Guidance

Registering a supported accommodation service

What providers need to know about the supported accommodation registration process before applying.

• From: Ofsted
• Published: 4 April 2023
• Last updated: 20 December 2024 — See all updates

Applies to England

It will be illegal for a supported accommodation provider to operate if they have not submitted a complete application which has been accepted by 28 October 2023.

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.

Introduction

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

The provider and the proposed registered service manager must be registered with Ofsted to run a supported accommodation service. The registered service manager must be able to oversee and be accountable for the management of all the categories of supported accommodation and premises you are offering.

As a single service, you can apply to run one, or more than one, category of supported accommodation, on one or more premises, across a large or small geographical area.

However, you may choose to split up your provision into smaller separate services. For example, you may choose to run each geographical area as a separate service. Each service will need its own registered service manager and you will need to go through a separate registration process for each service.

Read our definitions of provider, service and premises.

To register a service you must complete one SC1 form for each service you want to run. The SC1 form is about the provider and the service.

People with specific roles of responsibility will need to complete the SC2 form as part of registering the service.

After registration, legally the registered provider and the registered service manager are both referred to as the ‘registered person’.

Why services must register with Ofsted

Registering services allows us to:

• protect children
• assess whether providers and managers meet the requirements of the relevant legislation
• evaluate whether they are able to deliver good services for children
• report on the quality of the service to the public, including to children and young people

Types of provider

The provider is the legal entity providing the service. They are responsible for making sure the service follows the Quality Standards, the Care Standards Act 2000 and the regulations made under it.

There are 3 different types of provider. In the SC1 form you will need to tell us which provider type you are.

An organisation

Organisations include:

• companies or limited liability partnerships (LLPs)
• statutory bodies or schools, for example a local authority or a trust of a school
• charities
• committees, for example a social care committee of a local community
• unincorporated associations

If you are an individual who has registered your business as a company, then we will also consider this an organisation.

A partnership

A partnership is a business where 2 or more people share the profits and liabilities. This is usually under a written partnership agreement. However, a business registered as an LLP or a company does not count as a partnership.

An individual provider

An individual provider can be one person or more than one person. An individual provider can provide a service, without having to set up a partnership, a company or an organisation. We name each person on the registration certificate. Any regulatory action we take may result in action against each person.

Roles

We need to know about the people who will hold the roles of registered service manager and nominated individual. The same person may hold both of these roles if they meet the requirements of the roles.

We also need to know about people in a number of other roles. Each of these people will need to complete an SC2 form to connect with the service as part of the registration process. Read our guidance on connecting to a children’s social care service.

Registered service manager

All types of supported accommodation provider must have one registered service manager for each registered service. This person must meet the requirements of the role.

The registered service manager will have effective oversight of all the addresses where children will be living. They will be responsible for the running of the service and accountable for all elements of service delivery. They may delegate day-to-day oversight of individual premises to other managers or staff.

A partner in the business or an individual provider can be the registered service manager, as long as they meet the requirements.

You must propose one service manager when you register your service. This means:

• you must list them in the SC1 form
• they must complete an SC2 form
• you must pay a fee to register the service manager

Two people may apply to be the registered service manager as a job share. In this case, each person must complete an SC2 form and pay an application fee. If 2 people are going to job-share the role, you need to email us to let us know. We will contact you to discuss the arrangements so that we can progress your application.

If the proposed service manager’s application is successful, we will formally register them as part of your service. After you have registered, you will need to let us know if this person changes.

Nominated individual

When you register a service, you must have either a nominated individual or a point of contact, depending on the type of provider you are.

Organisations including LLPs

Organisations and LLPs must have a nominated individual. This person will represent the organisation and act as a point of contact with us. They must be a director of the organisation, or the equivalent. This person must meet the requirements of the role.

We do not register the nominated individual, but we must know who they are. We will carry out checks on them, and may interview them.

This person will need to complete an SC2 form.

Partnerships that are not registered as an LLP and individual providers

If you are a partnership or individual provider, you do not need to have a nominated individual. Instead, we need to know who will be a point of contact for us.

In partnerships, the point of contact must be a partner.

If you are an individual provider, the point of contact must be the person who is solely responsible and accountable for the provision. If your individual provider is made up of 2 or more individuals who jointly share responsibility and accountability, the point of contact must be one of these individuals.

The point of contact/nominated individual will need to fill in an SC2 form.

Other roles

We also need to be aware of people who hold other roles. These people will need to fill in an SC2 form. They must be suitable to be involved in running a supported accommodation service. Find out who needs to fill in an SC2 form.

The registration process

The registration process consists of 3 stages:

1. applicants submit forms and any required documents
2. we carry out local authority and professional checks
3. we visit the provider and interview people in certain roles of responsibility

Throughout the process, we assess the suitability of the provider to run the service. We assess the fitness and suitability of the registered service manager to manage the service.

For organisations, we assess the suitability of the nominated individual.

