HearthRegulation 44 visits: the independent person, done properly
Every children's home in England must be visited each month by an independent person who reports on the children's welfare. Done well, it's the closest thing you get to a friendly inspection twelve times a year. Done late or thinly, it's one of the most common threads in disappointing inspection outcomes.
By Mason Hughes, 7 years in children's residential care · Updated
What the regulation requires
Under Regulation 44 of the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015, the registered person must ensure an independent person visits the home at least once a month (the regulation itself is on legislation.gov.uk). The visitor’s job is to form an opinion on two things: whether children are effectively safeguarded, and whether the conduct of the home promotes children’s well-being. They produce a written report after every visit.
Independence has teeth: the visitor can’t be part of your organisation’s management or anyone whose objectivity a reasonable person would doubt. Many homes use an experienced ex-manager or a specialist Reg 44 provider.
What a good visit looks like
- Talks to children in private. Their views are the core of the report, not a garnish.
- Talks to staff on shift, and to parents/placing authorities where appropriate.
- Checks the premises, and samples records: daily logs, incidents, restraint, missing episodes, complaints, medication, sanctions.
- Follows up last month’s recommendations: the single biggest marker of a serious process.
- Reports honestly, including the uncomfortable parts. A year of glowing one-pagers helps nobody at inspection.
The report, and who sees it
The written report goes to the registered person, and Ofsted must be able to see it. Inspectors routinely read the last year of Reg 44 reports and, crucially, check whether the issues raised were acted on and closed out. Recommendations that reappear month after month with no action are one of the most common ways “leadership and management” judgements go wrong.
What a strong report looks like next to a weak one
Most guidance describes what a good Regulation 44 report should contain. Far less of it shows one. Below are two versions of the same finding, on the same fictional home, written the way each actually tends to appear.
Both extracts are entirely fictional and written for this guide. They are not drawn from any real home, child, visit or inspection.
“I spoke to the young people who said they were happy. The home was clean and tidy. Staff were welcoming. I looked at the records which were up to date. I recommend that the home continues to monitor recording.”
Nothing here can be acted on or checked. “Happy” is not a finding, “up to date” is not a sample size, and a recommendation to continue monitoring commits nobody to anything. An inspector reading twelve of these learns only that twelve visits happened.
“I spoke with two of the three children living at the home. One told me she does not know who her independent advocate is. I checked the records of six incidents from the past two months. In four, the child’s own account of what happened was recorded; in two it was not, both involving the same member of staff. The manager had already identified this and raised it in supervision on 14 June. I have asked to see the outcome of that supervision at my next visit, and recommend the advocacy information is displayed where children can see it without asking.”
The difference is not length or eloquence. It is that every sentence names what was looked at, how much of it, what was found, and what happens next. That is what makes a report usable as evidence: it gives the registered person something specific to respond to, and it gives an inspector a trail from concern to action to outcome.
Where homes slip, and the fixes
- The cycle drifts. A missed month is a regulatory breach you can’t backfill. Fix: the visit is booked for the year ahead, and someone owns chasing it.
- Actions evaporate. The report lands, everyone nods, nothing is tracked. Fix: every recommendation becomes a logged action with an owner and a date, reviewed at the next visit.
- The visitor can’t see enough. Paper files mean sampling three records; system access means sampling thirty. Fix: give the visitor structured, read-only access to records.
Reg 44 and Reg 45 work together
The monthly independent view (Reg 44) feeds your own six-monthly quality of care review (Reg 45). Inspectors read them as a pair: does the home’s self-assessment engage with what the independent person keeps saying? When the two tell one coherent story of a home that notices and fixes things, the leadership judgement usually takes care of itself.
Common questions
Who can carry out a Regulation 44 visit?
An independent person: someone who is independent of the home's ownership and management, with the skills and experience to speak to children, read records and form a view. Independence is the point, so a person who reports to the registered manager, or who has a commercial stake in the home, is not independent for these purposes.
How often must Regulation 44 visits happen?
At least monthly. The cycle is what inspectors look at as much as any single visit: twelve visits a year with actions closed out tells a very different story from nine visits and a backlog of unanswered recommendations.
What does the Regulation 44 report have to cover?
Whether children are effectively safeguarded, and whether the conduct of the home promotes children's wellbeing. The visitor speaks to children and staff, reads records, and sets out findings and recommendations. The registered person then has to respond to those recommendations, and that response is part of the evidence trail.
Who receives the Regulation 44 report?
The registered person, and Ofsted. The independent person's report goes to the registered provider and the registered manager, and a copy is sent to Ofsted. That is precisely why the response to its recommendations matters: the regulator sees what was raised, and can see whether anything came of it.
What is the difference between Regulation 44 and Regulation 45?
Regulation 44 is the monthly independent visit by someone outside the home. Regulation 45 is the home's own six-monthly quality of care review. Inspectors read them as a pair and look for whether the home's self-assessment genuinely engages with what the independent visitor keeps raising.
Make readiness a side-effect of recording.
Hearth links every daily log, incident and key-work note to a Quality Standard, so your evidence assembles itself as your team works. Built only for children’s homes in England.
Book a demoKeep reading
Hearth is an independent software provider and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Ofsted. This guide is general information about the regulatory framework, not regulatory or legal advice. Always check the current Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015, the Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations and the SCCIF on GOV.UK for the authoritative detail.