Ofsted Registration Visit: Hour-by-Hour Walkthrough and How to Prepare

Ofsted schedules the registration visit once two conditions are met:

• Your SC1 application has been received with the registration fee paid in full — the fee is tiered by home size: from 1 April 2026, £2,006 for a home with 3 or fewer places, £3,284 for 4 or more places, and £4,780 for a multi-building home.
• The inspector's initial desk review of your documents has not surfaced anything that prevents proceeding.

The timeline

Typical lag from application acknowledgement to scheduled visit is 4–8 weeks, with the inspector contacting you 2–3 weeks ahead to agree a date.

Visits are scheduled on weekdays during normal working hours.

The registration visit is attended by one Ofsted inspector and, from your side, the registered manager, the responsible individual, and at least one deputy or senior staff member.

From Ofsted

Expect one inspector for the day. For larger or more complex applications — dual registration alongside an independent school, or homes for five or more children with complex needs — Ofsted may send a second inspector or a regulatory inspection manager.

From your side

• The registered manager candidate must be present for the entire visit.
• The responsible individual must be present for at least their fit person interview slot (typically 30–60 minutes).
• At least one deputy or senior staff member should be available to walk the premises, demonstrate operational systems (medication, behaviour records, daily logs), and answer day-to-day questions.

Maintenance staff, the RI's deputy, and the provider's directors do not need to attend unless the inspector specifically requests them.

A representative timetable runs as follows.

The inspector will want the full registration document pack — the Statement of Purpose, Children's Guide, all the policies, risk assessments, staffing records, insurance and consultation correspondence — ready as printed copies in a tabbed binder, and as digital PDFs on a laptop the inspector can use if they prefer.

The pack

• Statement of Purpose; Children's Guide.
• Safeguarding Policy; Behaviour Management Policy (with restraint or physical intervention policies); Missing Child Policy; Bullying Prevention Policy; Complaints Procedure; Privacy Notice; Whistleblowing Policy; Data Protection Policy; E-Safety Policy; Medication Management Policy; Safer Recruitment Policy.
• Health and Safety Risk Assessment; Fire Risk Assessment with a recent date stamp.
• Staff Training Matrix with planned dates; Supervision Policy with template forms; Staff Rota covering at least the first 12 weeks, including waking-night and sleep-in cover.
• Insurance certificates (employer's liability, public liability, regulated activity); Companies House filings showing correct director and PSC registration; planning permission for C2 use class.
• Local authority and police consultation correspondence; Location Assessment with risks and mitigations.
• Business Plan with 12-month cashflow; staff DBS certificates and references (status only — Launch44 itself does not store these).

The inspector examines every area of the home on a methodical premises tour.

• Bedrooms — minimum size, appropriate locks (privacy without barricading against welfare checks), heating, lighting, storage; rooms reflecting the age range applied for; no shared occupancy unless justified in the Statement of Purpose.
• Communal areas — kitchen safety (knife and chemical storage, cooker isolation), living spaces, dining arrangements.
• Bathrooms — sufficient provision relative to bed numbers; privacy; safer-bathing protocols for younger children.
• The home office — lockable storage for confidential records, separation of personnel files, secure medication handling, daily log location.
• Outside space — garden risk assessment, fencing, pond or water mitigations, neighbour boundary considerations.
• Fire safety — clear escape routes, intact fire doors, in-date extinguishers, tested smoke alarms, escape signage, a visible evacuation plan.
• Maintenance — decorative damage, obvious wear, or safety hazards will be noted.

If you have staff already employed and on site, the inspector will speak with them informally — typically 5–15 minutes per person. They are not testing regulation numbers; they are testing whether staff understand the home's purpose, the safeguarding arrangements, and the chain of command.

Common questions

• "What would you do if a child told you a member of staff had hit them?" — looking for: tell the registered manager, document, escalate; not "I would investigate myself".
• "How would you describe the children this home is for?" — looking for: language consistent with the Statement of Purpose.
• "Who is your safeguarding lead, and who escalates to the LADO?" — looking for: named people, named LADO, named local authority.
• "Walk me through what you would do if the fire alarm sounded." — looking for: escape route, assembly point, head count.
• "What training have you had, and what is still outstanding?" — looking for: honest gap acknowledgement, training matrix awareness.

The inspector concludes with an indicative summary — emerging concerns, anything to clarify, and an indicative timeline. They will not give you the registration decision on the day.

After the visit, the inspector writes a registration recommendation report, typically within 2–4 weeks. Three outcomes are possible.

• Granted — Ofsted issues the registration certificate; you are formally registered and can begin operating to the conditions on the certificate (usually mirroring the Statement of Purpose: bed number, age range, care model).
• Deferred — Ofsted asks for further evidence (revised policies, additional training, a second visit, named-person changes) before deciding. This is the most common middle outcome, and is recoverable, not a refusal.
• Refused — Ofsted issues a notice of intention to refuse under Section 14 of the Care Standards Act 2000. You have 28 days to make written representations, after which Ofsted issues a final refusal (appealable to the First-tier Tribunal) or withdraws the intention.

Five workstreams in the final week make the difference between a smooth visit and a panicked one.

1. Documents — print the full pack into a tabbed binder, double-checking every cross-reference: does the Statement of Purpose's bed number match the rota? Does the safeguarding policy reference the same named LADO as the location assessment?
2. Premises — walk the home end to end against the risk assessment, photographing each room; fix anything broken, replace anything expired (fire extinguisher service stickers, first aid kit contents), check every smoke alarm.
3. Team — run a 30-minute briefing with all staff who may be present; share likely questions; confirm the names of the LADO, local safeguarding partners, and the inspector's expected arrival time.
4. Personal preparation — registered manager and responsible individual each spend 60–90 minutes on focused interview rehearsal; identify the three weakest areas and run them again.
5. Logistics — confirm parking, plan refreshments, and set up a quiet room for the interviews so staff conversation does not bleed in.