Registration of children's home care staff
The Chair and Panel recommend that the Department for Education introduces arrangements for the registration of staff working in care roles in children's homes. Registration should be with an independent body charged with setting and maintaining standards of training, conduct and continuing professional development, and with the power to enforce these through fitness to practise procedures. The Chair and Panel recognise that registration may require a period of phasing in, and therefore recommend that priority be given to professional registration of children's home managers.
- In May 2023, the government stated that it accepted the need for rigorous registration of staff in children's homes and was examining implementation options through the Stable Homes, Built on Love strategy (Government Response to IICSA Final Report, HM Government, May 2023).
- No published registration scheme for children's homes care staff has been identified to March 2026.
How was this evidence gathered?
Response
Not Accepted
Response
Not AcceptedThe Government agrees in principle that further workforce regulation could provide an effective additional means of protecting children. We are mindful that introducing professional registration for all staff in care roles in children's homes would represent major change for the sector. We will therefore launch an evidence-gathering exercise to understand the impact of this recommendation.
The Department for Education launched a Call for Evidence on children's homes in June 2019, collecting views on existing approaches to regulating the workforce and establishing professional registration requirements. DfE commissioned a literature review on these issues. The Call for Evidence will close on 27 August 2019.
On 8 July 2021, the Department for Education published the findings of a Call for Evidence on the children's homes workforce and a literature review. The UK government informed the Inquiry that it will continue to keep the recommendation for a professional register of the residential childcare sector under review. A second Inquiry recommendation on the professional registration of care staff working in children's homes was made (see row 65).