Most Regulation 45 reports fail for the same reason: they follow a structure without filling it with anything an inspector can actually verify. There's no officially prescribed template for a Regulation 45 report, but there is a clear structure experienced inspectors expect, and a clear standard of evidence they expect inside each section. This guide gives you both.

Every section below follows the order inspectors expect to find it, with what to cover, what good evidence looks like, and the specific mistake that shows up most often in that section.

Treat this as a working document while you draft, not a form to fill in from top to bottom in one sitting. The strongest reports get written in passes: a first pass to get the factual content of each section down from your gathered evidence, then a second pass specifically checking each section against the "what good looks like" and "common mistake" guidance below.

The legal basis

Regulation 45 requires the registered person to review the quality of care in the home at least every six months and submit a written report to Ofsted and all relevant placing authorities within 28 days. The regulation doesn't prescribe a format, but it does require the review to address all nine Quality Standards set out in the Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015. The template below is built around that requirement.

Before you start: what to gather

Collect the following before you begin drafting:

  • Monthly internal audit or management oversight records for the full review period
  • All Regulation 44 independent visitor reports from the period
  • Minutes from team meetings, young persons' meetings, and multi-agency reviews
  • Children's consultation records and feedback forms
  • Supervision records for all staff
  • A summary of incidents, restraints, missing episodes, and Regulation 40 notifications sent to Ofsted
  • Training compliance records for the staff team
  • Written feedback received from placing authorities, professionals, and family members

The Regulation 45 is only as strong as the evidence underpinning it. Gathering source documents first means every claim in the report is specific and supported, rather than reconstructed from memory as you write. Homes that maintain this material continuously through the six months, rather than assembling it retrospectively, consistently produce stronger reports in less time, because the drafting process becomes synthesis rather than archaeology.

Cover section

Open with:

  • Review period. The start and end dates covered, for example January to June 2026.
  • Completed by. Full name and role of the person conducting the review.
  • Date completed. The date the review was finalised.
  • Submission date. The date submitted to Ofsted, which must fall within 28 days of completion.
  • Home covered. The registered name and address of the home.

Follow this with a brief methodological statement: what visits took place, what documents were reviewed, and who was consulted. This immediately signals a credible, evidence-based review rather than a desk exercise.

Example opening statement: "This review was conducted by the Responsible Individual following a structured review of the home's monthly audit documents, Regulation 44 reports, and management oversight records for the period January to June 2026. The RI conducted two visits to the home during this period, speaking with children, staff, and the registered manager directly. Written feedback was sought from placing authorities and professionals in the children's networks."

This opening statement does real work beyond formality. It tells the inspector, before they've read a single Quality Standard section, that the review was built from genuine engagement rather than assembled from a template. Skipping it, or reducing it to a single generic line, wastes the easiest opportunity in the whole report to set a credible tone from the first paragraph.

Quality Standard 1: Quality and Purpose of Care (Regulations 5 and 6)

This section assesses whether the home delivers care that reflects its registered statement of purpose and genuinely meets the needs of the children placed.

What to cover:

  • Whether the statement of purpose accurately reflects current practice, and when it was last reviewed and updated
  • The physical environment: is it homely, well-maintained, and personalised to the children living there?
  • Whether each child's needs are being met through their individual care, education, and health arrangements
  • The quality of records: are care plans, risk assessments, and chronologies current and complete?
  • Staff experience, qualifications, and whether the team has the skills to meet each child's specific presentation

What good looks like: The statement of purpose is treated as a live document, not a filing exercise. The physical environment is described with specific examples: a bedroom personalised at a child's request, an outdoor space children use daily. Care planning reads as responsive and reflective, not as a compliance process.

Common mistake: Describing the home in generic terms, such as "the home is clean and well-maintained," without specific examples. Inspectors want to read about this home and these children.

Quality Standard 2: Children's Views, Wishes and Feelings (Regulation 7)

This is one of the most scrutinised sections of any Regulation 45 report. Inspectors speak with children during inspection and take their views seriously, cross-referencing what children say against what the report claims.

