What is Regulation 36 and Schedule 7?
Regulation 36 of the Fostering Services (England) Regulations 2011 mandates that the registered provider or registered manager must notify the relevant authorities, including Ofsted, of any serious events listed in Schedule 7 of the Regulations.
Under the regulations, the events that must be notified include:
- Death of a child placed with foster parents.
- Serious illness or serious accident of a child placed with foster parents.
- Outbreak of any infectious disease which in the opinion of a registered medical practitioner is sufficiently serious to be notified.
- Any allegation that a child placed with foster parents has committed a serious offence.
- Any serious incident relating to a child placed with foster parents, including child protection allegations (abuse, neglect, or physical intervention) or where a child goes missing from a placement.
Failure to notify these events represents a direct breach of statutory regulations. But the compliance trap isn't just about whether you notified Ofsted — it is about how fast and how thoroughly you documented the process.
The Inspector's Checklist: What Ofsted Looks For
When an Ofsted inspector arrives at your Independent Fostering Agency (IFA), they do not just read the notifications themselves. They cross-reference three separate sources:
- Your internal incident log and child chronologies.
- Your Schedule 7 submission records (the dates/timestamps of when the reports were sent to Ofsted).
- The LADO (Local Authority Designated Officer) and local authority placement team logs.
Inspectors look specifically for:
"Without Delay" compliance: While the regulations do not specify an exact hourly deadline, the Ofsted Social Care Common Inspection Framework (SCCIF) interprets "without delay" as meaning within 24 hours of the agency becoming aware of the event. If an incident occurred on Friday night, and you notified Ofsted on Tuesday morning, you are in breach.
Other major inspection focus areas include:
- Clear internal escalation trails: If a foster carer notifies a supervising social worker (SSW) on a Saturday, when did the SSW notify the Registered Manager? Fostering software must record this internal chain of communication clearly.
- Carer support during allegations: If the notification relates to an allegation of abuse against a foster carer, inspectors will check standard 22 of the National Minimum Standards (NMS) to verify if you provided independent support to the carer during the investigation.
- Closing the feedback loop: Did you document the outcomes of the investigation, LADO resolutions, and any lessons learned? A notification that is left "open" with no internal summary is a major red flag.
Common Compliance Pitfalls — and How to Avoid Them
1. The "Weekend Lag"
Many notifications are delayed because an incident occurred over the weekend or during a bank holiday, and the agency's management team did not review it until Monday morning.
The Solution: Establish a formal out-of-hours rota with a designated duty manager who has administrative access to Ofsted's online notification portal. Ensure foster carers have a direct escalation number that bypasses normal office hours.
2. Unclear LADO Notification Records
Under Regulation 36, child protection allegations must be reported to the LADO where the carer resides. Agencies often email the LADO but fail to document the reply, the date of the strategy meeting, or the final LADO outcome letter.
The Solution: Every Schedule 7 record in your database should have dedicated fields tracking the LADO contact name, date notified, LADO decision (e.g., whether it met the threshold for a Section 47 investigation), and copy of the final outcome report.
3. Vague Chronologies
If a child runs away (goes missing), the incident must be logged on the child's individual chronology. If an inspector checks a child's record and sees a gap between the incident date and the chronology entry, the agency's record-keeping is deemed inadequate.
The Solution: Use a fostering operating system like FosterCore where logging an incident automatically feeds into the child's chronology, the carer's file, and compiles the Regulation 36/Schedule 7 report form in a single workflow.
Standardising Your Escalation Workflow
To maintain an "Outstanding" rating, your agency should operate a standardized, time-tracked workflow:
| Stage | Action Required | Time Limit |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Logging | Carer logs the incident via the mobile portal or calls the out-of-hours duty line. | Immediate (within 2 hours) |
| 2. Review | Supervising Social Worker or Duty Manager reviews the incident and determines if it meets the Schedule 7 threshold. | Within 4 hours of receipt |
| 3. Submission | Registered Manager submits the notification online to Ofsted and simultaneously notifies the placing local authority. | Within 24 hours of the incident |
| 4. Resolution | LADO/Police outcome is received, carer support review is logged, and internal lessons-learned audit is closed. | Within 5 working days of resolution |
How Technology Protects Your Ofsted Rating
Managing Schedule 7 notifications using paper forms, disconnected spreadsheets, or legacy systems is a compliance hazard. It is too easy to miss a timestamp, lose a LADO email thread, or forget to update a chronology.
FosterCore is engineered to automate this entire workflow:
- Automated Triggers: When an incident of High severity (such as physical restraint or a missing child) is saved, FosterCore automatically triggers a "Schedule 7 Warning" for the Registered Manager, pre-compiling the official DfE notification form layout.
- Timestamp Verification: The platform logs the exact minute the carer submitted the incident, when the SSW approved it, and when the Ofsted portal submission was made, proving "without delay" compliance with zero guesswork.
- Unified Safeguarding Records: LADO correspondence, strategy meeting minutes, and independent carer support logs are attached directly to the incident, giving Ofsted inspectors a complete, auditable timeline in under 10 seconds.
Next Steps for Registered Managers
If your agency is preparing for its next Ofsted inspection, run a self-audit:
- Randomly select 5 high-severity incidents from the last 12 months.
- Trace the timestamp from when the carer reported the issue to the exact hour the Ofsted notification was submitted.
- Verify if the child's chronology was updated on the same day.
- If any notification exceeded 24 hours, document the mitigation reasons now, before the inspector asks.
Having a robust, technology-supported playbook doesn't just keep you compliant — it shows Ofsted that your leadership team is in complete control of safeguarding.