Quality Standards (Ofsted): The quality standards are the outcome-focused standards in the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 that a children’s home must meet, covering areas such as protection, education, health, positive relationships and leadership.
Each standard states the outcome children should experience, followed by what the registered person must do to achieve it, which makes them a checklist of results rather than of paperwork.
Ofsted inspects against them using its inspection framework for children’s social care. Evidence is drawn from what children say and experience, observation, and records, so a home can hold every required policy and still fail a standard if children’s experience does not match.
They are a useful structure for self-evaluation between inspections, because they are written in the same terms an inspector will use.