion on whether children are effectively safeguarded and whether the conduct of the home promotes children's wellbeing.
Copies of that report must go to Ofsted, the placing authorities of children living in the home, the registered provider and registered manager, and the responsible individual, plus the local authority for the area if it asks for one.
Regulation 44 is one of the few parts of the Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015 that produces a document Ofsted holds about your home before an inspector ever arrives. That makes it worth getting right, and worth understanding precisely rather than approximately.
This guide sets out what the Regulations actually require, where the widely repeated practice differs from the legal duty, and the two points that homes most often get wrong: who receives the report, and what the independent person is allowed to read.
What is Regulation 44?
Regulation 44 sits within the Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015. It requires the registered person to ensure that an independent person visits the children's home at least once each month.
The appointment itself is governed by regulation 43. The registered provider must appoint the independent person, and must do so at the registered provider's own expense. Where a provider runs more than one home, the same person may be appointed for all or any of them.
The purpose is external scrutiny from someone with no stake in the home performing well. That is why the independence rules in regulation 43 are as detailed as they are, and why they matter more than any template or format question.
How Regulation 44 differs from the old Regulation 33 visit
People who have worked in the sector for a while will remember Regulation 33 visits under the Children's Homes Regulations 2001. The two are often spoken about as though Reg 44 were simply a renumbering. They are not the same duty.
Under the 2001 Regulations, regulation 33 required the visit to be carried out by the registered provider, or where the provider was an organisation or partnership, by the responsible individual, a partner, another director, or an employee of the organisation who was not directly concerned with the conduct of the home. That is an internal management visit.
Regulation 44 replaced it with a visit by a person who must be independent of the provider. Regulation 43(3) specifically disqualifies anyone employed for payment by the registered provider, and disqualifies the responsible individual outright. The monthly frequency and the option to visit unannounced carried across from 2001, but the independence requirement is new, and it is the substance of the change.
How often must a visit take place?
At least once each month. That is a floor, not a target, and nothing prevents more frequent visits where a home is in difficulty or newly registered.
Regulation 44(3) states that a visit may be unannounced. Varying the day and time, including occasional evenings and weekends, gives the independent person a fuller picture of the home than always arriving mid morning on a weekday.
Who can carry out a Regulation 44 visit?
Regulation 43(3) sets out who cannot be appointed. The registered provider may not appoint:
| Cannot be appointed | Detail |
|---|---|
| An employee of a local authority provider | Where the provider is a local authority, a person employed by that authority in connection with its children's social services functions |
| A paid employee of the provider | Where the provider is not a local authority, a person employed for payment by the registered provider |
| Anyone involved in care planning | A person involved in preparing the care plan of any child placed at the home, or a person responsible for managing or supervising that person |
| Commissioners and funders | A person responsible for commissioning or financing services provided by the home |
| Anyone with a financial interest | A person with a financial interest in the home |
| The responsible individual | Where one is nominated |
| Anyone with a compromising connection | A person whose connection with the registered person, a member of staff, or a child gives the provider doubts about their impartiality |
Two exceptions are worth knowing, because they are commonly missed.
Under regulation 43(4), an employee of the registered provider is not disqualified by their employment alone if they are employed solely to examine and scrutinise critically how a home is carried on or managed and the quality of care provided. A dedicated quality assurance role can therefore be used, provided the role really is confined to that scrutiny function.
Under regulation 43(5), where the provider is a local authority, an independent reviewing officer is not disqualified by that appointment alone.
Skills and checks
The Regulations do not prescribe qualifications for the independent person. The Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations expects the provider to appoint someone with the skills and understanding to reach a rigorous and impartial judgement, and treats their professional background and experience of similar work as relevant to that assessment.
Beyond that, most providers apply a safer recruitment standard as a matter of good practice: an enhanced DBS check, references, employment history and insurance. Note that this is provider policy rather than a Schedule 2 requirement, since Schedule 2 applies to people seeking to carry on, manage or work at the home.
