Guidance

Register a supported accommodation service (SC1)

Apply to register a supported accommodation service.

From:
Ofsted
Published
4 April 2023
Last updated
28 April 2023 — See all updates

Applies to England

From 28 October 2023, it will be illegal for providers to operate a supported accommodation service if they have not registered with Ofsted, or if they have not submitted a registration application that has been accepted by Ofsted as a complete application by this date.

If you are a provider of supported accommodation, you must register with Ofsted. Find out if you are considered a supported accommodation provider.

Completing the SC1 form is one part of the registration process.

The SC1 form is the same form for all of the children’s social care services that Ofsted regulates. This guidance will explain what you need to do in the form, as someone registering a supported accommodation service.

The form asks a lot of questions and you will need to submit lots of information and documents. It may take you several hours to complete. If you are a large provider, you may need to speak with colleagues to get the required information.

You will be able to save the form and come back to it later if you need to get any information.

Who needs to fill out the SC1 form

The person who needs to complete the form depends on what type of provider you are.

Organisations including LLPs

You must be in one of the following roles, or be authorised by someone in one of the following roles, to fill out the form:

  • a director acting for the company, or an individual who performs functions that are the same as, or similar to, those of a director
  • a partner
  • a trustee, director or chairperson acting for a charity or statutory body
  • a chairperson or a committee member acting for a committee

Partnerships not registered as an LLP

To fill out the form, you must be one of the partners acting on behalf of all the partners in the partnership.

Individual provider

If you are an individual provider, you must fill out the form yourself. If you are a group of individuals (not operating as a partnership or company), one of those individuals must complete the form.

Information you will need to provide

We will ask you for information about your business and the service you want to register with us. The registration form consists of the following sections:

  • about your business
  • holding company or subsidiary details (if relevant)
  • financial interests in other children social care services
  • previous applications and registrations
  • about your service (including premises details)
  • roles of responsibility
  • financial information (unless you are a local authority or health authority)
  • policy documents

About your business

You will need the address and contact details of your business. If you are a registered company, and the details you give do not match the information held by Companies House, you should also provide the address from which your company operates (for example your head or main office). You will also be asked for your company number. If you are a charity, you must also provide your charity number.

Holding company and subsidiary details

If you are a holding company with subsidiaries registered with Ofsted, you will need to tell us the name, trading start date, unique reference number (URN), address and contact details for each subsidiary.

If your organisation is a subsidiary of a holding company, you must tell us the holding company’s name, trading start date, registered company number (or charity number, if applicable), address, and contact details. You will also need to tell us about all the other subsidiaries of your holding company.

You also need to provide the last 2 years of accounts for your holding company, and all of their subsidiaries. You cannot upload these to the form. Instead, email them to SC.suppacc@ofsted.gov.uk quoting ‘Supported accommodation’ and the reference number in the subject field.

Financial interests

You will be asked if your business has financial interests in any children’s social care services. If you answer yes, you will need the name and registration details of those services. You will need to provide the URN of services that are registered with Ofsted. If the services are not registered with Ofsted, you must tell us who they are registered with.

Previous applications and registrations

We also need to know about your previous applications and registrations for children and adult social services. You will be asked if you have:

  • made a previous application
  • had a previous applications refused
  • been registered or licensed to run a service
  • had a registration cancelled

If you answer yes to any of those questions, you will need to provide more information.

The information we need about previous applications includes the URN. If you do not have a URN for that service, then you will need to tell us about the type of service, dates of application, reason for the refusal (if relevant) and which public authority dealt with the application.

The information we need about previous registrations includes who you registered with, how long the registration was for and the type of service. If you have had a registration cancelled, you need to provide either the URN or details about the service, including dates of registration and why the registration was cancelled.

Your services and premises

We will ask about your service, including office details. We also need to know about your premises, including:

  • the category of your premises, whether single occupancy, shared accommodation (ring-fenced or non-ring-fenced) or private residential accommodation, such as supported lodgings
  • the addresses of all your premises, including the addresses of all your accommodation hosted in private residences, such as supported lodgings
  • maximum number of children you can accommodate on the premises and if the accommodation is single sex

You will also be expected to confirm that:

  • your premises are ready to meet the needs of children according to your statement of purpose, including meeting any access needs of the children who will live there
  • you have identified and minimised any risks
  • you have carried out location assessments for each premises
  • your premises are capable of being used in accordance with your statement of purpose, without the need for any additional planning permission, building works or conversion

Roles

You must tell us about people with certain roles of responsibility. The people you list in the form will need to fill in an SC2 form. We will contact them with information about what to do, using the contact details you provide.

Organisations and LLPs

You need to list your nominated individual, your proposed service manager and directors who are involved in running your supported accommodation service.

Partners

We will ask you to name a point of contact and your proposed service manager. We will also ask you to list any other partners you have not already told us about.

Individual providers

If your individual provider is made up of more than one person who jointly shares responsibility and accountability, you must list each person in the form.

Documents you will need

In the application form you will need to upload a series of documents.

