HearthYour recording system, for Ofsted registration
Registering a children’s home means telling Ofsted how you will record and store children’s information, and then showing it working at the registration visit. This is what that question is really asking, and how to have it settled before you apply rather than during.
Written by Mason Hughes, 7 years in children's residential care
Ofsted does not approve software, and nor does anyone else
Worth saying first, because the sector is not always careful about it. There is no register of Ofsted-approved recording systems, no certification, and no product that makes an application succeed. Any supplier implying otherwise is telling you something that is not true, and it is the kind of claim a registration inspector notices.
What registration actually tests is whether you can explain your arrangements and demonstrate them. The system is the means. The answer is yours.
The five questions your arrangements have to answer
- What will you record? Daily care, incidents, safeguarding, medication, education, health, contact, complaints, and the child’s own views.
- Who can see it? Role-based access, so that a support worker, a manager, the Responsible Individual and an independent visitor see appropriately different things.
- How is it kept secure? Where the data lives, how it is encrypted, and how access is removed when someone leaves.
- How long is it kept? Children’s records carry long statutory retention, and “we will decide later” is not an answer.
- How would you produce it? If an inspector, a placing authority or the child themselves asked for the record, what happens next and how long does it take?
Why choosing before you apply is easier
Two practical reasons, neither of them about software preference.
First, your Statement of Purpose, your policies and your application all describe your recording arrangements. Describing something that already exists is straightforward. Describing something you intend to set up later invites the obvious follow-up question at the registration visit.
Second, records begin the moment your first child arrives. If the system is not chosen by then, those first weeks live in a spreadsheet or a notebook and have to be moved later, with all the awkwardness of a migration whose provenance an inspector may reasonably ask about. New homes are the one case where none of that is necessary.
What Hearth gives a pre-registration home
- Something to show, not describe. The system configured for your home before the registration visit, with your forms and your Statement of Purpose reflected in it.
- Role-based access from day one, including a read-only login for the Regulation 44 independent visitor you will need to appoint.
- Records mapped to the 9 Quality Standards, so your first inspection has evidence behind it rather than a standing start.
- Retention handled, with children’s records archived rather than deleted, in line with statutory periods.
- No contract. If registration is refused or delayed, you are not left paying for a system you cannot use.
What to read next
The first-inspection guide covers the timeline from registration to your first full inspection, and what inspectors ask to see sets out the records that will be read when they arrive. Pricing is on the pricing page, in full.
Common questions
Does Ofsted require a specific recording system to register a children's home?
No. Ofsted does not approve, endorse or require any particular software, and any vendor claiming to be Ofsted approved is misrepresenting the position. What registration asks is that you can explain how children's information will be recorded, stored securely, retained and made available. Paper can satisfy that; it is simply harder to sustain.
When should I choose a recording system, before or after registration?
Before. The application asks how you will handle children's records, and the registration visit tests whether your stated arrangements actually exist. Choosing afterwards also means your first weeks of records live somewhere temporary and have to be migrated, which is avoidable work at the worst possible time.
What does Ofsted ask about record-keeping at registration?
In substance: what records you will keep, who can access them, how they are kept secure, how long they are retained, and how you would produce them if asked. A registered manager who can answer those five concretely, and show the system doing it, is answering the question properly.
Can we start using Hearth before we are registered?
Yes. New homes are the simplest case because there is nothing to migrate. Setting the system up before you apply means your Statement of Purpose, your policies and your recording arrangements are describing something that already exists rather than something you intend to build.
What happens to records if the registration is refused or withdrawn?
They remain yours and remain exportable in full. Hearth never blocks reading or exporting records, and there is no contract that has to run its course first. That matters more at the pre-registration stage than at any other, because the outcome is genuinely uncertain.
Opening a home? Let’s set it up properly.
A 20 minute call, configured for the home you are registering. Genuinely useful even if you end up choosing something else, because you will leave knowing what the question is asking for.
Book a demoHearth is an independent software provider and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Ofsted. This page is general information about the registration process, not regulatory or legal advice. Always check the current guidance on GOV.UK.