Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will hold discussions with Ofsted on reducing the time taken to licence people who are in charge of children's homes.

The department is already taking steps to support Ofsted with effective prioritisation of registrations for new children’s social care provision. To address registration delays, we have supported Ofsted to update their registration prioritisation criteria, enabling Ofsted to prioritise applications for homes urgently needed to meet identified sufficiency gaps, homes receiving capital funding from us, and provision providing highly specialist care for children with complex needs and/or disability. The department will assist Ofsted to review the policy’s impact in April 2026 and consider further changes.

We are also committed to working with Ofsted to identify improvements to the registration process for children’s home managers. This includes considering changes to regulations and procedures to streamline registration transfers when managers move between children’s homes so that they can take up new positions more quickly where they are needed.