Children and families services: For children and young people

Types of children and families services Ofsted regulates

Our regulation of children and families services covers children’s social care.

We register five sorts of children’s social care. We only register children's social care providers after checking they and their premises are suitable. We can cancel their registration if they don't meet the legal requirements. 

  • Adoption support agencies
    Adoption support agencies help adoption agencies in preparing and training adoptive parents. They also assist children who were adopted and who have reached the age of 18 to contact their original parents.
  • Children's homes
    Children's homes give care and accommodation mainly for children and young people under the age of 18 where the local authority agrees this is in the child’s best interests.
  • Independent fostering agencies
    Fostering services find and recruit foster carers and then support them to look after children where the local authority agrees this is the best thing for the child. An independent fostering agency is an organisation which recruits, trains, assesses, registers and supports foster carers. Children and young people looked after by the local authority may be placed with foster carers who are registered with an independent fostering agency.
  • Residential family centres
    Residential family centres provide short-term accommodation for children and their parents. During the placement the centre assesses the parents' ability to look after their child and respond to their needs.
  • Voluntary adoption agencies
    A voluntary adoption agency is a not-for-profit organisation that finds families for children who need to be placed for adoption.

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