Regulation 34 of the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 requires a children’s home to prepare, implement and review a connected set of policies for safeguarding, allegations, bullying and children who go missing.
The policies must work in the real home, with its current children, staff, location and local safeguarding arrangements. They should tell people what to do, who to contact, how quickly to act and how children will be protected while concerns are considered.
This guide explains the legal duties and shows how to build a practical safeguarding system without confusing allegations, complaints and everyday performance concerns.
Images in this guide are AI-generated illustrations, not photographs of Welcare premises or evidence of a particular home’s facilities.
Key point:
A concern must be routed according to what it is, not according to the label first used. A complaint may contain a safeguarding allegation, and a conduct concern may require external referral.
What Regulation 34 requires
Regulation 34 requires the registered person to prepare and implement:
The specific consultation duty in Regulation 34(5) concerns the missing-child policy: before implementation or an amendment the registered person considers substantive, consult each relevant person, consider their views and have regard to relevant local authority or police protocols on missing children. Wider safeguarding consultation is valuable, but should not be confused with that particular legal provision.
The policies must be reviewed regularly and revised when necessary. The duty is therefore about implementation and maintenance as well as initial drafting.
These arrangements connect with Regulation 39 complaints, Regulation 40 notifications, staff disciplinary procedures under Regulation 33 and the protection of children standard.
One safeguarding framework, four clear parts
The four requirements should fit together, but each needs a distinct purpose.
Safeguarding from abuse or neglect
This part should explain prevention, recognition and response. It should address risks inside and outside the home, including harm from adults, other children, family members, peers, criminal or sexual exploitation, online contact and unsafe environments.
Responding to allegations
This procedure should cover concerns that a person who works with children may have harmed a child, committed a possible offence against a child, behaved in a way indicating that they may pose a risk, or behaved in a way that may indicate they are unsuitable to work with children.
Preventing bullying
This policy should address face-to-face, online, relational, sexual and prejudice-based bullying. It should cover harm between children living in the home and harm involving peers in school or the community.
Children absent without permission
The missing-child policy should set out prevention, immediate response, information sharing, return arrangements and learning after an episode. It must fit local police and local authority protocols.
Start with the children and the home
A policy copied from another service may use the right terminology but still fail in practice.
The registered person should adapt procedures to:
The ages and communication needs of children
The home's statement of purpose
Known risks and patterns
Staffing and on-call arrangements
The location and local exploitation profile
The building and any separate accommodation
Access to transpor
Local authority and police protocols
The services available outside office hours
Children should be able to understand how to get help. Staff need enough operational detail to act under pressure. Senior leaders need a clear route for oversight and escalation.
Preventing abuse and neglect
Prevention begins before an incident. It includes safer recruitment, placement matching, adequate staffing, induction, supervision, professional boundaries, listening to children and responding to early signs.
The policy should help staff recognise:
It should also describe how children are helped to understand consent, healthy relationships, online safety, exploitation and how to seek help.
Risk management must not become blanket restriction. Controls should be individual, proportionate and reviewed with the child wherever possible.
Responding when a child discloses harm
Staff should know how to respond calmly and without leading the child.
A practical procedure should instruct them to:
- listen and take the child seriously;
- avoid promising secrecy;
- ask only enough open questions to establish what requires immediate action;
- check whether anyone is in immediate danger or needs medical help;
- report promptly through the safeguarding route;
- make an accurate, dated record using the child’s own words where possible;
- preserve relevant evidence;
- share information with the agencies that need it; and
- continue supporting the child and explaining what will happen next.
Staff should not conduct their own detailed investigation. Premature questioning can distress the child and interfere with work by police or children’s social care.
If there is immediate danger, contact emergency services and act to protect the child. Regulation 34(2) requires the allegations procedure to provide these prompt referral routes:
Current or ongoing abuse or neglect
The placing authority and, if different, the local authority where the home is located.
Past abuse or neglect
The placing authority and, if different, the local authority where the alleged abuse or neglect occurred.
Use the placing-authority definition in Regulation 2, which excludes parents for these particular referrals; telling a parent does not replace referral to the appropriate authority. Secure settings must also account for the youth justice modifications in Schedule 5. These referrals are separate from any LADO, police or Ofsted action. The procedure must provide for liaison with an authority conducting child protection enquiries, records of the allegation and response, protective measures and staff reporting without delay.
Allegations about staff, volunteers or other adults
An allegation procedure should cover employees, agency workers, volunteers, contractors, visitors, managers, the registered provider and any other adult whose role brings them into contact with children.
The current Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance sets out the allegations framework. Employers should inform the local authority designated officer, commonly called the LADO, within one working day of allegations that come to their attention and meet the relevant criteria.
The home should know:
The LADO process, police investigation, child protection enquiries, Ofsted notification and internal employment process have different functions. They may run alongside one another. Starting one does not automatically satisfy the others.
Immediate protective decisions
The first decision is how to keep children safe while the concern is assessed. Options may include changing duties, increasing oversight, preventing contact with particular children or suspension.
Suspension is not an automatic response and is not a disciplinary finding. It should be considered where necessary in the interests of children’s safety or welfare, with appropriate employment advice. The reasoning should be recorded.
Where the allegation concerns a manager or provider, staff must have a route that bypasses the normal line of management. Whistleblowing information should be easy to find.
Allegation, complaint or practice concern?