We will also run checks and assess the suitability on any other people who submit an SC2 form.

Read the DfE’s guidance on the requirements of each role. At any stage in the process there may be factors that delay or prevent your registration application.

Changing your application

During the registration process, you must tell us straight away if there are changes to any of the details in your application.

If you want to change your application before we have granted registration, you must write to tell us about changes to:

• the name or address of the proposed provider, nominated individual or service manager
• the person who is applying to be the provider, nominated individual or service manager
• the members of a partnership
• a director or any other person who has submitted a SC2 form

If these changes involve a new person in one of the above roles, they will need to fill in an SC2 form. If your application has already progressed to stage 3, it will revert back to stage 2 until we have received these new forms. If we do not receive the new information, we may be unable to progress your application.

Stage 1: Application forms

Stage 1 involves completing 2 forms:

• ‘Apply to register a children’s social care service’ (SC1)
• ‘Connect to a children’s social care service’ (SC2)

You must complete one SC1 form for each supported accommodation service you plan to run.

Who completes the SC1 form depends on the type of provider you are.

People with specific roles of responsibility must complete an SC2 form. Details about who needs to complete an SC2 form is in our guide on how to connect to a children’s social care service.

We will not assess your application until you have submitted an SC1 form and all required SC2 forms.

Once we have received your forms, we will assess them within 5 working days.

There are 2 possible outcomes at this stage.

Incomplete

We cannot accept your application if any required information is missing. We will contact you to tell you what is missing and ask you to send us the missing information. If you do not provide us with this information, we will be unable to progress your application.

Complete

We will send you a request for a registration fee when we have received all of the following in full:

• an SC1 form
• all required SC2 forms
• all related documents

If all the required information and documents have been provided we will send a request for the application fee and, when paid, your application will be complete, and we will proceed to stage 2.

Fees

The DfE sets registration fees. You will need to pay 2 fees when you register a service:

• a fee for registering the service
• a fee for registering your service manager

The fee for registering your service depends on the number of premises you provide for children to live in.

All fees are reviewed and updated every year.

Small undertaking

If you have fewer than 10 individual premises, we consider you to be a small undertaking. The fees will be as follows:

• £3,600 for registering the service
• £900 for registering the service manager

This means you will need to pay a total fee of £4,500.

Large undertaking

If you have 10 or more individual premises, we consider you to be a large undertaking. The fees will be as follows:

• £4,600 for registering the service
• £900 for registering the service manager

This means you will need to pay a total fee of £5,500.

Stage 2: Checks and references

At this stage, we will run local authority checks on each person who has submitted an SC2 form and take up references. Read the guide on how to connect to a children’s social care service for information about referees and the checks we will carry out.

Your application will not move on to stage 3 until we have received:

• references for all people connecting to the service
• local authority checks for all people connecting to the service
• any other information we have requested

The time it takes for your application to move from stage 2 to 3 depends on the time it takes to get the required information.

Stage 3: Site visit, interview and decision

This stage involves a site visit and interviews with relevant people.

We aim to carry out a site visit to your office within 40 working days of your application moving to stage 3. We will contact you within this time to arrange the visit. We will tell you if we cannot visit within 40 days.

At the site visit, we will need to see evidence that your premises meet the required standards.

We will also visit one or more of your premises. If you are offering accommodation provided by an individual or individuals in a private residence (such as supported lodgings), we will ask to visit or speak to some of your supported lodgings ‘hosts’.

We may hold the interviews in a different location to the site visit. These could be at an Ofsted office, another office of yours, or a pre-booked external venue.

We will aim to tell you if we have granted or refused your application within 7 working days of the visit.

Refusing your application

If we are not satisfied that you can meet the regulatory requirements for registration, we will issue you with a notice of proposal to refuse your registration.

You will have the opportunity to tell us why we should not refuse your registration. To do this, you must write to us with your reasons, also known as representations, within 28 days of the date on which the notice of proposal is served. This time period cannot be extended.

If we do not receive a response within 28 days, we will send you a notice of decision to refuse your application. You may appeal against this to the first-tier tribunal.

If we refuse your registration, it may negatively affect any application you want to make in the future.

If we refuse an application from individual providers, partnerships or the proposed service manager, those individuals, the partners and the manager will be disqualified from fostering a child privately.

In addition, unless they have written consent from Ofsted, disqualified people cannot:

• run a children’s home or be employed in one
• manage a children’s home
• have a financial interest in a children’s home
• work at a children’s home

A person who does any of the above while disqualified commits an offence.

If you are part of an organisation that has had an application to register refused, you will not be disqualified. For more information on disqualification and how to seek our consent, see the social care enforcement policy.

If we refuse your application, you must contact the placing local authority so that they can make appropriate plans for the children that are currently accommodated by you. From 28 October 2023, you must not be looking after children before you are registered. (If providers have a registration application accepted by Ofsted as complete by 27 October 2023, they can legally operate beyond that date until the outcome of their application has been determined.)

