The short answer. Regulation 45 requires the registered person to complete a review of the quality of care at least once every 6 months, produce a written report on that review and the actions they intend to take, and supply a copy to Ofsted within 28 days of the review being completed. The report must also be made available to a placing authority on request.
Last reviewed 13 August 2026 against Regulation 45 of the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015. Applies to children’s homes in England.
Regulation 45 is five short paragraphs. A good deal of the guidance written about it, including templates circulating in the sector, presents a long list of required contents as though the Regulations set them. They do not. Knowing where the legal duty ends and where good practice begins matters, because it tells you which parts of your report you must defend and which parts you can design to suit your home.
What Regulation 45 actually says
| Paragraph | The duty |
|---|---|
| 45(1) | Complete a review of the quality of care provided for children at least once every 6 months |
| 45(2) | Establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating the quality of care, children’s feedback and opinions about the home and its facilities, and any actions needed to improve or maintain quality |
| 45(3) | After the review, produce a written report about the review and the actions the registered person intends to take as a result |
| 45(4)(a) | Supply a copy to HMCI within 28 days of the date the review was completed |
| 45(4)(b) | Make a copy available on request to a placing authority, where that authority is not the child’s parent |
| 45(5) | The monitoring system must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff |
That is the whole of it. Note what is absent: no prescribed report structure, no required headings, no minimum length, and no list of mandatory sections. Anyone telling you a Regulation 45 report must contain particular chapters is describing good practice or a local authority template, not the Regulations.
The 28 days, and what they run from
The deadline is 28 days from the date the review was completed, not from the end of the six month period and not from the date the report was written. That distinction matters in two directions.
If your review concludes in March but the report is drafted in May, the clock started in March. Equally, a home that completes a review promptly and then takes six weeks over the write up has missed the deadline even though the review itself was timely. Ofsted inspection reports do cite failures on this point, and the requirement is one of the easier ones to breach by accident.
Two practical consequences. Record the completion date of the review explicitly, rather than leaving it implied. And treat the report as part of the review rather than as a separate task that happens afterwards.
What the report has to contain
Regulation 45(3) requires two things: an account of the review, and the actions the registered person intends to take as a result. The second is the one that gets thinned out.
A report that analyses six months of incidents, sets out what children said, and stops there does not meet 45(3), however thorough the analysis. The intended actions are part of the statutory requirement, not a closing flourish. In practice that means actions with enough specificity to be checked later: what will change, who owns it, and by when.
Beyond that minimum, most homes cover the quality of care against the nine quality standards, children’s feedback, incidents and their patterns, missing episodes, complaints, staffing and workforce stability, and progress against the previous review’s actions. That last one is worth building in deliberately. A report that never refers back to what was promised last time reads as a series of disconnected snapshots rather than a home that learns.
The consultation duty homes most often miss
Regulation 45(5) is the paragraph that catches people out. The monitoring system must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of four groups:
- Children living in the home
- Their parents
- Placing authorities
- Staff
Most homes consult children and staff well. Parents and placing authorities are frequently absent from the report altogether. Where a child has no contact with their parents, or contact is restricted, the position needs recording rather than leaving blank, because a reader cannot otherwise tell whether consultation was considered and ruled out or simply never attempted.
Note also the wording: ascertaining and considering. Collecting views into an appendix is only half the duty. The report should show what was done with them, which connects directly to the children’s views, wishes and feelings standard in Regulation 7, where the registered person must help each child understand how their views were taken into account.
The monitoring system behind the review
Regulation 45(2) requires a standing system, not a twice yearly exercise. The review is the point at which that system is drawn together, but the monitoring itself is meant to be continuous.
This is the distinction between a home that reviews and a home that reports. If the six monthly review is the first time anyone has looked at the pattern of incidents, the system in 45(2) does not exist, whatever the report says. Inspectors tend to test this by asking what changed between reviews rather than by reading the document.
What a workable system usually monitors: incidents and restraint, missing episodes, complaints and their outcomes, notifications made under Regulation 40, safeguarding referrals, children’s meetings and consultation, staffing and turnover, training and supervision compliance, education attendance and progress, health appointments, and the physical condition of the home.
