regulation 44 support
dialogue runs the national Regulation 44 Independent Person Network, provides regulation 44 training and helps children’s homes and residential special schools find independent people to visit and quality assure their provision. We also run a small Regulation 44 visiting service.
Our network and training explain how organisations can meet the requirements of the regulations, but our focus is always on improving the experience of children and young people living away from home.
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independent person network
Being a Regulation 44 or Standard 20 Independent Person is a skilled and important job. Working alongside children and young people, listening to staff and managers, making judgements about the safety and welfare of young people and being honest & open about the progress of a home is crucial to safe care. It can also be an isolating role and there is limited support on offer.
regulation 44 training
There is growing emphasis on homes ensuring a high standard of quality without the drive of a regulatory inspector. Registered Managers are required to ensure they have an independent person who can undertake a rigorous and impartial assessment of the home, but there is little to set out what this looks like in practice.
Our specialist training for regulation 44 visitors is popular and challenging. We support new visitors to understand the role, the application of regulations, the process of planning and undertaking visits and the emphasis on seeing the home from the young person’s point of view. The courses also deal with the challenges of being an independent visitor, the value of being a critical friend to leaders and managers and the craft of creating a clear, developmental and challenging report for the home.
The course is adaptable to Standard 20 visits to residential special schools.
We deliver training online and face-to-face. At present our face-to-face courses are suspended due to the pandemic.
Click below to see dates, book or express interest.
The course comprises six 2-hour Zoom sessions with an experienced Regulation 44 visitor and trainer.
Participants will
- Understand the role of the Visitor within the Regulatory Framework
- Explore their role in planning for, completing and reporting on a visit to the home
- Undertake key areas to be reviewed at each visit
- Recognise the value of young people’s, family and other professionals’ input to their visits
- Recognise and understand the key roles of the Visitor in terms of safeguarding and driving forward the development of the home
- Understand the limitations and sometimes the frustrations in the role.
Each session is in 4 half hour parts. The last part in each session is always a discussion forum where questions can be raised online and either linked into the material of the day (or future days) or discussed at the time.
The course is £112+VAT for members (£149 non-members). One or two sessions can be missed and caught up with our ‘watch again’ option.
Click below to see dates, book or express interest.
Developing the role of the Regulation 44 visitor
We run a one-day face to face course regionally, bringing together visitors from a range of homes for more developmental discussions, building on the learning from the online course.
The training will allow attendees to :
- Explore and understand the role of the Regulation 44 Visitor in the context of the regulations, the regulator and children’s homes
- Undertake an independent inspection of a service ensuring that the regulatory requirements of the role are met
- Practically apply their skills of interview, observation and evidence collection to support the judgement made in each report
- Offer advice to homes in relation to the potential development of the service to improve outcomes for children and young people and structure this in an effective way
- Act upon the unique opportunities this process offers to assess whether the home is meeting the needs of the young people who live there
- Explore the dynamic of professional curiosity within the role.
This course is £120+vat (£160+vat non-members) and includes lunch.
Click below to see dates, book or express interest.
Chris Freestone is one of our independent people. Chris has been a nurse and nurse lecturer, lecturer at Exeter College and head teacher at the Dame Hannah Rogers Trust, the director of an independent fostering agency and a lead inspector for CSCI and Ofsted. She brings a compassionate but calmly analytic presence and has the ability to get alongside both vulnerable people and senior managers to explore their experience, compare these to the requirements of the regulatory and inspection framework and to help managers reach decisions that further improve their service. Chris has a wealth of experience and has a facilitative rather than directive style which ensures participants leave the day feeling clearer, more skilled and more confident in their approach.
John Woodhouse has a background in managing children’s homes, senior social work management and children’s rights and advocacy at a national level. He is now managing director of dialogue and safeguarding network (a service providing support and in-house training packs to school Designated Safeguarding Leads). John has an energy and enthusiasm for enjoying children and young people’s perspective on things, working to align the system to the needs of children and learning from open, reflective conversations with practitioners and managers about their settings.
The Regulation 44 Independent Person Network offers a free service to link children’s homes and residential special schools with our members. Simply complete the form below including details of your requirements, a little about your setting and arrangements for getting in touch.
“We have had lots of responses which has given us a chance to select a best fit. It has made finding someone very easy”
The Network does not verify or endorse the skills or experience of our members – it is simply a collective way for people to share experience and receive really useful CPD. There is no charge for helping you find a visitor, but you are responsible for your own checks on anyone who applies and should follow a safer recruitment process.