Report a serious incident in an adoption support agency
Tell Ofsted about a serious incident in an adoption support agency.
Applies to England
Do not use the serious incident form to send updates about an incident you have already reported. Read our guidance on when you should submit a report.
What incidents to report
Adoption support agencies must report the following incidents (sometimes called incident ‘notifications’ or ‘events’) to Ofsted:
- referral to the Secretary of State pursuant to Section 2(1)(a) of the Protection of Children Act 1999(a) of an individual working for the adoption support agency
- the death of, or serious injury to, a child receiving adoption support services
Your Ofsted record will automatically update when you submit your report.
When you must report an incident
You should report the death of a child immediately.
All other incident reports should be made without delay and, where possible, within 24 hours. In situations where you need to gather further information, we recognise this may take more than 24 hours.
Report an incident
The serious incident reporting form will ask you for the following information:
- your unique reference number (URN) (you can find your URN on your registration, your inspection reports and on your Ofsted reports page)
- the type of incident
- your details and the details for your service, relevant members of staff and adopters
- when and where the incident happened
- the details of any child involved and the initials of all staff involved
- the registered person’s evaluation of the incident and actions taken
- if you have informed any other relevant people or organisations such as the Secretary of State, the placing authority or relevant local authority
To alert Ofsted in urgent situations, particularly if there is a lot of press interest, call 0300 123 1231.
Report an incident in a different children’s social care service
Safeguarding referrals
You can use the serious incident reporting form if you have reported someone to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) as unfit to work with children or vulnerable adults.
Adoption support agencies can report if someone working there has been referred to the Secretary of State under the Protection of Children Act 1999.
Telling Ofsted about safeguarding referrals
The reporting form will ask you to provide details of the incident. You should include:
- a brief summary of the incident
- the date of referral
- the role of the person referred
- the reason for referral
- the date and reference number of any previous notification to Ofsted relating to this person
- the actions taken by staff and managers at the time and planned prevention measures
Report a safeguarding referral
Death or serious injury to a child receiving adoption support services
If a child receiving adoption support services from your agency dies or experiences a serious injury, you must report this to Ofsted.
It does not matter if the child was, or was not, physically attending your service at the time of death or injury. You need to report death or serious injury to any child you provide services to.
A serious injury usually means that a child needs medical treatment (other than basic first aid) onsite or in a hospital.
Do not send a serious incident report to Ofsted for:
- minor injuries that require no treatment or only basic first aid onsite
- if a child is taken to accident and emergency but they do not receive any treatment there.
Telling Ofsted about death or serious injury
The reporting form will ask you to provide details of the incident. You should include:
- a brief summary of the incident (if known)
- the cause of death or injury, including the date of diagnosis or time of the incident that led to death or injury (if known)
- any treatment the child has received and details of the hospital the child has been admitted to (if any)
- planned prevention measures
- the actions taken by adopters, staff and managers at the time