Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of supported accommodation places that are ready to open but unavailable because the provider’s Ofsted registration remains undetermined.

​​Local authorities are responsible for ensuring they have sufficiency in their area. The government is providing £560 million to refurbish and expand children’s home placements. To enable the supported accommodation reforms, £123 million was provided to local authorities between 2023 and 2025. This has been incorporated into the Revenue Support Grant for 2026/27 to support local authorities in meeting their statutory duties, which includes supported accommodation.

​No specific funding is given to local authorities where Supported Accommodation cannot be secured. As of 31 March 2026, there were 370 ongoing applications from supported accommodation providers, down from 616 in 2025. While registered providers have capacity for a total of 24,700 places, only 7,520 looked after children live in supported accommodation.

​The department does not hold information regarding the number of placements ready to be offered by providers who are awaiting registration. While Ofsted has introduced a prioritisation policy for new children's home applications, no such policy currently applies to supported accommodation, although this remains under review.

​Programme funding from the department has enabled Ofsted to continue its registration and inspection activities to support compliance with regulatory requirements. It can take several months for Ofsted to process and come to a decision on an application, with timescales sometimes affected by factors outside of Ofsted’s control, such as incomplete applications. ​