Introduction

Children’s homes provide support and care for some of our most vulnerable children and young people. We want each child in care to be provided with the right placement at the right time, and for residential child care to be a positive and beneficial choice for the children and young people living in children’s homes.

This Guide accompanies the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 (“the Regulations”). It provides further explanation and information for everyone providing residential child care. The Regulations include Quality Standards which set out the aspirational and positive outcomes that we expect homes[1] to achieve. They also set out the underpinning requirements that homes must meet in order to achieve those overarching outcomes.

Many children placed in residential child care will have highly complex and challenging needs. Their abilities and individual stage of development will determine their starting point when they arrive at the children’s home and the home may need to support them through a complex and extended period of transition before they are able to positively engage and develop. This should not limit the home’s ambitions for each child. The requirements within the Regulations and the information in this Guide should be interpreted and applied in the context of childrens’ individual needs.

^{[1] The term ‘home’ or ‘homes’ is used in the widest sense and includes, but is not limited to, those working in the children’s home, and the organisation who runs the children’s home.}