You can upload documents in the following formats:

  • PDF
  • Microsoft Word (docx)
  • Excel (xlsx)
  • PowerPoint (pptx)
  • image file (jpeg or png)

You can also use open document formats for a word processing document (odt), a spreadsheet (ods) or a presentation (odp).

These documents cannot be more than 2Mb in size.

If you need to reduce the size of your documents, try to:

  • reduce the size of images before putting them in a document
  • remove any unnecessary images
  • if a Word document, save it as the latest version of Word or save as a PDF
  • if a PDF document, save as the lowest file- size option

Financial information

Unless you are a local authority or a health authority, you will need to upload documents that show us your long-term financial ability to run your service.

Business plan

At a minimum, the business plan should cover:

  • background information
  • a marketing plan
  • an operational plan
  • a financial plan
  • who has agreed the overall plan

Cash-flow forecast

A cash-flow forecast sets out the projected monthly income and expenditure for the first 12 months of operation from the point of registration. This is a summary of the money that is expected to be paid into and out of the service in those 12 months. This is usually broken up into a month-by-month forecast.

Annual reports and accounts

If you are registered with Companies House, you need to supply us with your annual reports and accounts. If you have filed 2 or more years of accounts and reports, you will need to upload the last 2 years of these. If you have only filed one set of reports and accounts, you only need to upload that set. You will be asked to upload reports and accounts in 2 separate files for each year.

Where applicable, you should also include the annual reports for the holding company and any subsidiaries of that holding company. New companies do not need to submit annual reports or accounts. You may need to upload these as separate files.

If you are not registered with Companies House, you do not need to upload any reports and accounts.

Policy documents

Statement of purpose

You must have a separate statement of purpose for each supported accommodation service that you are applying to register. Its contents will vary according to the type of service that you intend to operate. The statement of purpose should meet the requirements of the supported accommodation regulations.

We take the quality of the statement of purpose into account when making our decision about your application. It must include the categories of supported accommodation you plan to provide and a description of the accommodation, including how it meets the accommodation standard. You do not need to list the addresses of the accommodation in the statement of purpose. You must update it if the description of the supported accommodation you offer overall changes, for example if you have had a new category added to your registration.

Equalities policy

The equalities policy must set out how the service intends to value individuals, combat discrimination and safeguard those who may face inequality or harassment due to one or more of the characteristics protected under the Equality Act 2010.

A copy of a certificate of insurance

You must have a certificate of insurance for death, injury, public liability, damage or other loss before your service starts to operate. If your insurers will not provide this until registration is granted, you must give us written confirmation that you will have it.

All premises used by the service to accommodate children must be covered by this insurance. If the name and the address of the service is not included on the certificate, you must prove that it is covered.

Young person’s guide

The young person’s guide to your service must comply with the requirements of the supported accommodation regulations. This guide must also be suitable and easy to understand for the children and young people you look after.

Contingency plan

You must have a policy that will be implemented if your service closes. This must meet the requirements set out in the supported accommodation regulations.

Safeguarding policy

You must include your safeguarding policy. This must meet the requirements set out in the supported accommodation regulations.

Complaints policy

You must include your complaints procedure. This must meet the requirements set out in the supported accommodation regulations.

Missing child policy

You must include your missing child policy. This policy must set out how you will prevent children and young people from going missing, and how you will respond if they do go missing. This must meet the requirements set out in the supported accommodation regulations.

Behaviour management policy

All applications must include a behaviour management policy which meets the requirements set out in the supported accommodation regulations.

Apply now

Make sure you have read our guidance on registering a supported accommodation service, and that you are an appropriate person to complete the form.

We recommend that you have all of the required information and documentation to hand before you start. You will be able to save and return to the form.

You will need to log in to your Government Gateway account to fill in the SC1 form.

We have received a very high number of registration applications since April 2023. It is taking us longer than usual to review all these new applications. If you are submitting an application, it is likely to be a few months before you receive a decision.

Register a supported accommodation service

The next steps

The person filling in this form, and any person listed in the form as having a role in the supported accommodation service, must fill in an SC2 form. If any SC2 forms are missing, we will not be able to process your application.

You will also need to pay a fee. You can find out more about the next steps, the timescale and what you can expect next in our guidance on registering a supported accommodation service.

Help

If you need help with a query that is not covered in this guide, or you do not understand what you need to do in your circumstances, please contact us.

If you need help with your application, please email SC.suppacc@ofsted.gov.uk

If you need an accessible version of the form, please email sc.admin@ofsted.gov.uk

Complaints

Most of our work is carried out smoothly and without incident.

If concerns arise during registration, these should be raised with the inspector dealing with your application, their manager or the applications team as soon as possible. This provides an opportunity to resolve the matter before the registration is completed.

If it has not been possible to resolve concerns in this way, you can raise a formal complaint through our complaints procedure.

Regulations

Legislation

Regulations for all providers

Updates to this page

Published 4 April 2023
Last updated 28 April 2023 + show all updates

  1. Link to the online registration form added.

  2. First published.

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