Young people’s survey on the size of children’s homes Step 1 of 4 25% In our recent study on Registered Manager vacancies, we found that the move toward smaller children’s homes is one of the things that contribe to increased vacancy pressures. We are now exploring the reasons why and writing a book about this issue. Understanding young people’s perceptions on this is really important and a whole chapter is being written with the involvement of a care-experienced author. We really want to include young people's views so we're asking them to contribute. What are we asking you to help with? We are asking staff in children’s homes to have a discussion with your young people about the size of children’s homes. Every home that responds will receive anonymised feedback so this activity can contribute to your Regulation 45 preparation. Inviting young people to share their views We are not asking for personal data on young people. We do need to make sure young people understand why they are being asked these questions, what will happen to what they say and to make sure young people give their agreement to take part. There is no pressure on young people to take part in the discussion or share their views. To support gaining young people’s views we are asking a few specific questions. You can choose to supply an email address so that we can send you feedback – depending on numbers received we plan to compare your findings to the wider set of responses. By completing this form you are agreeing for us to use the data you’ve collected. More information about how we store your information can be found on our privacy statement. You can pause your form and a link will be sent to you to finish it, once you’ve finished speaking with your young people. Once you have answered some questions about your setting there are questions specifically for young people which you can read to them and record, or they can fill in themselves. To ensure we have a consistent approach please read this 2-page guide before sharing with young people. When do we need the form completing? We are only gathering information for 3 weeks and the closing date is Friday 27th March, 2026. About your children’s home (information to be completed by staff member)Which sector best reflects your setting’s ownership? Local Authority Private organisation Voluntary organisation Another type of organisation Where is the young person's setting located? East Midlands East of England North East, Yorkshire and Humber North West South East South West West Midlands London How many children is your home registered to provide for?(Required)How many children are living in your home right now?(Required)This field is hidden when viewing the formVacanciesInterest in joining further discussions We aim to complete the book on children’s homes size in June 2026. We will publish some of the findings in dialogue’s monthly bulletin for the sector and run free events to share and discuss the results.If you would like to hear back from us please add your email address.We will let you know when the findings of this work are available, invite you to events, share inspection top tips and tell you about other work we do. (information to be completed by staff member)We’re interested in why some homes are not full at present. If you have fewer young people than your children’s home is registered for, can you let us know why by selecting reason from the below list(you can select as many reasons as apply and add your own via ‘other’) It’s not typical to have a space and has been for less than a month We’ve decided the home works better with this number of children The local authority asked us to limit this number It’s hard to find young people compatible with other young people at the home Difficulty finding young people whose needs we can meet We have not been able to recruit sufficient staff We don’t currently have the staff skills for full placement capacity Concerns about Ofsted’s perception Bringing in new young people has been restricted by Ofsted We are doing renovations or building work to the home We registered for more beds than we use at present to allow for future planning Not sure Other Other - please explainFrom the same list, can you pick your top reason? It’s not typical to have a placement vacancy and has been for less than a month We’ve decided the home works better with this number of children The local authority asked us to limit this number It’s hard to find young people compatible with other young people at the home Difficulty finding young people whose needs we can meet We have not been able to recruit sufficient staff We don’t currently have the staff skills for full placement capacity Concerns about Ofsted’s perception Bringing in new young people has been limited by Ofsted We are doing renovations or building work to the home We registered for more beds than we use at present to allow for future planning Not sure Other Would you like to tell us more about why you currently have less children in your home than you are registered for? Questions for young people This page has questions for young people. We'd like you to use their own words - they can even fill it in if you wish...Sometimes young people live together in a children’s home. Sometimes they live alone in a children’s home. What’s the best thing about the number of people living in your home at the moment?Does your home (answer one option only) Have too many young people living there? Not have enough young people living there? It’s just right Is there anything you don’t like about the number of young people living in your home? Tell us more… (but don’t tell us any personal details about other people you live with!)How many young people do you think is the right number to live together in a children’s home?Why?If you could choose, how many young people's bedrooms would your children’s home have?Why?Is there anything else you'd like to tell us about the size of children's homes?How many young people were involved in writing this?
