Regulation 16 requires every children's home to have a statement of purpose covering the 22 matters listed in Schedule 1. It must be given to Ofsted, made available on request to staff, children, parents and placing authorities, and published on the home's website if it has one.
Revisions must be notified to Ofsted, with a copy sent, within 28 days. And under regulation 16(5) the home must at all times be conducted in a manner consistent with it, which turns every sentence in the document into a commitment that can be tested.
Inspectors treat the statement of purpose as the yardstick for the whole inspection. It is the document that says what this home is for, who it is for, and what it promises to do. Everything else is measured against it.
That makes it unusual among regulatory documents. Most compliance paperwork records what happened. The statement of purpose sets the standard you will be judged against, and you write it yourself.
The duty in regulation 16
Regulation 16 imposes five separate obligations:
- 16(1) Compile a statement covering the matters listed in Schedule 1.
- 16(2) Provide a copy to Ofsted, and make a copy available on request to a person who works at the home, a child or a child for whom accommodation is being considered, a parent, and the child's placing authority.
- 16(3) Keep it under review and revise it where appropriate, notify Ofsted of any revisions, and send Ofsted a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision.
- 16(4) Publish it on the home's website, if it has one, unless publication would prejudice the welfare of children in the home.
- 16(5) Ensure the home is at all times conducted in a manner consistent with it.
The 22 matters Schedule 1 requires
Schedule 1 groups its requirements under the same headings as the quality standards, which is a useful signal about how the document will be read.
| Heading | What must be covered |
|---|---|
| Quality and purpose of care (paras 1 to 7) | The range of needs of children the home is intended for; the home's ethos, the outcomes it seeks and its approach to achieving them; a description of the accommodation including adaptations, age range, number and sex of children, and type of sleeping accommodation; a description of the location; arrangements for cultural, linguistic and religious needs; who to contact with a complaint and how to access the complaints policy; how anyone involved in a child's care or protection can access the child protection policies or behaviour management policy |
| Views, wishes and feelings (paras 8 to 9) | The home's policy and approach to consulting children about the quality of their care; its policy and approach to anti-discriminatory practice and to children's rights |
| Education (paras 10 to 12) | Provision to support children with special educational needs; if registered as a school, the curriculum and management of education arrangements; if not, arrangements for attending local schools and how the home promotes educational achievement |
| Enjoyment and achievement (para 13) | Arrangements for children to take part in activities meeting their needs and reflecting their creative, intellectual, physical and social interests |
| Health (para 14) | Details of any healthcare or therapy provided, the qualifications and professional supervision of the staff providing it, how its effectiveness is measured, the evidence for it, and how that evidence can be accessed |
| Positive relationships (para 15) | Arrangements for promoting contact between children and their families and friends |
| Protection of children (paras 16 to 17) | The home's approach to monitoring and surveillance of children; its approach to behavioural support, including its approach to restraint and how staff are trained in restraint and how their competence is assessed |
| Leadership and management (paras 18 to 21) | Name and work address of the registered provider, responsible individual and registered manager; experience and qualifications of staff including commissioned education or healthcare staff; the management and staffing structure including professional supervision arrangements; if staff are all or mainly one sex, how the home promotes appropriate role models of both sexes |
| Care planning (para 22) | Any criteria used for admission, including policies and procedures for emergency admission |
Paragraph 14 is worth a second look. It asks not only what therapy is offered but how its effectiveness is measured, the evidence demonstrating it works, and how that evidence can be accessed. A home offering a therapeutic model that cannot point to evidence has a gap in its statement of purpose as well as in its practice.
Why the statement is self-binding
Regulation 16(5) is the one that bites. The home must at all times be conducted in a manner consistent with its statement of purpose. That means every claim you make becomes a testable commitment. Promise weekly key-work sessions and an inspector can sample whether they happen. Describe a therapeutic model and staff will be asked to explain it. Ambitious drafting written to win placements creates a compliance liability that lands months later.
Three other regulations reinforce it. Regulation 6(2)(a) and (b)(i) require the registered person and staff to understand and apply the statement of purpose. Regulation 13(2)(a) requires leaders to manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach, ethos and outcomes set out in it. Together they mean an inspector can walk into your home and ask a support worker on shift what the home is for. If the answer does not match the document, that is a finding about leadership as much as about paperwork.
The admissions link most homes underestimate
Regulation 14(2)(a) requires the registered person to ensure that children are admitted only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom the home is intended to provide care, as set out in the statement of purpose.
In a placement market under pressure, that is a real constraint. An emergency referral outside your stated range is not simply a difficult judgement call, it engages a regulation. If your home has drifted, taking children with needs the statement does not describe, there are only two lawful routes: decline the placements, or revise the statement and notify Ofsted. Continuing while the statement says something else is the position that reads worst at inspection, because it means the document nobody updated is now evidence against you.
The 28 day rule
Regulation 16(3) requires revisions to be notified to Ofsted with a copy of the revised statement sent within 28 days of the revision. This is one of the most commonly missed deadlines in the Regulations, usually for a mundane reason: someone updates a manager's name or a staffing structure in the document, saves it, and nobody treats a small edit as a revision requiring notification.
A simple discipline solves it. Version the document, record the date of every revision and what changed, and treat the notification as part of the revision rather than a follow-up task.
Publishing it
If the home has a website, regulation 16(4) requires the statement of purpose to be published on it, unless the registered person considers publication would prejudice the welfare of children in the home. That exception exists for good reason, particularly where publishing a detailed description of the location and cohort could increase risk. If you rely on it, record the reasoning rather than simply not publishing.
Where statements of purpose fall short
They describe an aspiration rather than the service. Written to attract placements, then quietly at odds with what the home actually does.
They go stale. Regulation 16(3) requires the statement to be kept under review. A statement last revised three years ago, in a home whose cohort and staffing have both changed, fails that duty before anyone reads the content.
Schedule 1 paragraphs are missed entirely. Paragraphs 14, 16 and 21 are the ones most often absent: therapy evidence, the approach to monitoring and surveillance, and role models where staff are mainly one sex.
Staff have never read it. Regulation 6(2)(b)(i) requires staff to understand and apply it, so a document that lives only in the manager's drive is a leadership finding waiting to happen.
How OVcare supports statement of purpose management
OVcare is a care management platform built for UK children's homes, supported accommodation providers and family assessment centres, with policy and procedure management built in. Policies and core documents are version controlled with review dates and owners, so a revision is recorded as a revision, with a clear date to work the 28 day notification from.
Because the statement of purpose sits alongside the records that evidence it, from key-work sessions to admissions, the gap between what the document promises and what the home does is visible before an inspector finds it. OVcare does not write your statement of purpose or replace professional judgement, and no software can determine an inspection outcome. What it can do is support consistent document control and clearer evidence.
See how your core documents would be version controlled. Book a free demo and we will walk through policy management, review reminders and audit trails for your setting. Book a free demo.
Related reading
- Regulation 46: The Annual Location Assessment
- Safer Recruitment, Qualifications and Supervision
- Regulation 44 Visits in Children's Homes: A Guide
About the author. Paula Martinez has spent several years writing about and researching social care in England. She writes OVcare's regulation and compliance guides, working from the current text of the Regulations and Ofsted's published guidance rather than from secondary summaries.
Sources: The Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/541), regulations 6, 13, 14, 16 and 38, and Schedule 1, at legislation.gov.uk. Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations including the quality standards, Department for Education.
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; different requirements apply to supported accommodation under the Supported Accommodation (England) Regulations 2023, and to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Always refer to the current Regulations and take professional advice on your own circumstances.