What to cover:

  • How children were consulted during the review period: what methods, how frequently, and whether consultation was accessible to each child individually
  • A summary of what children said, using anonymised initials or references
  • Specific examples of where children's feedback led to a tangible change
  • Whether children attended or had input into their care planning reviews
  • Whether any complaints or concerns were raised and how they were addressed
  • Whether children have access to advocates and whether they have used this support

What good looks like: The report describes multiple consultation routes: keywork sessions, young persons' meetings, individual feedback forms, direct conversations with the RI during visits. It gives concrete examples of children's views shaping decisions in the home.

Common mistake: A single annual feedback form presented as the consultation. Inspectors assess the quality, frequency, and authenticity of consultation, not just that it happened.

Quality Standard 3: Education (Regulation 8)

What to cover:

  • The educational provision for each child: what they're attending, whether their Personal Education Plan (PEP) is current, and what they're achieving
  • Barriers to education identified and what action has been taken to address them
  • Multi-agency work with schools, virtual school heads, and placing authorities around each child's educational progress
  • Significant achievements during the period

What good looks like: Each child is referenced individually with a brief account of their educational situation, progress, and any outstanding actions. Education reads as actively monitored, with barriers escalated rather than accepted.

Common mistake: Confirming PEPs are up to date without any narrative about how education is actually going for each child. PEP compliance is a minimum standard, not evidence of quality.

Quality Standard 4: Enjoyment and Achievement (Regulation 9)

What to cover:

  • Activities children have participated in during the period, and whether these reflect their individual interests and wishes
  • How staff have supported and encouraged children's activities
  • Any community involvement or positive contributions by children
  • Barriers to meaningful activity and how they've been addressed

What good looks like: Specific activities are named against individual children, not a generic list of "outings and activities." Activity planning reads as child-led, with children given genuine input into what they do.

Common mistake: A generic paragraph about "a full activities programme" that could apply to any home. If a specific child couldn't be named against a specific activity from the section, it's too generic.

Quality Standard 5: Health and Well-being (Regulation 10)

What to cover:

  • Registration with GP, dentist, and optician for each child, and any outstanding health needs
  • Health appointments attended during the period and their outcomes
  • Annual health assessments: completed, received, and acted upon
  • Emotional health and well-being: what specialist support is in place, whether children are engaging, and how it's working
  • Health promotion work around healthy lifestyle, mental health, and, where appropriate, sexual health and substance awareness

What good looks like: Physical and emotional health are given equal weight. Where specialist support is commissioned, CAMHS, therapeutic services, complex safeguarding workers, the report describes what this involves and how it's benefiting the individual child.

Common mistake: A section that reads as a checklist of appointments attended, with no account of whether the child's actual health or emotional wellbeing improved as a result.

Quality Standard 6: Positive Relationships (Regulation 11)

What to cover:

  • The quality of relationships between staff and children: how these have been built and maintained during the period
  • How staff have responded to children's individual emotional and behavioural needs
  • Patterns of behaviour across the period: what's improved, what remains challenging, and what the home is doing about it
  • Peer-on-peer issues between children and how they've been addressed
  • Whether staff have the skills and experience to manage each child's specific presentation

What good looks like: The report is analytical, not just descriptive. It explains why things have improved or remained difficult, shows how staff have adapted their approach to individual children, and demonstrates that behaviour management is proactive and reflective rather than reactive.

Common mistake: Listing incidents without analysis. An incident log is not a Reg 45 section. Inspectors want patterns, responses, and evidence of learning, not a chronology of events.

Quality Standard 7: Protection of Children (Regulation 12)

What to cover:

  • Safeguarding concerns raised during the period, how each was managed, and the outcome
  • Regulation 40 notifications: have all required events been notified to Ofsted promptly?
  • Whether the home's safeguarding policy is current, understood by staff, and applied consistently
  • Any LADO investigations, complaints, or allegations, and their outcomes
  • Environmental and location risk assessments: are they current and effective?

What good looks like: Safeguarding is evidenced as a live, active function, not a policy document. Incidents are referenced with dates and outcomes, with clear evidence the home applied its procedures consistently and staff understood their individual responsibilities.

