Registration of children's home care staff
IICSA · Interim Report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse · Issued 25 April 2018 · Addressed to: Department for Education
Source — verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation, E
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.
IICSA, Interim Report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse · 25 Apr 2018 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
Publicly available evidence relating to this recommendation:
- 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.
Response — verbatim from government
●UK Government — initial response
The 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.
UK Government · 20 Dec 2018 Written response →
●UK Government — follow-up
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.
UK Government · 22 Jul 2019 Written response →
●UK Government — follow-up
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).
UK Government · 22 May 2023 Written response →
Evidence trail — what's actually happened since
No published activity has been recorded against this recommendation yet.
Each entry above links to a primary source — gov.uk written statement, consultation response document, or inspection report. The Index does not characterise government intent; it tracks what has been published.
How this page is built
Source and Response are verbatim from primary documents. The Evidence trail records published activity since — written statements, consultation outcomes, inspection findings, parliamentary references. The Index does not paraphrase or characterise intent; it tracks what has been published. Where the evidence is the absence of action (a missed deadline, a slipped timetable), that absence is documented from primary sources rather than inferred.
This recommendation's data is verified periodically against primary sources. The Index is monitored for staleness weekly.