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How we register

There are a number of social care services for children which need to be registered:

  • Children's homes
  • Residential family centres
  • Independent fostering agencies
  • Voluntary adoption agencies
  • Adoption support agencies.

 

These social care services cannot run until we receive and grant an application for registration. Your application will need to show that your service meets the following laws, regulations and standards:

  • Care Standards Act 2000
  • Disqualification for Caring for Children Regulations 2002

  • National Care Standards Commission Registration Regulations 2001

    (Please note that the National Care Standards Commission became the Commission for Social Care Inspection in April 2004, and the regulation of children's social care passed to Ofsted in April 2007 under the Education and Inspection Act 2006, but the name of the regulations has not changed.)

  • regulations that are specific to your service
  • The National Minimum Standards (NMS) for your particular service. You will need to be able to show that your service meets the National Minimum Standards. National Minimum Standards cannot be enforced by law but we will take them into account when assessing whether you are meeting the Regulations that apply to your service.

 

You can get the National Minimum Standards from:

The Stationery Office (TSO)
PO Box 29
St Crispins
Duke Street
Norwich
NR3 1GN

phone 0870 600 552, or order on-line at www.tso.co.uk/bookshop.

 

Following receipt of your application form we check that you have sent us all of the relevant documents. Then we arrange to meet you and any prospective service manager to check your 'fitness'.

'Fitness' is a legal term under the Care Standards Act 2000. It means that, if you are either an individual, someone put forward as a 'responsible individual' or a partner, the law says you must comply with the fitness requirements stated in the relevant regulations for the service that you provide.

 

Finally we issue a certificate of registration. It is an offence to open and run a service without being registered.

For further information, please see Guide to Registration

Apply for registration