These categories overlap, but they should not be treated as interchangeable.
An allegation
Suggests that an adult may have harmed a child, committed an offence, posed a risk or behaved in a way raising suitability concerns.
A complaint
Expresses dissatisfaction about care, a decision or service and should be handled under the complaints procedure.
A practice
may involve poor recording, inconsistency, competence or conduct without meeting an allegation threshold.
A safeguarding concern
about another child requires a child-centred response for everyone involved and may need external referral.
The content determines the response. A complaint saying that a staff member used excessive force must not remain only in the complaints log. Equally, ordinary performance management should not be presented as a safeguarding allegation without basis.
Managers should record why each route was chosen and keep that decision under review as new information emerges.
Ofsted notifications and other referrals
Regulation 34 does not replace the notification duties in Regulation 40. The registered person should separately consider whether an incident must be notified to Ofsted without delay.
A referral to the DBS may be required when a regulated activity provider removes a person from regulated activity, or would have removed them had they not left, because the relevant harm conditions are met. Providers should use the current statutory criteria and seek advice where needed.
Professional regulators, commissioning authorities and insurers may also need information. Sharing should be lawful, necessary, timely and limited to what is relevant.
Preventing and responding to bullying
Children may experience bullying through exclusion, threats, rumours, property damage, coercion, identity-based hostility, sexual harassment or online messages. Power differences can arise from age, confidence, status, group dynamics, disability, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or access to information.
An effective policy should explain:
How the home builds a respectful culture
How children can report privately
How staff recognise less visible patterns
How online incidents are handled
How immediate safety is maintained
How the child who was harmed is supported
How the child displaying harmful behaviour is assessed and helped
When parents, schools, placing authorities or police are informed
How incidents and patterns are recorded
How plans and group living arrangements are reviewed
Responses should not rely only on punishment. The home should understand need, impact, intent, repetition and power while keeping all children safe.
Children should help shape the anti-bullying approach. Their experience can reveal places, times and behaviours that adults have missed.
Missing-from-home policy
A missing episode is a safeguarding event, not simply a breach of house rules. The policy should align with the statutory guidance on children who run away or go missing from home or care and local protocols.
It should include:
The home should avoid a rigid sequence that delays urgent action. Responses must be based on the child's current risk and circumstances.
The government's statutory guidance on children who go missing from home or care explains multi-agency prevention, response and return arrangements in more detail.
Child-on-child safeguarding
When one child may have harmed another, both children need a considered response. The home should protect the child who experienced harm, assess the needs and risks of the child whose behaviour caused concern, and avoid language that fixes either child’s identity around the incident.
The procedure should cover immediate separation where necessary, medical care, external referral, evidence preservation, communication with placing authorities, support plans and review of group dynamics. Decisions about whether children can continue living together should be based on updated assessment, not convenience.
Consulting local partners and children
For the missing-child policy, Regulation 34(5) requires consultation before implementation or a substantive amendment, and regard to relevant local authority or police protocols. Consulting appropriate partners on the wider safeguarding framework also helps it work in practice. The home should identify the local safeguarding partnership, LADO, children’s social care emergency team, police missing-person process and exploitation services.
Consultation can include:
The record should show what feedback was received and how it affected the policy. Consultation is less meaningful if a document is circulated but nobody tracks the response.
Review and revision
Policies should have a named owner and review cycle, but a calendar date is only the minimum. An early review may be needed after:
- a serious incident or allegation;
- a missing pattern;
- a complaint;
- a change in local protocol;
- new statutory guidance;
- an inspection finding;
- a Regulation 44 recommendation;
- a change to the home’s purpose, location or children; or
- evidence that staff did not understand the procedure.
Revision should lead to communication, training and, where needed, competency checks. Changing the version number without changing practice does not complete the work.
Recording and quality assurance
Safeguarding records should show what was known, what was done, by whom, when and why. Chronology is especially important.
Managers should audit:
Trend analysis can identify repeated locations, shifts, adults, peer groups or missed warning signs.
What Ofsted may examine
Under Ofsted’s social care common inspection framework for children’s homes, inspectors consider whether children are protected and whether leaders respond effectively to concerns.
Evidence may include policies, staff knowledge, referral records, notifications, missing reports, bullying incidents, supervision, children’s views and changes made after events. Inspectors may compare the written process with what people actually did.
Common weaknesses
Common problems include policies copied from another area, outdated contact details, unclear out-of-hours routes, allegations handled only as discipline, and missing episodes treated as misconduct.
Other weaknesses include staff conducting detailed questioning, no route around a conflicted manager, poor support after disclosure, failure to record decision-making and reviews that do not use children’s experiences.
Regulation 34 audit checklist
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Working Together 2026 says the designated officer should be informed within one working day of allegations that meet the relevant criteria and come to the employer's attention. Providers should follow the current local referral route.
No. The content should be assessed. A complaint may be about service quality, but it becomes a safeguarding matter if it suggests harm, possible criminal conduct, risk or unsuitability.
No. Suspension is a protective option, not an automatic response or finding. The decision should consider children's safety, the nature of the concern, alternatives and appropriate advice.
The provider must separately consider the Regulation 40 notification criteria. Contacting the LADO does not automatically complete the Ofsted duty.
The Regulations require regular review and revision when necessary but do not prescribe one interval. Providers should set a routine cycle and also review after significant events, guidance changes or evidence of weakness.
