Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on ending the use of unregulated accommodation for children.

Every child growing up in care should have a stable, secure environment where they feel supported. In October 2023, the department introduced The Supported Accommodation (England) Regulations 2023. These regulations set out national standards that are required to be met for semi-independent accommodation, now known as ‘supported accommodation’, regulated against by Ofsted. This means for the first time all provision offering care and support for under-18s is required to be registered and regulated with Ofsted.

The national standards will ensure that supported accommodation provision is more consistently of the high quality that the department expects, delivering lasting change for children in care and care leavers. The regulations also empower Ofsted to take action against poor quality and unregistered providers.

Introduction of the standards was part of a programme of reforms to drive up quality and improve consistency within previously unregulated accommodation provision. The reforms also included the prohibition of children aged under 16 being placed in independent or semi-independent accommodation from 9 September 2021.