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If you are a provider of supported accommodation, you must register with Ofsted. Find out if you are considered a supported accommodation provider.

Completing the SC1 form is one part of the registration process.

The SC1 form is the same form for all of the childrens social care services that Ofsted regulates. This guidance will explain what you need to do in the form, as someone registering a supported accommodation service.

The form asks a lot of questions and you will need to submit lots of information and documents. It may take you several hours to complete. If you are a large provider, you may need to speak with colleagues to get the required information.

You will be able to save the form and come back to it later if you need to get any information.

Who needs to fill out the SC1 form

The person who needs to complete the form depends on what type of provider you are.

Organisations including LLPs

You must be in one of the following roles, or be authorised by someone in one of the following roles, to fill out the form:

• a director acting for the company, or an individual who performs functions that are the same as, or similar to, those of a director
• a partner
• a trustee, director or chairperson acting for a charity or statutory body
• a chairperson or a committee member acting for a committee

Partnerships not registered as an LLP

To fill out the form, you must be one of the partners acting on behalf of all the partners in the partnership.

Individual provider

If you are an individual provider, you must fill out the form yourself. If you are a group of individuals (not operating as a partnership or company), one of those individuals must complete the form.

Information you will need to provide

We will ask you for information about your business and the service you want to register with us. The registration form consists of the following sections:

• about your business
• holding company or subsidiary details (if relevant)
• financial interests in other children social care services
• previous applications and registrations
• about your service (including premises details)
• roles of responsibility
• financial information (unless you are a local authority or health authority)
• policy documents

About your business

You will need the address and contact details of your business. If you are a registered company, and the details you give do not match the information held by Companies House, you should also provide the address from which your company operates (for example your head or main office). You will also be asked for your company number. If you are a charity, you must also provide your charity number.

Holding company and subsidiary details

If you are a holding company with subsidiaries registered with Ofsted, you will need to tell us the name, trading start date, URN, address and contact details for each subsidiary.

If your organisation is a subsidiary of a holding company, you must tell us the holding companys name, trading start date, registered company number (or charity number, if applicable), address, and contact details. You will also need to tell us about all the other subsidiaries of your holding company.

You also need to provide the last 2 years of accounts for your holding company, and all of their subsidiaries. You cannot upload these to the form. Instead, email them to SC.suppacc@ofsted.gov.uk quoting Supported accommodation and the reference number in the subject field.

Financial interests

You will be asked if your business has financial interests in any childrens social care services. If you answer yes, you will need the name and registration details of those services. You will need to provide the URN of services that are registered with Ofsted. If the services are not registered with Ofsted, you must tell us who they are registered with.

Previous applications and registrations

We also need to know about your previous applications and registrations for children and adult social services. You will be asked if you have:

• made a previous application
• had a previous applications refused
• been registered or licensed to run a service
• had a registration cancelled

If you answer yes to any of those questions, you will need to provide more information.

The information we need about previous applications includes the URN. If you do not have a URN for that service, then you will need to tell us about the type of service, dates of application, reason for the refusal (if relevant) and which public authority dealt with the application.

The information we need about previous registrations includes who you registered with, how long the registration was for and the type of service. If you have had a registration cancelled, you need to provide either the URN or details about the service, including dates of registration and why the registration was cancelled.

Your services and premises

We will ask about your service, including office details. We also need to know about your premises, including:

• the category of your premises, whether single occupancy, shared accommodation (ring-fenced or non-ring-fenced) or private residential accommodation, such as supported lodgings
• the addresses of all your premises, including the addresses of all your accommodation hosted in private residences, such as supported lodgings
• maximum number of children you can accommodate on the premises and if the accommodation is single sex

You will also be expected to confirm that:

• your premises are ready to meet the needs of children according to your statement of purpose, including meeting any access needs of the children who will live there
• you have identified and minimised any risks
• you have carried out location assessments for each premises
• your premises are capable of being used in accordance with your statement of purpose, without the need for any additional planning permission, building works or conversion

Roles

You must tell us about people with certain roles of responsibility. The people you list in the form will need to fill in an SC2 form. We will contact them with information about what to do, using the contact details you provide.

Organisations and LLPs

You need to list your nominated individual, your proposed service manager and directors who are involved in running your supported accommodation service.

Partners

We will ask you to name a point of contact and your proposed service manager. We will also ask you to list any other partners you have not already told us about.

Individual providers

If your individual provider is made up of more than one person who jointly shares responsibility and accountability, you must list each person in the form.

Documents you will need

In the application form you will need to upload a series of documents.

You can upload documents in the following formats:

• PDF
• Microsoft Word (docx)
• Excel (xlsx)
• PowerPoint (pptx)
• image file (jpeg or png)

You can also use open document formats for a word processing document (odt), a spreadsheet (ods) or a presentation (odp).

These documents cannot be more than 2Mb in size.

If you need to reduce the size of your documents, try to:

• reduce the size of images before putting them in a document
• remove any unnecessary images
• if a Word document, save it as the latest version of Word or save as a PDF
• if a PDF document, save as the lowest file- size option

Financial information

Unless you are a local authority or a health authority, you will need to upload documents that show us your long-term financial ability to run your service.

Business plan

At a minimum, the business plan should cover:

• background information
• a marketing plan
• an operational plan
• a financial plan
• who has agreed the overall plan

Cash-flow forecast

A cash-flow forecast sets out the projected monthly income and expenditure for the first 12 months of operation from the point of registration. This is a summary of the money that is expected to be paid into and out of the service in those 12 months. This is usually broken up into a month-by-month forecast.

Annual re

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