Registration of children's home care staff

56. 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 in order to ensure that further action is informed by the best possible evidence.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse and the Independent Review into Children’s Social Care recommended professional registration of staff working in children’s homes. This recommendation is being closely considered. The department’s response to the recommendations from the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care final report will be set out in an implementation strategy in due course.

The Department for Education (DfE) launched a Call for Evidence on children’s homes in June 2019. A link is provided here. This exercise will collect views from the sector, including children’s homes, providers, local authorities and members of staff, on existing approaches to regulating the workforce and establishing professional registration requirements for people in care roles. DfE worked with the sector to ensure questions are focussed on the most relevant workforce issues, including professional registration, the existing approach to registering managers of children’s homes, staff qualifications and training and professional standards. Prior to launching the Call for Evidence, DfE commissioned a literature review on these issues, to take account of existing evidence and inform questions for the Call for Evidence.

This work will develop the Department’s understanding of the potential merits and consequences of taking forward the recommendation, and sector views on the effectiveness of existing approaches to regulating the workforce.

The Call for Evidence will close on 27 August 2019, and DfE will use the findings to consider any action to be taken in response. DfE will publish a summary of this work and the government’s response in due course.

On 6 June 2019, the Department for Education launched a Call for Evidence on the children’s home workforce in response to the Inquiry’s recommendation. The Call for Evidence concluded on 27 August 2019. On 8 July 2021, the Department for Education published the findings of the Call for Evidence and a literature review it conducted in response to the Inquiry’s recommendation. The Government has informed the Inquiry that it will continue to keep the recommendation for a professional register of the residential childcare sector under review.