How Regulation 45 relates to Regulations 44 and 46
These three sit together in Part 6 of the Regulations and are routinely confused, including in job adverts and templates.
| Regulation 44 | Regulation 45 | Regulation 46 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What | Independent person’s visit | Quality of care review | Review of the home’s location |
| Who | An independent person | The registered person | The registered person |
| How often | At least monthly | At least every 6 months | At least annually |
| Output | Report to the registered person, provider and Ofsted | Written report to Ofsted within 28 days | Written assessment kept by the home |
The practical relationship matters more than the distinction. Six Regulation 44 reports will normally sit inside the period a Regulation 45 review covers, and they are among the strongest evidence available for it. A quality of care review that makes no reference to the independent person’s findings has ignored the most obvious external check on the home. Our guide to Regulation 44 visits covers those in full.
Where Regulation 45 reports commonly fall down
- Late submission. Usually because the completion date was never recorded, so nobody knew when the 28 days started.
- Description without analysis. Counts of incidents with no reading of what they mean or whether anything is changing.
- Actions that are not actions. “Continue to monitor” and “staff to remain vigilant” cannot be checked at the next review.
- No thread between reviews. Last period’s actions never revisited, so no evidence of learning.
- Consultation limited to children and staff. Parents and placing authorities missing entirely, contrary to 45(5).
- Figures that cannot be traced. A number in the report that nobody can link back to the underlying records when asked.
- The report as the only monitoring. Written from scratch every six months, which is the clearest sign the 45(2) system is not running.
What changed in 2026
The children’s homes Social Care Common Inspection Framework was updated in April 2026, and the published change notes for that update included clarification on Regulation 45 reports specifically. If your report template predates that update, it is worth checking against the current framework rather than assuming continuity.
The wider direction of travel is toward impact rather than process, with inspectors weighing what difference the home is making through case tracking and direct evidence. For a Regulation 45 report that means analysis and action carry more weight than completeness of description.
Where a system helps, and where it does not
Most of the work in a Regulation 45 review is assembly: pulling six months of incidents, complaints, missing episodes, notifications, consultation and staffing data into one place, and being able to show where each figure came from. That is the part software genuinely changes.
OVcare brings the underlying records together so the reporting period can be drawn off in one place rather than reconstructed by hand, keeps each figure linked to the records behind it so an inspector’s question can be answered on the spot, and tracks review actions with owners and dates so the next review can open with what happened to the last one.
What it does not do is form the judgement. The analysis, the decision about what matters, and the actions the home commits to are the registered person’s, and they are the parts of the report an inspector actually reads closely.
Preparing your next review. Our Regulation 45 review pack sets out what to gather and how to structure the report, free to download. If you would rather see how the data assembly works in practice, book a free demo and we will walk through a review period with your setting in mind.
Frequently asked questions
How often must a Regulation 45 review be completed?
At least once every 6 months. Many providers choose to review quarterly, and a registered manager may decide an additional review is warranted after significant events such as a change of manager or a cluster of incidents, but 6 months is the legal minimum.
When does the 28 day deadline start?
From the date the quality of care review was completed, not from the end of the reporting period or the date the report was written. Recording the completion date explicitly is the simplest way to avoid a breach.
Does Regulation 45 prescribe what the report must contain?
Only in outline. Regulation 45(3) requires a written report about the review and the actions the registered person intends to take. It does not set headings, sections or length. Templates that present a fixed structure as a legal requirement are describing good practice.
Who has to be consulted?
Regulation 45(5) requires the monitoring system to provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. Parents and placing authorities are the two most often omitted.
Do placing authorities get a copy automatically?
No. Under Regulation 45(4)(b) the report must be made available to a placing authority on request, where that authority is not the child’s parent. The copy to Ofsted within 28 days is the automatic one.
Is a Regulation 45 report the same as a Regulation 44 report?
No. Regulation 44 is the independent person’s monthly visit and report. Regulation 45 is the registered person’s own six monthly quality of care review. The Regulation 44 reports from the period are useful evidence for the Regulation 45 review.
A note on scope. This article is general information about the position in England and is not legal advice. It does not replace the professional judgement of the registered person, and should be read alongside the Regulations and any requirements set by your placing authorities. Requirements change, so check the primary source before relying on any point here.
Sources: The Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/541), Regulations 7, 13, 40, 44, 45 and 46. Ofsted, Social care common inspection framework (SCCIF): children’s homes, updated April 2026. Department for Education, Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations including the quality standards.
