HearthSupported accommodation software, built for your regulations rather than someone else’s
Supported accommodation has been Ofsted-registered since October 2023, under the Supported Accommodation (England) Regulations 2023. Its own four Quality Standards, its own inspection framework, its own review cycle and its own notifications. Whether you call it supported accommodation, supported living for 16 and 17 year olds, semi-independent or 16+, it is the same registration and the same regulations. Most systems in this sector were built for children’s homes and hand you those forms instead.
Written by Mason Hughes, 7 years in children's residential care
“Supported living”, “semi-independent”, “16+”: same thing, different words
Plenty of providers in this sector call themselves supported living or semi-independent accommodation or 16+ provision. Some carry it in the name Ofsted registered them under. If you are Ofsted-registered for 16 and 17 year olds, this page is for you whichever of those words you use, and the regulations underneath are the same either way.
One thing to be plain about, because it saves us both an afternoon. Hearth is not for CQC-registered adult supported living. There are no Care Act 2014 features, nothing for adults with learning disabilities or autism, and no CQC evidence. If that is your service, this is the wrong product and I would rather say so here than on a demo call.
Four standards, not nine, and they have names
Regulation 3 prescribes four standards and points at regulations 4 to 7 for each. They are the leadership and management standard, the protection standard, the accommodation standard and the support standard. A children’s home has nine, numbered. If your system is showing you Quality Standard 5, it is showing you a regulation that does not apply to your service.
Regulation 32: the review with two clocks
A quality of support review at least once every six months, then a written report setting out the actions you intend to take, then a copy to Ofsted within 28 days beginning with the day the report is completed.
Those are two independent clocks and providers conflate them. The six months runs between reviews; the 28 days runs from completion. It is entirely possible to file within 28 days of a report that was itself eight months late, and to have met one duty while breaching the other. Hearth tracks them separately for that reason.
The review must take into account four things, and the second is the one that changes how a service has to work: feedback from individual children on how prepared they felt moving in, and how prepared they feel moving on. It is the only place in either the children’s homes or supported accommodation regulations where the law requires you to ask the young person themselves.
In Hearth they answer it themselves, on their own screen, and the service cannot edit or delete what they wrote. A review cannot be marked complete by ticking a box saying you asked them: the check is against what young people have actually written.
Notifications: there is no single Regulation 40 here
A children’s home has one well-known notification regulation. Supported accommodation spreads the duties across Part 6 and Part 7, and the recipients change per event. The one worth rehearsing is the worst one.
| Who | Why it is missed |
|---|---|
| Ofsted | — |
| The accommodating authority | — |
| The Secretary of State | Not a recipient in the children’s homes regime |
| The local authority for the area the premises are in | Only if different from the accommodating authority, so it applies to out-of-area placements |
| The integrated care board for that area | Not the placing authority, and easy to overlook entirely |
| Any other relevant person | — |
Three more that are easy to get wrong. Exploitation is notifiable on suspicion, not proof, under 27(3)(a). A child protection enquiry is two notifications, at instigation and at conclusion, and the second must carry the outcome. And admission and discharge under regulation 28 is owed to the local authority for the area unless that authority is also the accommodating authority, which is precisely why it is missed on the placements where it is owed.
Hearth carries all of them with the regulation, the timing and the recipients attached, and freezes the recipient list onto the record when it is raised, so what you can show in two years is who it actually had to reach at the time.
A screen built for a seventeen year old
The people in your service are months from living alone. Many are working or at college. Handing them a children’s screen with stars and points for finishing their tasks is not a small mistake, it is the reason they will never open it again.
The young person’s view in Hearth has no points and no stars. It shows what they are working on, and it asks them the regulation 32(1)(b) question directly. What they write is append-only: if they change their mind they add another and both stand, which is also how you watch somebody settle in over six months.
Running both? One account
Plenty of providers hold registrations for both. The setting is chosen per premises, so each service sees only the regulations that apply to it, from one login and one bill. Regulation 44 visits, Regulation 40 notifications and money held on a child’s behalf simply do not appear on a supported accommodation service, because none of them are its regulations.
Supported accommodation is priced per place rather than per building, because a premises here can be a single flat and billing by building would charge a provider with eight one-bed flats eight times over for twenty young people. If you are still going through registration it is free until your URN comes through. Full prices are on the pricing page.
Questions
How often is the Regulation 32 quality of support review?
At least once every six months. After completing it you must produce a written report setting out the actions you intend to take, and send a copy to Ofsted within 28 days beginning with the day the report is completed. Note that the 28 days runs from completion, not from the end of the six-month period, so the two clocks are independent: it is possible to file within 28 days of a report that was itself months late.
What must the Regulation 32 review take into account?
Four things, set out in regulation 32(1). The views of children including any feedback and complaints. Feedback from individual children on the impact the accommodation has had on their life, especially how prepared they felt moving in and how prepared they feel moving on. Feedback from each child's accommodating authority, your staff and any relevant persons. And relevant research and developments in how children's needs are best met.
Who does a notification about the death of a young person go to?
Six recipients, under regulation 27(1), and without delay: Ofsted, the accommodating authority, the Secretary of State, the local authority for the area the premises are in if that is a different authority, the integrated care board for that area, and any other relevant person. The integrated care board is the one most often missed, and it is not the same body as the placing authority.
When do I have to notify Ofsted about exploitation?
Without delay, and on suspicion rather than on proof. Regulation 27(3)(a) covers a child who is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation or criminal exploitation. Waiting for certainty is how these get reported late.
Do I have to notify the local authority about every admission and discharge?
Under regulation 28 you notify the local authority for the area the premises are in, without delay and in writing, unless that authority is also the accommodating authority. That exception is why it gets missed on out-of-area placements, which are exactly the cases where the notification is owed. The notice must include the child's name and date of birth, the statutory provision they are accommodated under, whether they are subject to a care, supervision or interim care order, contact details for the accommodating authority and the IRO or personal adviser, and whether they have an EHC plan.
Are the supported accommodation Quality Standards the same as a children's home's?
No. A children's home has nine numbered Quality Standards. Supported accommodation has four, and they are named rather than numbered: the leadership and management standard, the protection standard, the accommodation standard and the support standard, at regulations 4 to 7. Software that shows you the nine children's home standards is showing you regulations that do not apply to your service.
Is supported living the same as supported accommodation?
Not usually, and the difference decides which regulator you answer to. In most UK usage supported living means adult social care, largely for people with learning disabilities, autism or mental health needs, and it is CQC-regulated where personal care is provided. Supported accommodation in the Ofsted sense means provision for looked-after children and care leavers aged 16 and 17 under the Supported Accommodation (England) Regulations 2023. Confusingly, plenty of Ofsted-registered providers of the second thing call themselves supported living, and some carry it in their registered name. If you are Ofsted-registered for 16 and 17 year olds, Hearth is built for you whichever phrase you use. If you are CQC-registered for adults, it is not.
Can one account cover both children's homes and supported accommodation?
In Hearth, yes. The setting is chosen per premises, so a provider running both sees each service under the regulations that actually apply to it, from one login and one bill. Children's homes are priced per home by bed band; supported accommodation is priced per place across your whole registration, so twenty places costs the same whether that is four houses or twenty self-contained flats.
Everything above is from the Supported Accommodation (England) Regulations 2023 (SI 2023/416). Ofsted does not approve, endorse or certify any recording system, and any supplier implying otherwise is telling you something untrue.