"Who do I tell?" checker
"Who do I tell?" checker
Which events must be notified
Regulation 40 covers:
- the death of a child;
- a referral of a person working at the home under section 35 of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006;
- a child being involved in, subject to, or suspected of being involved in or subject to sexual exploitation;
- an incident requiring the police to be called to the home, which the registered person considers serious;
- an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there;
- a child protection enquiry involving a child, and its outcome;
- any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers serious.
Ofsted’s guidance lists further events for secure children’s homes. Regulation 41 separately requires you to tell the local authority where the home is about every admission and discharge.
How and how quickly
The regulation says without delay. Ofsted asks for a child’s death to be reported immediately, and other serious incidents without delay and, where possible, within 24 hours. The DfE guide expects homes to have a system that makes this possible at weekends too.
The notification must be made, or confirmed, in writing. It must give details of what happened, which other people or bodies you have told, and what action you have taken. Ofsted takes notifications through its online form and asks for the home’s URN.
Have a system that works at 3am
- Make clear who can notify when the manager is off duty.
- Keep contact details for every placing authority and the host local authority to hand.
- Record when each notification was sent, to whom, and the reference.
- Follow up with the outcome, for example when a child protection enquiry concludes.
How the Residential Childcare App handles this
Managers can raise a notification straight from an incident. Every notification to Ofsted and local authorities is kept in one register per home, with who it went to and when, and anything not yet sent is flagged. Once a notification is marked as sent it cannot be edited.