Assessing your application

Once we have assessed your application and decided to register you and/or your service we take one of 2 steps:

• notice of proposal to register
• notice of decision to register

Notice of proposal

If we do not agree with the conditions that you have asked for, or if we have decided to propose additional conditions, we will issue you with a notice of proposal. We will send the proposed conditions as part of the notice.

If you agree to the proposal, contact us to accept. We will then issue you with a notice of decision and send you your certificate of registration.

If you disagree, you can write to us with your representations. You must do this within 28 days of the date on which the notice of proposal is served.

If we do not receive a response within 28 days, we will issue a notice of decision to register. We will list the conditions on your certificate and you must comply with them.

If you do send representations, we will review them. If we do not accept your representations, we will issue a notice of decision to register your service, listing the conditions we proposed.

You may appeal against this with the first-tier tribunal.

If you have made an application to register between 28 April and 28 October 2023, you can continue to operate while we consider your written representations.

Notice of decision to register

If all conditions are agreed following the registration visit, we will issue a notice of decision to register.

The notice of decision to register confirms that you have completed the registration process and we now consider you registered. We will send you your certificate of registration.

Unable to progress your application

In some situations, we may be unable to progress your application to the next stage or make a decision.

This may happen if:

• you are not able to provide us with all the information that we need
• there are planning or property issues
• there are issues with referees
• other agencies are carrying out ongoing investigations
• individuals linked to the application withdraw or leave and we do not receive information about replacement individuals

If we are missing information from you, we will tell you what information we require.

If any issues are not settled within 12 weeks from your initial application, we may close your application because we have been unable to process it without the relevant information. Any fee you have already paid will not be refunded. This does not apply for delays in returns from local authority checks, which we will continue to chase so we can decide on your application).

Withdrawing your application

If you want to withdraw your application, you must tell us by emailing SC.suppacc@ofsted.gov.uk. The application fee is non-refundable.

If we have concerns about your fitness to register as a provider or manager, but you withdraw your application before we have made a decision on registration, we will consider those concerns if you apply to register as a provider or manager of a social care establishment or agency in the future.

If you withdraw your application to register and no longer intend to submit a complete application by 28 October 2023, and you are providing supported accommodation, you should contact the placing authorities so that they can make alternative placement arrangements for children.

Requesting to withdraw after a notice of proposal to refuse

If we have given you a notice of proposal to refuse your registration, you can ask to withdraw your application. However, we might not allow you to withdraw your application. For example, this can happen if:

• we have concerns about your ability to safeguard children due to a lack of integrity
• your application does not show that you have sufficient safeguarding practice knowledge
• we are concerned about other relevant information in your application, for example offences that you have committed

If we refuse your withdrawal request and we also decide to refuse your registration, we will issue a notice of decision to refuse your application.

Where providers make a complete application by 28 October 2023, they are exempt from the offence of operating unregistered until the registration is determined, and so can continue operating. However, that exemption ends if they withdraw their application, or it is returned by Ofsted.

Your registration certificate

Your certificate of registration includes:

• your unique registration number (URN)
• the name and address of the registered provider
• the name of your registered service manager
• the name of your nominated individual (if applicable)
• the name and address of the head office for your service
• date of registration
• any conditions that apply to your registration (for example, the categories of supported accommodation you may provide or any other conditions we have proposed)

You do not need to display the certificate, but you need to be able to produce it on request. If you lose, damage or destroy your certificate, you must apply to us for a replacement.

Your certificate remains valid until it is replaced by a subsequent certificate, we cancel your registration or you voluntarily cancel your registration.

In any of these cases, you must, on the day of cancellation, return the certificate to us if we posted it to you. If we emailed it to you, you must destroy the copy you printed and delete the original email.

The forms

Register a children’s social care service (SC1 form)

Find out who needs to complete an SC1 form and what information you will need to include.

Connect to a children’s social care service (SC2 form)

Find out who needs to complete an SC2 form and what information you need to include.

Timescales

We will aim to assess SC1 and SC2 forms submitted during part 1 of the registration process within 5 working days. Once we have received all required references, checks and any other relevant information requested as part of stage 2 of the registration process, we will aim to carry out a site visit to your office within 40 working days of your application moving to stage 3. Delays can occur at stage 2 of the process as we are reliant on other individuals and organisations returning information to us.

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 have submitted an application recently, it is likely to be a few months before you receive a decision.

Further supported accommodation guidance

Find more guides and information on supported accommodation, including guidance on connecting to a supported accommodation service, making changes to your service, reporting serious incidents and closing a service.

Help

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

If you need a paper version of the SC1 or SC2 form please email sc.admin@ofsted.gov.uk

Regulations and requirements

Department for Education guidance on providing supported accommodation for children and young people.

Published 4 April 2023
Last updated 20 December 2024 + show all updates

1. 20 December 2024

   Updated timescales for processing registration applications. We have also updated the process for when we are unable to progress an application.

2. 4 April 2023

   First published.