Common mistake: Stating "there have been no safeguarding concerns this period" when records show incidents have occurred. This is the section where under-reporting creates the most serious risk. Inspectors compare the Reg 45 against notifications sent to Ofsted, records in the home, and what children and staff say directly.

Quality Standard 8: Leadership and Management (Regulation 13)

This section directly assesses the quality of the registered person's oversight. It's the most direct measure of the RI's engagement with the home.

What to cover:

  • Specific outcomes achieved for individual children during the period
  • Staff qualifications, the quality of supervision, and training compliance
  • Whether staffing levels are sufficient for the needs of the children currently placed
  • The home's development plan: is it current and driving genuine improvement?
  • Whether monthly audits have been completed and what they've identified
  • How external feedback, Regulation 44 reports, placing authority visits, quality assurance activity, has been used to improve practice

What good looks like: The RI demonstrates genuine, active oversight rather than administrative presence. They speak to individual children's progress by name, know what recent Regulation 44 reports have identified, and show that auditing activity has changed something, not just documented that everything is fine.

Common mistake: A leadership section written entirely in the passive voice, "audits were completed," "supervision was provided," with no first-person account of what the registered person actually did, saw, or concluded themselves.

Quality Standard 9: Care Planning (Regulation 14)

What to cover:

  • Whether the home continues to meet each child's needs as set out in the statement of purpose
  • The quality of individual care plans: are they current, child-centred, and meaningfully reflective of each child's life?
  • Contact arrangements for each child: are they being followed, and if not, why?
  • Whether care plan reviews have taken place on schedule
  • Positive outcomes achieved within care planning during the period

What good looks like: Each child's care plan is discussed individually, with evidence it's been actively used, not just filed. Deviations from contact arrangements are explained, not glossed over.

Common mistake: Confirming that care plan reviews happened on schedule without saying anything about what those reviews actually changed or confirmed for the child.

Feedback section

A Regulation 45 report must include feedback gathered from relevant parties. This is a regulatory requirement, not optional. Include feedback from:

  • Placing authorities and social workers
  • Professionals involved in the children's care (health, education, advocacy)
  • Family members where applicable
  • Staff members
  • The children themselves

Quotations carry weight. Present feedback directly where you have it in writing. Where feedback has been critical, include it honestly and explain what action was taken as a result.

Evaluation: strengths and areas for development

Strengths. What the home does well, supported by specific evidence from the review period. Named examples, not generic statements.

Areas for development. What needs to improve, and why. A Regulation 45 report that identifies no areas for development gets treated with immediate scepticism by any experienced inspector. Every home has areas it's working on. Naming them demonstrates the self-awareness and honest leadership Ofsted values.

Action plan

The action plan closes the report. For every action identified in the review, include:

  • A clear description of what needs to happen
  • Who is responsible
  • The target completion date

At the next Regulation 45, each action should be reviewed and its status reported. Actions that remain outstanding across multiple review periods, without explanation, are a significant concern for inspectors.

Regulation 45 template readiness checklist

Children's experience and progress

  • Is at least one specific child referenced individually in each of Standards 1 to 6, not just discussed collectively?
  • Does the Children's Views section include what children actually said, not just that consultation took place?
  • Does the Education and Enjoyment sections show barriers being escalated, not just accepted?

How well children are helped and protected

  • Does the Protection of Children section account for every Regulation 40 notification from the period?
  • Is any safeguarding concern from the period addressed honestly, including where the response is still ongoing?
  • Are risk assessments referenced as current, not just confirmed to exist?

Leadership and management

  • Does the Leadership and Management section demonstrate the RI's own direct observation, not just what managers reported?
  • Are all Regulation 44 recommendations from the period addressed by name in the relevant standard section?
  • Is the action plan specific enough that someone outside the home could tell exactly what's being done and by when?

What happens after the report is submitted

It's logged, not approved. Ofsted records the submission date as part of ongoing monitoring. There's no formal sign-off process, but late submissions are tracked and can prompt direct contact from your inspector.

Placing authorities may follow up. A social worker reading a thin section about a specific child they've placed may contact the home for more detail. A report built from this template, with individual-level evidence throughout, tends to pre-empt these queries.