Conflicts of interest
Regulation 43(6) requires the independent person to declare any actual or potential conflict of interest to the registered provider without delay, and if reasonably practicable before the visit. If the provider becomes aware of a potential conflict before or during a visit, regulation 43(7) requires them to cancel the visit without delay and appoint a different independent person.
If the conflict only comes to light afterwards, regulation 44(6) requires the independent person to record it in the report, together with the reasons it was not raised beforehand.
What the independent person can and cannot see
This is the point most often missed, and it has real consequences.
Regulation 44(2) requires the registered person to help the independent person interview children, parents, relatives and staff in private where those people consent, and to inspect the premises and the home's records.
Case records need consent. Regulation 44(2)(b) covers the home's records except a child's case records, unless the child and the child's placing authority consent. A visitor cannot simply open a child's file. Where a home wants the visitor to be able to trace an incident through to the child's record, that consent needs to be sought and evidenced in advance, not assumed.
In practice this shapes how a visit works. The daily log, complaints record, records of measures of control, discipline and restraint, staff rosters and the register of children are all home records and can be inspected. The Schedule 3 case record for an individual child sits behind a consent gate.
What happens during a visit
Format varies, but a thorough visit usually involves the independent person:
- Speaking privately with children who wish to share their views, wishes and feelings
- Interviewing staff and managers privately, where they consent
- Observing the care being provided and the practice of staff
- Inspecting the premises, including bedrooms, communal areas and outdoor space
- Reviewing the home's records, including the daily log, complaints record and records of control, discipline and restraint
- Following up actions raised at the previous visit and any requirements or recommendations from the most recent Ofsted inspection
- Looking at how the home is monitoring quality between the six monthly regulation 45 reviews
Note that the Regulations do not require a monthly check by the registered manager. Many homes run one voluntarily, and some placing authorities ask for one, but it is not a statutory duty and the independent person is not checking compliance with a requirement that does not exist.
Triangulation is what separates a useful visit from a descriptive one. A visitor who traces an incident through the daily log, the staff account and any management oversight learns whether the response was appropriate. A visitor who reads one record and stops does not.
What the report must cover
The statutory requirement is narrower than most templates suggest, and it is worth separating the two.
Regulation 44(4) requires the independent person to produce a report setting out, in particular, their opinion on whether children are effectively safeguarded, and whether the conduct of the home promotes children's wellbeing. That is the legal minimum.
Regulation 44(5) allows the report to recommend actions the registered person may take, and timescales within which the registered person must consider whether or not to take them. The duty on the provider is to consider the recommendation, not automatically to implement it. Where a recommendation is not taken forward, recording the reasoning is what turns that into evidence of oversight rather than a gap.
Beyond the minimum, common practice is to report against the nine quality standards, covering areas such as quality and purpose of care, protection of children, health and wellbeing, positive relationships, and leadership and management. This is good practice rather than a requirement of regulation 44, but it is what most providers, placing authorities and inspectors expect to see.
Other conventions worth knowing, again as practice rather than law: referring to children by initials, checking significant concerns with the registered manager before finalising, and resolving factual disputes while allowing differences of professional opinion to stand.
If the visitor identifies an urgent concern about a child's safety, that should be raised with the registered manager immediately rather than held for the written report.
Who must receive the report
Regulation 44(7) is specific, and this is where homes most often fall short. Placing authorities are frequently left off the distribution list.
| Recipient | When |
|---|---|
| Ofsted | Every report |
| The placing authorities of children | Every report |
| The registered provider, and the registered manager where applicable | Every report |
| The responsible individual | Every report, where one is nominated |
| The local authority for the area in which the home is located | On request |
The duty to provide copies sits with the independent person, not the home. That said, a provider who has not agreed a distribution process with their visitor is the one who will be asked about it at inspection.
