What Ofsted asks a fostering agency for when it gives notice of inspection

Ofsted gives an independent fostering agency two working days’ notice of an inspection, and the first information is due by four o’clock on the day the letter arrives. The framework is open about why the notice is short:

“we give the minimum notice of inspection, so that we can see settings as they are on a day-to-day basis and so that the time providers may spend preparing for inspection is reduced as much as possible”

So the days between the letter and the visit are for finding what already exists. The quotes below are from the Social care common inspection framework for independent fostering agencies, as updated on 1 April 2026.

The letter usually comes on a Thursday morning

“Independent fostering agencies are notified of an inspection 2 working days before the inspection. Notice will usually be given on a Thursday before the fieldwork starts on the next Monday morning.”

The letter is emailed, usually by 9am, and sets out the practical arrangements and the information Ofsted wants. The lead inspector rings the next morning to talk through the plan and the timetable. An agency can ask to defer “during the initial notification phone call”, and Ofsted decides each request case by case.

Four things are due by 4pm the same day

When notice is given, inspectors ask the agency for:

• “details of meetings that will take place during the inspection that the inspector may be able to attend”
• “information about the agency’s current approved carers and applicants, those being assessed and those who have applied, so that the inspector can choose which records and cases to sample”
• “details of children and young people placed with the fostering agency”
• “the last 3 sets of fostering panel minutes”

“All information should be returned to the inspector by 4pm on the day that notice is given.”

The carer list is how the inspector picks which records and cases to look at. Inspectors have two days to prepare, and the carer data an agency sends is read in that time “to enable the selection of files for case sampling”.

The inspector also hands over two letters for the agency to send on: one to all staff, and one to all foster carers and prospective foster carers, each with the inspector’s contact details. On the follow-up call the inspector asks the agency to share written information about the inspection with children, with a short survey they may choose to complete. It should reach them “in ways that are most accessible for individual children”.

On Monday, inspectors read children’s cases

Inspectors look at a sample of children chosen to reflect “the size and scope of the agency and the diversity of the children looked after by the agency’s carers”. The framework names the children that sample will usually reach. Among them are children recently placed with new carers, children who have lived with their carers for at least 12 months, children regularly missing from their foster home, children at risk of or subject to sexual or criminal exploitation, children living a long way from their placing authority, and young people nearing their eighteenth birthday.

For those cases, the inspector usually also reviews:

• “assessments of carers (if carried out in the last 12 months)”
• “how decisions were taken to approve carer(s) (if taken in the last 12 months)”
• “matching reports or recorded matching decision taken to place the child with the respective carers”
• “local authority care plans, if available”
• “any documents that show children’s progress, including school or health reports”
• “minutes/reports from recent statutory looked-after children reviews”
• “foster carer reviews”
• “a sample of supervision records of carers from the last 3 months”
• “minutes of any professional meetings”
• “carers’ training records”

Three of those ten are records about the carer rather than the child: the carer’s review, their supervision over the last three months, and their training. The agency holds them, and the inspector reads them next to the child’s file.

Electronic records are accepted, with help to navigate them

“Inspectors may need some help to navigate the system if records are electronic. Agencies do not need to provide files in hard copy unless these are already used, although the inspector may ask for specific reports or documents to be printed.”

Case files are usually gone through with the child’s supervising social worker, “using their knowledge of the case, file structure and recording systems”. So the inspector usually sees the agency’s system with a supervising social worker driving it.

A children’s home gets no notice at all

The children’s homes framework, updated the same day, says it in one line:

“All inspections of children’s homes are unannounced.”

Inspectors arrive without warning, so none of the timetable above applies to a home.

Where these records sit in Chrysalis Luna

Luna is the system we build for fostering services. A carer’s supervision, their annual review and their training sit in the carer’s own record. Daily logs arrive with the supervising social worker instead of being chased for, and the caseload shows what is owed against each placement and whose rule it is.

Luna does not yet put together Ofsted’s 4pm return. We would like to build that with the agencies who send one, and that is what the founding places are for.

Founding places start at £1,000 a month and £2,250 in year two, sized to the service and settled with you before anything is signed. Apply for a founding place, or book a twenty-minute walkthrough and see the real screens first.

Also in Guides: How Ofsted looks at AI.