Regulation 46: the children's home location risk assessment, and what Ofsted asks

The free location risk assessment templates hold the letters, the tracker, the risk matrix and the review record in Word. The location assessment evidence pack adds the public data for your home's area.

What regulation 46 says

The standard it points to is the protection of children standard, under which the registered person must ensure “that the premises used for the purposes of the home are located so that children are effectively safeguarded” (The Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015, regulation 12(2)(c)).

How often: once in each calendar year

"At least once in each calendar year" means between 1 January and 31 December, not within twelve months of the last review. A review in December 2026 and the next in January 2028 leaves 2027 without one. Review sooner when something changes, such as a new risk the police or the host authority tell you about, or a child moving in whose needs the last review did not consider.

A location assessment (often called a location risk assessment or locality risk assessment) is the registered person's written review of whether the place a children's home or supported accommodation stands in is appropriate and suitable for the children or young people who live there, made at least once in each calendar year after consulting each relevant person, which the guidance takes to include the police and the host local authority's children's services.

Who to consult: the police, the host authority and other relevant persons

The regulations define a relevant person as “any person, body or organisation that the registered person considers to be relevant in relation to the care, protection or safeguarding of a particular child in all the circumstances” (The Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015, regulation 2(1), the meaning of relevant person).

A relevant person is anyone the registered person considers relevant to a child's care, protection or safeguarding: the police and the host authority's children's services first, then placing authorities, health, youth justice, probation and voluntary services where they apply.

To ask the police, write to the force's public protection lead. The Department for Education's 2014 advice sets out suggested letters in its Annex 3, and the free consultation letters are addressed to the same lead, each with a reminder. Some forces publish their own route for location assessments, West Yorkshire Police among them, so look on your force's website first. A letter that met no reply after a reminder is still recorded, with its dates.

What a location risk assessment should cover

The Department for Education's 2014 advice, which the guide still points to for the method, lists what to weigh, including:

• “whether the location of the home influences the potential for an already vulnerable child to be a victim of crime, such as being targeted for sexual exploitation”
• “whether there is a likelihood of children placed in the home becoming drawn into gang crime or anti-social behaviour in the local area”
• “the suitability of the local neighbourhood as a location to care for children who may have already been victims of abuse and neglect”
• “environmental factors that would represent a hazard to children, such as locations near level crossings or busy roads”

Children's homes regulations amendments 2014: advice (non-statutory), paragraph 1.11

Ofsted's inspection framework adds: “The location assessment is about more than risk and hazards.” Schools, health services, transport, green space, leisure and faith belong in it as much as crime and roads.

The four steps, in our words

The advice sets the method out as “collection of publicly available local data; consultation with appropriate local services; completion [of] a risk assessment; and development of risk management strategies.” (Children's homes regulations amendments 2014: advice (non-statutory), paragraph 1.15). In practice:

1. Gather the public data. Recorded crime around the address and its trend, the indices of deprivation for the small area, what the authority's children's services record about exploitation and children going missing, the roads, and the schools, transport and green space nearby. The advice describes this as “internet-based searches of local crime statistics, obtaining the indices of deprivation”.
2. Consult local services. Write to the police force's public protection lead and the host authority's children's services first, then to anyone else relevant. The advice names “children's services, the police, probation service providers and, if relevant, voluntary services that support victims of crime or young runaways”. It was written in 2014: today that means the Probation Service and the youth justice service, the integrated care board for health (which replaced clinical commissioning groups), and the safeguarding partners, who replaced local safeguarding children boards. Those services “are not ultimately accountable for the home's location assessment”: the decision stays with the registered person.
3. Assess the risks. Score each hazard for severity and likelihood, set the controls, and score what is left. Hear from the children: “It will be essential to talk with children in the home's care about the quality of life in the area”.
4. Plan, act and review. Give each control an owner role and a date, share what a placing authority needs before each placement, and keep it current: the assessment “should be kept under review and amended to take into account any new risks”.

Where you and a local service see the location differently, write it down: “Any significant differences in view between a home's manager and local services ... should be recorded in the location assessment document.” (Children's homes regulations amendments 2014: advice (non-statutory), paragraph 1.26). A letter that met no reply after a reminder is evidence of consultation too.

At registration: the location assessment for a new home

Ofsted says “There is no set format for location assessments.” Applicants “will also need to consult relevant local bodies and services, including the police and local authority children's services”, and inspectors will ask for “evidence of your contact with the host local authority” (Ofsted, Apply to register a children's home). The free templates include consultation letters worded for a proposed home.

At inspection: what inspectors look for

The framework expects the review to be current and lived, not filed:

• “Managers should update location assessments annually or when there is a change of circumstances”
• “For multi-building children's homes, there must be a location assessment for each building.”
• “Inspectors should talk with children in the home's care about the quality of life in the area.”
• “Producing a location assessment, like any other risk assessment, does not in itself keep children safe.”

Ofsted, social care common inspection framework: children's homes, regulation 46

Templates, and the evidence half done for you

The free templates give you the consultation letters, a tracker, a risk matrix, a prompt sheet for the children's views and a review record in Word, with no email asked. The location assessment evidence pack fills in the public data for your home's area, chapter by chapter, and leaves out the crimes recorded closest to the home itself. Read the Sample Home pack.

Quotations from the Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015, the Department for Education's guide and advice, and Ofsted guidance, Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This guide is not legal advice.