Is there a deadline for sending reports to Ofsted?
Not in the Regulations. Regulation 44(7) requires a copy to go to Ofsted but sets no timescale. Many providers work to submitting within the month following the visit, and that is a reasonable internal standard, but it is a convention rather than a legal deadline. Reports should carry the home's correct URN so they are matched to the right registration.
By contrast, regulation 45 does set a deadline: the quality of care review must be completed at least once every six months, and a copy of the report supplied to Ofsted within 28 days of completing the review.
How Ofsted uses Regulation 44 reports
Reg 44 is not a filing exercise. Ofsted's social care common inspection framework lists monitoring reports received under regulations 44 and 45 among the information inspectors review about a home before inspection, alongside previous inspection reports, notifications of serious events, and any concerns or complaints.
For multi building children's homes, the framework states that information from regulation 44 and 45 reports, notifications and complaints helps the inspector decide which building to visit first.
Ofsted's framework for secure children's homes goes further, stating that inspectors must regularly review notifications and regulation 44 and 45 reports, and must focus on both the content and the quality of those reports as part of evaluating how well a home monitors its impact on children's experiences. Content and quality, in Ofsted's own words, is a useful standard to hold your reports against whatever type of home you run.
Common pitfalls
The problems that surface at inspection are rarely about whether visits happened. They tend to be about substance and follow through:
- Reports that describe rather than analyse. A report that records what the visitor saw, without challenge or a clear view on what needs to change, gives Ofsted little to work with and gives the home even less.
- Recommendations that go nowhere. Regulation 44(5) requires the provider to consider recommendations. A visible trail of what was raised, what was decided and why is strong evidence of oversight. Silence is not.
- Incomplete distribution. Reports reaching Ofsted but not placing authorities is a straightforward breach of regulation 44(7).
- Consent not sorted in advance. A visitor who arrives wanting to trace an incident into a child's case record, without consent in place, cannot do it.
- Records scattered across systems. When the daily log, incident records and restraint records live in different places, the visit is spent locating evidence rather than examining it.
Free download: Regulation 44 visit checklist. A practical checklist covering what a strong monthly visit and report should include, including the full distribution list.
Download the checklist (PDF)
Keeping the reports afterwards
Regulation 38 lists the independent person's reports among the items that must be kept in an accessible manner, and confirms they may be held electronically. The Regulations do not set a retention period for them, which means providers need to set a defensible period themselves. Our guide to how long children's homes must keep records covers where the statutory periods apply and where you are setting your own.
How OVcare supports Regulation 44 readiness
OVcare is a care management platform built for UK children's homes. It is designed to keep the records behind a Regulation 44 visit complete, consistent and quick to review.
Daily logs, incident records, measures of control and restraint, care plans and management oversight sit in one place, so the independent person spends the visit examining evidence rather than assembling it, and managers can track recommendations from one month to the next. The Inspector Portal gives Ofsted inspectors and Regulation 44 visitors structured access to records, with permissions set by the home, which matters given the consent position on case records.
OVcare does not replace the professional judgement of your independent person, and no software can guarantee an inspection outcome. What it can do is reduce the administrative burden around Reg 44, support clearer audit trails, and help your team go into each visit with the evidence organised.
See it with your own records in mind. Book a free demo and we will show you how OVcare keeps the evidence behind your Reg 44 visits organised and inspection ready. Book a free demo.
Sources: The Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/541), regulations 38, 43, 44 and 45, and the Children's Homes Regulations 2001 (SI 2001/3967), regulation 33, at legislation.gov.uk. Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations including the quality standards, Department for Education. Social care common inspection framework (SCCIF): children's homes, and SCCIF: secure children's homes, Ofsted.
This guide is provided for general information for care providers and does not constitute legal or regulatory advice. It covers Ofsted-registered children's homes in England. Requirements differ in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and for supported accommodation. Always refer to the current Regulations and take professional advice on your own circumstances.