It becomes the baseline for the next cycle. The action plan carries forward. At the next Regulation 45, each item needs a status update, and inspectors notice items that reappear unresolved without explanation.

At inspection, it's tested against reality. The inspector reads the report, then spends the inspection checking whether what they observe in the home matches what was claimed. A structurally complete report that doesn't hold up against direct observation damages the leadership and management judgement more than a shorter, more honest one would have.

It informs the next Regulation 44 visit. The independent visitor conducting the next monthly Regulation 44 visit should read the most recent Regulation 45, since the areas for development it identifies are exactly the areas a good visitor will probe first. A report that never reaches the visitor breaks this loop before it starts.

Pre-submission checklist

Before submitting your Regulation 45, confirm:

  • The review period is no more than six months
  • All nine Quality Standards are addressed with specific evidence
  • Children have been meaningfully consulted and their feedback is included
  • Regulation 44 findings from the period are directly referenced and responded to
  • Areas for improvement are honestly identified
  • An action plan with named owners and timescales is included
  • The report is signed by the registered person
  • Submission to Ofsted will be within 28 days of the date the review was completed
  • Copies are being sent to all placing authorities of children currently in placement

The most common template mistakes

  • Uneven depth across sections. Standards backed by easy-to-pull data (Health and Well-being, Education) read strong, while sections requiring genuine reflection (Positive Relationships, Children's Views) read thin.
  • Reusing language from the previous report. Inspectors read consecutive Regulation 45 reports and notice immediately when a section is barely edited from six months earlier.
  • Treating the template as a checklist to complete, not a document to write. Filling every heading with a few compliant sentences produces a report that looks complete and reads as hollow.
  • No connection between Regulation 44 findings and the relevant standard section. Recommendations get addressed once, generically, near the end, rather than woven into the specific standard section they relate to.
  • An action plan with no accountability. Actions listed without a named owner or date carry little credibility and rarely get closed out.

Frequently asked questions

Is there an official Regulation 45 report template? No. The Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015 require a written report but don't specify a structure. The nine-standard structure in this guide reflects what experienced inspectors expect to see, not a legal requirement in itself.

How long should a completed Regulation 45 report be using this template? There's no mandated length. What matters is that each of the nine Quality Standards is addressed with specific, individual-level evidence. A concise report with real evidence beats a long one padded with generic reassurance.

Do I need to address all nine Quality Standards in equal depth? No. Professional judgement applies to where you focus more detail, particularly where Regulation 44 findings or recent events point to a specific area. Every standard still needs to be addressed, just not necessarily at equal length.

Where does Regulation 44 fit into this template? Regulation 44 findings should be addressed within the relevant Quality Standard section they relate to, not just gathered into one generic paragraph. See our Regulation 44 guide for how to track recommendations through the six-month cycle.

What's the difference between this template and the "what Ofsted looks for" guide? This guide gives you the section-by-section structure and what to write in each one. Our guide to what inspectors actually look for explains the six underlying quality dimensions inspectors judge the finished report against.

Can I use the same template across multiple homes in a group? The structure, yes. The content, no. Each home's report needs to reflect that specific home's children, staffing, and Regulation 44 findings. Recycled content across a group's reports is a pattern inspectors are trained to spot.

What happens if I miss a Quality Standard entirely? A missing standard is treated as a significant gap in the review, not a minor oversight, since Regulation 45 explicitly requires the review to cover all nine.

Should the action plan include actions that were already completed during the period? Yes, briefly. Showing an action raised and closed within the same six months demonstrates the oversight cycle is working, not just that problems get logged.

Can I write the report as I go through the six months, rather than all at once at the end? Yes, and this is the stronger approach. Drafting each Quality Standard section incrementally as evidence arises, rather than reconstructing six months of detail from memory at the deadline, produces a more specific and more accurate report.

Does every Quality Standard section need its own subheading? It's not a legal requirement, but it's strongly recommended. A report organised with a clear subheading per standard is far easier for an inspector to navigate quickly, and far easier for you to check for completeness before submission.

Related reading

How CareClarity supports Regulation 45

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